What is Online Payment Processing?
Online payment processing allows businesses and consumers to exchange money electronically over the Internet. When your business utilizes online payment solutions, your business can receive payment from virtually any customer with an email account. Processing payments online has recently become very popular with businesses and consumers.
Advantages of Online Payment Processing
Online payment processing supplements your decision to accept credit and debit cards. Opening an online payment account is often faster and easier than setting up a Merchant Account (which is required to accept credit and debit card payments). Online payment service accounts typically incur smaller fees than a traditional Merchant Account, which can have a big impact on businesses with many small transactions. From a customer-service perspective, it’s beneficial to have multiple payment options available. In addition, the payment process is simplified by storing customer card information or billing customers at a later date.
What to Consider when Utilizing Online Payment Processing
As with all payment methods, online payment services can have their drawbacks. Some of these services redirect customers to a payment service website to complete a transaction. Being forced to leave your business’s website can be confusing for customers – especially those new to online shopping – and could make them abandon a purchase they may have otherwise made. This is why it is crucial to implement a payment processing solution in a way that customers are not leaving your site to make a payment. Limited payment options may turn some customers away, which is why it is important to implement the right balance of payment options for your business. Many shopping cart providers offer plugins that will work with your existing website, and processing can be applied directly through those plugins via shopping cart processing modules.
Online Payment Security
Major providers of online payment processing services have developed features like two-factor authentication to help businesses enhance e-commerce security. Two-factor authentication requires businesses to enter a six-digit code in addition to their password, which can make third-party scams dissipate. As e-commerce becomes more popular, security features will continue to evolve. Be sure to execute the most current security technology.
Shopping Cart Services
Online payment processing services require a virtual shopping cart. Virtual shopping carts allow businesses to accept orders on multiple products from their website. A shopping cart can calculate the total, tax, and shipping costs of an order, in addition to collecting customer account and shipping information.
Why you should apply Online Payment Processing to your Business
- Boost Sales
- Cost Effectiveness
- 24 Hour Technical Support
- Security- credit card fraud protection and secure storage of customer information on servers
- Shopping Carts- customers keep track of their purchases
- Payment Gateway– Transactions between the customer and merchant are automated. This is a system that processes, verifies, and accepts the credit card transactions on behalf of the merchant.
- Virtual Terminal- manual processing of credit card transactions through an electronic connection
- Credit Card Processing Tools- online credit card processing software
- Expand your Business- online payment processing allows merchants to expand their business beyond their region. With this facility, they become capable of making credit card transactions and accepting payments from around the world.
