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Where Is Your Web Address?

Is your web address advertised everywhere it can be?

Is it on your business cards, your letterhead, your answering machine, your advertisements, your car, in the phone book, at the bottom of your emails, and so on?

Make sure that people are reminded of it often, and that they can find it easily if they need it.

30 September 2002

ACCEPTING CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS ONLINE - FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

As more and more people become comfortable making purchases online, you need to consider whether it's something you should be offering your customers too. There are a number of options for small business that don't require huge outlays of cash.

As a minimum, all businesses should be able to offer direct debit. This simply works by providing your bank account number so that people can deposit money directly into your account. Most people will choose to do this online, and it is a very popular method for people because when they make their payment, they do so through their own bank's secure online web site. That is, their details are only provided to their bank and nobody else.

Some people though, prefer to pay by credit card. People have their own reasons for this, such as earning "fly-buy" points with purchases, or simply convenience. Either way, you need to think about whether your customers would appreciate the opportunity to purchase using credit cards. Remember, the more options you provide your customers, eventually the more online sales you will make.

Here are some options for small businesses to start accepting credit cards over the Internet.

• Firstly, if you want to handle the whole thing yourself, then you may want to set up a merchant account with your bank so that you can accept cards yourself. Those of you who already have "offline" merchant accounts may have an idea how all this works - and an idea of the cost. It can be quite expensive, and for many businesses this may not be a good option just yet. If you already have a merchant account with your bank that lets you accept credit cards, you need to check whether it also lets you accept payments when the card is not actually present (eg. over the telephone or on the Internet). If you have any questions, check with your bank. You may need to upgrade your account, or you can even get merchant accounts simply for Internet payments.
  
  Once you've sorted out the merchant account, you then need to set up an online payment gateway, which is a system that authorises and processes the credit card transaction in real time. This is usually set up through your hosting company and/or your bank. The set up costs for this can often run into the thousands, plus yearly charges after that.
  
  If you think you might want to go down this path, contact your bank to get further details on setting up an online merchant account to accept credit card payments online.
  
  
• A cheaper option of accepting credit cards on the Internet is to "outsource" the payment system. That is, use someone elses merchant account and payment gateway. There are a number of services out there who have payment systems in place that you can use for a fee. These fees can either be in the form of a % of each transaction, or a monthly fee, or both.
  
  The beauty about these systems is that you can usually set them up for very little cost, and also very quickly. Your customer then clicks on the appropriate link on your site, and they are taken to a secure page to make their payment. You can usually set it up so that the payment page just looks like another page on your site, so that the customer doesn't even know that they've left your site.
  
  There are a number of these services around, but for starters you may want to have a look at www.gtp-icommerce.com, who not only provide an online payment system but have a product that sets up a whole "online catalogue" and shopping cart system very easily. For other services, just type in "accepting credit cards" or something similar into your favourite search engine.
  
  
• And now for the cheapest option of all. PayPal is a very popular way of accepting credit cards online immediately with no set up fees and no ongoing regular fees. You simply pay around 2.5% per transaction. Over 3 million businesses around the world have chosen to use PayPal.
  
  PayPal is a system where you use the merchant accounts and online processing system of PayPal, and you simply provide the appropriate link on your site. Customers can pick what they want, click on the button, and pay you the money. It's all quite simple. You can even get $10 just for joining up.
  
  The only drawback with PayPal is that people can currently only make payments in US dollars, Pounds Sterling, and the Euro. But this may not be a problem for some people, and there may be ways to get around that problem if you think hard enough.
  
  To visit PayPal and learn more, click on www.paypal.com.
  

So which option is best for you? Like many new technologies or business practices, if there is a cheaper way to try it before you commit more money, you probably should. It may pay to try out one of the cheaper options of using someone else's merchant account, and then once you know your customers are using it, and your online sales grow to a level that the % fees are getting too high, then you can consider changing over to your own merchant account.

Want any more info on this article? Email us at admin@southwestecommerce.com

Disclaimer: This newsletter is designed to provide information only and is not a substitute for advice that is specific to your business. Before acting on any of the information above it is important you seek further advice from a professional who has taken into consideration the nature and circumstances of your business.