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(View the list of all supported payment systems.)
1. Merchant accounts and Gateways
There are two parts in the process of accepting credit card payments to your shopping cart.
1. Apply for a Merchant Account with a bank.
2. Choose a Payment Gateway.
What is a Merchant Account?
Accepting credit card payments to your online store requires a merchant account to be set up through your favorite bank. This can take between five working days to roughly three weeks. A merchant account will either work along side a gateway or integrate directly with your shopping cart depending on the bank you choose.
What is a Payment Gateway?
The second part in setting up a merchant account to accept online real-time payments is the gateway.
A gateway's job is to authorize and validate payments in a matter of seconds. These gateways provide a secure walkway from your shopping carts checkout to check the credit card status in real-time, a very complicated process if you were to do it on your own from step one.
The advantage of a merchant account and/or payment gateway is that the money is deposited directly to your bank account and ready for use.
(View the list of all supported payment systems.)
2. Third Party Payment Processors
Third party payment processors are independent companies which can process your credit card payments without a merchant account and gateway, they are a total, independent solution and cut out the need to deal with a bank. Two examples of third party companies are PayPal and WorldPay. These are both integrated to Ashop Commerce shopping cart software.
PayPal and Ashop Commerce work closely together to provide an advanced level of integration. You will have access to manage refunds, reports, transaction searches and affiliate mass pay all directly from your admin panel without logging into PayPal. You also have the option of using either PayPal's standard checkout, express checkout or website payments direct.
Using a single company for processing your payments will generally save you money. It's only drawback is that your transaction fees will be higher which can cause a problem with high volumes of sales. Generally a third party processor can be higher by 2% depending on the company you choose. The third party will accept most major card types and you will receive the funds in a trust account within one to two days on average.
Fees: An example: Set up Fees from 0 plus transaction fees of from 2.5%
Ashop Commerce shopping cart software is integrated with both your Merchant account and third party payment processors. We suggest that when you're starting your first online store, go with a third party processor and upgrade when your sales increase. It's also good to keep both options for customers to have a choice.
(View the list of all supported payment systems.)
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