Do I Need A Shopping Cart And Payment Gateway On My Site?

By Author: Hugh Springer
Total Articles: 4762
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Businesses are increasingly selling their products online today, following Internet users increasing appetite for wanting to purchase them there. When designing a new website or deciding to start offering a new product to the Internet public, there are some questions you should answer in order to ensure you’re providing the best shopping experience for customers, as well as maintaining your own budget restrictions and goals.

One of the issues that commonly raises questions is whether to add a shopping cart and payment gateway to a retailer’s website. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of adding this feature.

What Does Adding a Shopping Cart Entail?

If you decide to offer customers the convenience of a shopping cart on your site, this will require the addition of a payment gateway in order to secure credit card payments. This gateway transmits information securely in order to process a payment via credit card and settle it. When compared to a brick-and-mortar retailer, this gateway takes the place of the actual machine that swipes the physical ...
... card.

Processing Payments for Mail and Phone Orders

When considering adding a shopping cart to your site, regardless of the number of products you’re selling, you should know that the addition of a payment gateway will allow you to also use this feature as a virtual terminal. What that means is that if you have customers that want to make a purchase through the mail or via phone, you can use your own website, shopping cart, and payment gateway to directly input credit card information and process payment without the need of an additional credit card processing machine. This can be a tremendous convenience for those businesses that accept multiple payment methods.

Ease in Gateway Setup

Setting up a shopping cart on your site is also quite user-friendly. Your processing provider will send you instructions for integrating your payment gateway with your merchant account. Many times, this merely requires you to enter specific codes into your shopping cart function so that your cart and gateway are able to communicate effectively.

Integration with Your Financial Software

Your merchant account for your online business should be able to be integrated with your existing and preferred financial software program. This can include software such as QuickBooks or MonsterBooks, making your accounting duties much easier and less time-consuming. You’ll have all of your information contained in one place for simple updates on your situation and tax-time deductions.

Quick Payment

As an online retailer, you want to receive payment for your sales as soon as possible. Adding a shopping cart and payment gateway on your site means you’ll see automatic deposits into your designated financial account within a timeframe of a few hours to a couple of days, depending upon your servicer. This means that you could have access to your funds almost immediately.

Access Your Sales Information Immediately

Your payment gateway also provides an automated way to either approve and accept or decline credit cards without you needing to do a thing. This can prevent you from being tied up on the phone or spending the time and energy telling a customer their credit card isn’t being approved.

Standard Credit Approval

Every applicant seeking a payment gateway and merchant account will need to pass a credit approval process. This is typically based on past credit information, both good and bad. Even if you are a new business this does not mean that you can’t be approved for a gateway and merchant account; several banks usually provide this specific type of service. However, a lower credit score or no credit history may mean that you are charged higher fees and percentages on your sales.

Associated Fees

Yes, a payment gateway is a service and convenience to your business that does cost money, but it is worth it. The small fee and percentage of each transaction charged are payment for you having the security of trusted credit card processing and automatic deposit of your funds. As a business owner, you must remember that the time you would normally spend conducting this process yourself is usually far more valuable spent on other tasks.

No matter the number if products you offer the public, even if you’re simply selling an eBook or other specific item, a shopping cart and payment gateway can save you time and streamline the payment process. Online shoppers are increasingly aware of the personal information they provide to retailers and through websites, and adding a payment gateway with fraud protection will instill confidence and promote automated buying. In addition, you can rest easy that the money you’ve earned from sales is being automatically credited to your account without you having to lift a finger.
About Author:
At Card Processing Pros.com we provide credit card merchant services and debit card processing, literally setting up hundreds of clients per month to process card payments for storefront, Internet and phone/mail order-based businesses. We also offer services in electronic check and gift card processing. Visit online today.