Rules of E-Commerce Business Needs to Know Before Starting with Merchant Account

Today’s e-commerce world is moving fast on the wheels of merchant services. However, there are businesses that are still not clear with their concept. What exactly these services are, how they bring profits to a business and how online payment is processed are the aspects that create a sort of uncertainty for them.

E-commerce credit card processing is no way different than point-of-sales (POS). Just as a POS reads the credit card details and send transaction authorization request over the phone, credit card processors depend on shopping cart to gather client’s order and payment details. The information is then encrypted and sent to the card issuer for authorization via a payment gateway.

Before starting a business on e-commerce platform, few things are needed to be considered.  Check out the technicalities that decide the success rate by determining whether the customer will stay on the website and take the services or not.

1. An e-commerce website: Pulling customer orders and processing the payments securely effortlessly possible in e-commerce website. By connecting the merchant’s web store with the processing bank, card issuing bank and other credit card companies.

2. SSL certificate: SSL stands for secure socket layers and refers to services that encrypt the information that is communicated online. By doing so, it provides security against illegal use.

3. E-Commerce shopping cart:As known to most of us, shopping cart collects and organizes customers list of items that are selected for purchase. By calculating the order total, it provides payment details to complete the transaction.

4. Payment gateway:Payment gateway links a shopping cart with the merchant’s payment processor’s system to pass on the transaction details provided by the customers. These details are sent by the processor to the card issuer for approval. Upon approval, the response is delivered to the merchant through the payment gateway.

5. E-Commerce merchant account:Accepting credit and debit cards needs a merchant account. These accounts are provided by the processing bank or a third party. After a payment transaction is processed, the processing bank transfers the payment into the merchant account of the business.

6. User-friendly website design: This may come as a surprise or shock or may be both to most of the businesses out there. Easy to access site that present the products and services systematically attracts more customers. Moreover, the site should load easily and quickly in every web browser.

7. The business vision and the policies should be in visibility: As per the observations, customers these days like exploring all page types related to the working of a business. Hence, effective visibility of every page ensures that the business impresser the customers, which ultimately brings more traffic and funds.

8. Electronic payment acceptance rules should be followed: Every e-commerce website must display the payment acceptance. It should display all the electronic payment acceptance relationship symbols in the visibility of the customer. Before deducting any amount from the customer’s account, the site must take the permission of the buyer. In other words, an electronic invoice needs to be displayed on the website page when payment information is collected. Every time an order is made by the customer, an e-mail should be sent. All this is required to prove that payment from the merchant is deducted after taking their consent. Talking about the product that is a subscription, recurring amount should be displayed at each and every point of sale.

9. Payment checkout page essentials: Many times, websites don’t provide information about the terms and conditions related to their products and services. This is something that can create problems for the business. Lack of information compels customers to presume things on their own. Hence, every website has to have terms, tentative disclaimers and policies about their products & services. This makes it easy for customers to know all the important conditions before placing any order.

All these factors should be taken care and followed before starting with payment gateway for a business. Starting with merchant account for e-commerce is easy with the services of professional & certified merchant service providers.

Though there are many account providers these days, it is good to explore services of few reputed ones before opting for the account. Moreover, it is also important to request price quotes before selecting any. Decision should never be made only on the parameters of single fee or rate, as the complete proposal needs to be evaluated.  Security standards, terms & conditions and visibility of company’s vision should be the forte when planning to start an e-commerce website.

Every merchant who is planning to jump into the world of merchant services for their website, abiding by these suggestions can help reach the target both in terms of productivity and profitability.

Last but not the least, there is no denying the fact these accounts have promising future. Starting with them might cost a bit more but the results are worth the money. Get started now!