Ecommerce Gateways

If you are new to the ecommerce world, the most important things you want to ensure while developing our website is to select a suitable payment gateway.

Payment gateway is the facility that is connected to the website that allows you to accept credit card payments on your website. Credit cards is one of the most important mode of payment in a good ecommerce website, one should have this facility on their website.

There are websites which offers the buyer to download a printable form asking for credit card information or a statement reflecting that once the order has been placed the customer will be contacted for verification.

Not having a payment gateway may save money in short term, however per the research it shows that not having the payment gateway on your website limits the customers form placing the order online.

There are three most common types of payment gateway:

• Manual Payment Gateway: This facility takes the customers credidt card information in a secure manner and saves it for you to access and process the transaction manually by a facility like eftops machine. Manual payment option is one of the most inexpensive way of payment gateway, however this requires to process every payment transaction manually, this can turn out time consuming if you have to do this on regular basis. In order for you to accept a manual payment gateway, you need a merchant account with you bank which permits you to process credit card payments without signature. You need access to eftop machines or online processing system in order for you to process payments. One will have to discuss this wit their bank and then use the manual payment gateway like E-gateway.
• PayPal: This facility is one of the preferred options for online payments in Ecommerce, this can be easily installed in your website to function as the payment gateway. In PayPal the transactions are processed on real time basis, meaning when a customer uses his/her credit card, you receive the funds automatically. Here the drawback is that you will have to transfer the funds manually to your bank account, and when you do this it may cost you some additional fees.
• Real Time Payment Gateway: The most efficient and professional gateway is the real time payment gateway. In this the payments are processed when a sale takes place on your website and within couple of days you receive your funds.

While making your ecommerce website, it is essential to select the gateway that fits your needs. Keep in mind that in case you don’t use the PayPal method, you will have to create a merchant account with your bank.

Creating a merchant account with your bank may take few weeks, so it is suggestive that you start working on this even before you launch your website. If you choose to go with the facility of merchant account, you should show with few banks since you may get a better deal in terms of the interest rate and other facilities.