Selling Online With a Merchant Account and an SSL Certificate

So you have a product or idea and are ready to start selling online? You need to think about how you will get paid. With the simplicity of buying online, you need to reciprocate with the simplicity of paying online with a credit card. You can start simply by accepting PayPal, but as much as PayPal has grown, it is still not the preferred form of payment for most buyers.

To maximize your sales, you will need to accept credit cards. The easiest way for most people to accept credit cards through a web store is to use an existing shopping cart software package. All of the popular shopping carts are preconfigured for a variety of popular credit card payment gateways. If you go the custom route, it means hiring a programmer to handle setting up your site to process and send payment details to the payment gateway. As a budding entrepreneur with limited funds, using an off the shelf product saves money and time and can allow you to be up and running in a few days.

If you are going to accept credit cards, all payment processors require that your website be encrypted for all financial transactions. This can be accomplished by purchasing a secure socket layer or SSL encryption certificate. It is necessary to protect your customers' financial information. Ideally you will want to use 256-bit encryption although the industry standard is current 128-bit. An SSL certificate authenticates that the certificate has been issued to the business or individual that requested the certificate and that said individual or company controls the domain on which the certificate was issued. An SSL certificate will typically cost you anywhere from $20 to $200 depending on the level of verification performed by the certificate issuer. Often an SSL certificate can be issued in a few hours if all of the documentation is readily available.

Once you have purchased the certificate and installed it on your domain, you can then shop around for a merchant account and payment gateway to process your credit card payments. When shopping for a merchant account, you need to ensure that they utilize a payment gateway that will work with your shopping cart software. Pay attention to the discount rate charged on purchases. It can be as high as 4 or 5% if you aren't careful, but you should be able to find a reasonable merchant account with a reputable provider for less than 3%. You will also want to pay attention to transaction fees and monthly charges. These can add up quickly.

Once you have selected a merchant account, you will need to apply to the program. The approval process normally takes a day or two. You will want to know how charges are settled. Typically online transactions are approved at the time that a buyer places the order. When the merchant packs and ships the order, the authorization is captured. Typically captured transactions are batched once per day and processed for deposit to the merchant's bank account. Make sure to reconcile your deposits to the orders received less fees on a regular basis to make sure that all payments are received.

While there are a number of steps involved in getting your website set up to accept credit card payments, the process usually only takes a day or two before you can accept payments and then another two days before payments begin showing up in your checking account. Accepting credit cards is a safe, secure and popular means to receiving payments and maximizing your online sales.

Tim Knight is a work from home dad who specializes in internet marketing and investments. He runs a website at http://www.cashresidual.com where he provides assistance to those looking to establish an online business or presence.

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