Being able to offer credit cards as a payment option is an excellent option for nearly any business today that hopes to increase profits, remain competitive, and grow †or even maintain †its customer base. But for online merchants, the need for credit card processing options is especially great; in fact, to remain competitive in today’s online marketplace, the ability to accept credit cards as a form of payment is essential. Unfortunately, many businesses consider accepting credit cards as a costly option that, especially for small business doing low volumes of daily sales, puts the option squarely out of reach of their operating budgets. But actually, merchant accounts today are far more competitively priced than accounts of even a few years ago, with more attractive terms and a simpler, speedier application process. If you operate an online business, or a retail business that is looking to expand its offerings to online customers, a merchant account is an affordable way to keep your business competitive. No matter what type of Internet business presence you have, and no matter what sales volume you anticipate, there’s an account option available today to suit your credit card processing needs. This article will help you understand the two most popular options and the differences between them, to enable you to make a more informed, educated decision when selecting your own merchant account provider. Internet merchant accounts general come in two â€flavors:†those which use a gateway, or weblink, to offer customers real-time processing of their transactions, and those that use a delayed processing system. Each account offers advantages, depending on the type of business you operate and the amount of sales you expect. Real-Time Processing As noted, these accounts rely on a gateway provider or weblink, a software-based option that aids in the processing of online credit card transactions. The gateway offers an added level of protection and security to your online credit card transactions, helping to reduce fraud and chargebacks and ensuring the online purchase system works smoothly and efficiently. In a real-time processing environment, the buyer enters his or her credit card information into your website and the information is transmitted via the gateway to the credit card issuer, which in turn checks the card number (and in some cases, the three- or four-digit credit card validation code, or ccv), the card expiration date, the name and address on the card, and the card balance to determine if the transaction can be approved or not. The card issuer returns a code to the gateway provider indicating whether or not the transaction has been approved, and a message is returned to the buyer’s computer screen indicating whether or not the purchase has been approved. In the case of an approval, the gateway provider communicates with both the card issuer, which deducts the funds from the card account, and the merchant account provider, which records the sale on the merchant’s end. At the end of the day, the gateway provider also often provides the services necessary to tally up the day’s receipts and deduct any transaction-based fees or daily charges associated with the account, then transfers the balance of the sales to the business bank account. Although many merchant account providers used to require customers to obtain their own gateway provider, today more and more merchant account providers are using their own gateway systems and incorporating any associated fees into the cost of the merchant account. If you choose a merchant account provider that requires you to select a gateway provider, be sure the software of both the gateway provider and the merchant account provider are designed to work together to avoid delays and errors in processing credit card transactions. The advantage of real-time processing is that it is entirely automated and so can accommodate large volumes of sales. Delayed Processing In this scenario, there is no need for a gateway provider. Instead, buyers enter their credit card information at your website, and that information is stored on your site until a specific time during the day, when the business owner or representative retrieves the stored information and enters the credit card information for each transaction manually into a virtual terminal, usually accessed through a computer. These transactions are processed in much the same way as traditional retail sales: data is entered and transmitted to the card issuer via the merchant account provider, and the sale is approved or denied. The merchant account provider takes care of tallying the sales, deducting applicable fees, and transferring the remainder to the business account at the end of the day. Delayed processing options are less expensive than real-time systems, but because they require manual entry, they are best suited to smaller businesses with low volumes of sales. These are the two most popular environments for processing Internet sales today. Because the merchant account landscape is rapidly evolving, you owe it to yourself and your business to see what today’s merchant account provider can do for you.
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