When you are ready to set up a website to sell your products or services online you need:
- A catalogue that lists your offerings.
- A “shopping cart” to allow your visitors to make a purchase place an order and to have a record of the order.
- A method of processing purchases and receiving payment. This is the payment processing system
Selling Products Online – Paypal Accounts
One option for processing payments is to set up an account through Paypal.
When you are starting out selling on-line, we recommend PayPal as it is free to set up and there are no ongoing monthly costs. Every time a purchase is made Paypal take a small percentage of the sale.
One of the benefits of PayPal is that they protect you against fraud.
When your site is built with an on-line catalogue.
You need to:
a) Set up a Paypal account, you can do this easily by following the link below:
b) Add an “add to cart” form button code which links you directly into PayPal’s shopping cart.
As your customer checks out using, they’ll submit payment via PayPal by credit card or with their PayPal checking account. The money will be stored in your PayPal account. You can check your account once the sale is made.
Large Volume Sales
If you intend selling a lot of products on-line, you may want to set up your own merchant account.
The benefit of this is that you can accept credit cards yourself. However, you will need set up a business “merchant” account with your bank.
Some banks offer a payment gateway to allow you to process credit card transactions or you will need to find an approved 3rd party payment processing gateway provide
Your website needs to have it’s own shopping cart and it needs to be integrated securely with the the gateway.
The merchant account allows you to put credit card transaction payments directly into your business’s bank account.
You need to talk to your bank about your “E-commerce Merchant Account” and check their fees.
There are many 3rd party payment processing bureaus and we can help you to choose the one that best suits your business model. They charge in different ways such as an annual fee and a per transaction fee or you pay a monthly fee with unlimited transactions.
Most shopping cart programs will either integrate into your web site or provide some kind of “add to cart” code for your web site.
Credit Card Risks
There are 2 major concerns with accepting credit card transactions which you should be aware of:
1. Credit Card Fraud
Credit card fraud or identity theft. You bear the responsibility and may have to refund the money to the card or may deliver a product to a phoney address and never see your product again.
2. Chargebacks
You may get penalised when there is a disupte by the purchaser. This may result in a chargeback, where you will have to return the funds and be liable for a chargeback fee.
Our team can help you with setting up your website, selling products online, shopping cart design, security and E-Commerce in general. Contact us for further information.