What Your Website Needs to Accept Credit Cards Online

One of the best things about having a website is that it works for you even when you are away or sleeping. After all, it is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. And if your website can sell products and accept payments, then your website could be easily marketing your products and bringing in the bacon, all without requiring any effort on your part. So what do you need to get started?

1. The Product

To set up a store, you will need something that a customer can purchase. If you already sell a product via your physical business location, then you can start selling that product online. Similarly, if you sell a service, you can let people pay for and schedule appointments online, or pay in advance for any other services that could be rendered.

2. Merchant Account

A merchant account is used to process and collect payments. If you already sell products via your physical location, you probably already have a merchant account. To simplify things, you might consider integrating the same merchant account into your online solution.

Merchant accounts may cost as much as $50 per month, with typical costs averaging $30 per month. However, if you are looking to cut costs, your bank may offer you a merchant account at a reduced cost just for having an account with them.

3. Payment Processor

The payment processor, which is usually bundled with the merchant account, is the service which processes the actual transaction and lets your website know whether or not the transaction was successful.

Payment processors usually charge a per transaction fee. Rates vary greatly, but they usually include a percentage of the transaction plus a base fee. Paypal, for example, generally charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

4. SSL Certificate

Finally, you will need an extra layer of security to protect your visitors credit card information. To purchase the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate, you’ll need to spend as much as $250 a year. However, if you do your research or use one from your web host, you can usually get a certificate for as little as $75 a year.

A Simpler Route: Using Secure Pages Hosted Elsewhere

If your business is new, these extra merchant and security costs in addition to the price for creating the website might be a bit steep. Fortunately, there is an alternative. If you don’t mind sending your customers to the payment processor’s secure website, then you can skip the costs of setting up an SSL certificate.

For more information on payment processors, see our article Accept Payments Online With PayPal.