Overview
Whether youre thinking of selling your services/products online or you are reviewing your current operations, one decision that will be crucial to get right is deciding how to deal with online payments. Across the years of working in the ecommerce industry we have seen a range of methods used, from no online payments (where user’s have to send cheques via post before goods are despatched), through to instant online payment with a third party payment provider, and all the good and bad practices in between.
This article gives an overview of the spaghetti like decisions that will be required in order to select a suitable provider. Get this right and online customers will feel that they are dealing with a reputable company, thats “you” by the way.
Who should be reading this
Well, you are, so that’s a good start.
Why do i need a payment provider?
Unless you are a banking organisation (where your integration fee’s will be next to nothing), or you intend to process card transactions offline you will at some point require the services of an established payment provider.
Although each provider is different in terms of costs, features and levels of headache for your development company, choose the right one and you will find that operating your online payments can be seamless and give your customers confidence to re-purchase as well as spreading the word about your company.
Who are the Payment Providers?
So, how do you know which provider to choose?, how many are there?, and what is the difference between them all?
First of all, there is a long list of payment providers, but rather than going through each one in detail at the risk of missing one, I have listed a few in the following table in order for you to explore for yourself. Each payment provider has it's advantages and disadvantages and the key decision wil be yours, and will depend on a number of factors.
Though your preferred provider will depend on your requirements, more or less each one can be driven for a better bargain than advertised through the art of persuasion and persistence (well, it doesn’t cost to try and you may learn a little by trying).
The following list gives an overview of the payment providers we have come across in our time of ecommerce development, a number of these we have worked with to integrate payment services into websites. With each of the providers listed, we have given a link to their site, as well as a link to Electronic Payments that provides an up to date list of features and useful information for each provider.
TIP: Get a demo account, and check out the reporting facilities of each provider.
Costs
With each provider comes costs and the different levels and types of costs can be as long a list as the providers themselves. Luckily enough most providers employ at least two forms of cost structure:
- a) Little or no monthly fee, plus a % of each transaction or fixed cost per transaction
- b) A higher monthly, with a lower % or fixed cost per transaction
Each route depends on the volume of orders you will be placing through your provider, but most will allow you to switch between the available options.
TIP: Check with your development company before deciding on a payment provider as to the costs of integration with each provider on your list.
DONT FORGET: On top of the provider fee’s you will incur fee’s from your bank for the privilege of having a merchant account (Of course the bank wants a cut!)
Off the Shelf vs Bespoke Development
As ecommerce platforms mature throughout the internet, so do their integration options, with some packages including integration with some provider’s built-in. This can be a good option if both the ecommerce package fits your business and the supplier offers to integrate with a payment provider that also suits your practices.
Unfortunately for the sake of this article all of the ecommerce applications i have worked on have been bespoke development to suit a clients / businesses needs.
The advantage of this approach allows the requirements boxes to be ticked as well as allowing me as the developer to integrate with a payment provider that gives the functionality to perform all required actions and in a fashion that suits the application that is being developed.
Legal Requirements
There are certain legal requirements that must be adhered to when selling online, the following website provides a lot of useful information and checklists when planning, implementing and running an e-commerce website.
OUTLAW
IT and e-commerce legal help from Pinsent Masons - http://www.out-law.com/page-351
COMMENTS