Ecommerce Online Payment Processing with a Merchant Account
The Internet provides so many opportunities for consumers to quickly find what they need. So many of your favorite big brands are easily accessible online. This means that you can do most of your eCommerce shopping from the comfort of your home 24 hours a day 7 days a week. However, in a recent study, Redshift Research found that “60% of very small businesses don’t have an online presence.” (www.inc.com)
This is due to many small businesses being truly intimidated by online technology. This is especially true when it comes to shopping carts. We’ve put together an easy guide to help you understand more about how a shopping cart works and take the mystery out of building an online shopping store for your business.
How Do I Get Started?
The first task in building your e-Commerce online shopping store is to grab a domain name. This is the “www.domainname.com” that your customers will type in to find your store. We recommend that you try to find a name that matches your business name. However, if the domain that matches your business name is taken, you might have to get a little creative. Most domain providers will help you with that by giving you a whole list of alternative names that you might want to consider using for your online store. There are many companies that sell domain names. Some of the largest are GoDaddy, Network Solutions and Register.com.
Online Shopping Cart
Once you have a domain name, the next step is to find an online shopping cart solution. There are typically two options when it comes to online shopping carts. You can either have a licensed shopping cart or a hosted shopping cart.
A licensed shopping cart typically requires a both a web designer who specializes in building eCommerce shopping carts and a web design card payments specialist . This is a really great option if think that you will be needing a lot of shopping cart customization.
A licensed shopping cart is typically hosted on a server of your choice. Many licensed shopping carts are built to allow for a variety of different modules or extensions that connect to different third party tools. A licensed shopping cart is unique to you, the merchant, and is tailored to fit your particular needs.
If you prefer a hosted shopping cart, then you will usually pay a small monthly fee for as long as you keep the shopping cart active. Some hosted shopping carts also require that you pay additional transaction fees per transaction. These carts can be great for merchants who are overwhelmed with the prospect of maintaining a shopping cart. While it may seem that the up-front cost and/or transaction fees are minimal, you typically pay more in fees over time. With a hosted shopping cart, you can design your own website using templates provided by the host.
Please make sure and read all the fine print or ask your SecureGlobalPay representative for assistance when choosing web design credit card processing or specific hosted shopping cart solution.
What is Included in a Shopping Cart?
Most basic shopping carts allow you to input your product, add the price of your product as well as calculate shipping and sales tax.
However, more advance shopping carts allow you to add different product attributes such as color, size and availability of the product. Advance shopping carts also allow multiple shipping methods based on customer location and product weight.
Many advanced shopping carts also allow you to let your customers leave a review for each product. Reviews are so important in helping to sell your products online. It can create a great deal of trust for your product if the reviews are genuine.
Many carts also offer a “Wish List” for customers to add products to their cart and purchase at a later time when funds become available.
If the cart is advanced enough, then you will also be able to offer wholesale and resale pricing within one cart. To see wholesale prices, your customers sign up for an account and when they log in, they will be able to see the specialized pricing.
Most shopping carts should allow for order tracking as well. Your customer will be able to check on the progress of their package and receive a tracking number when their order leaves your facility.
Shopping carts also allow you to create special offers and coupon codes that your customers can reclaim upon checkout.
A well-crafted shopping cart should allow you to interact with your customers and make the experience pleasant enough that customers continue to return.
A Merchant Account for Your Shopping Cart
In order to process credit cards online you will need to sign up for an internet merchant bank account. With a certified eCommerce-MOTO Merchant Account, you will be able to process your customer’s credit cards upon checkout. This will be done through your Merchant Account Payment Gateway which authorizes the transaction and handles moving the funds from a credit card account to your bank.
SecureGlobalPay’s Payment Gateway Solution
When you sign up for a Merchant Account with SecureGlobalPay, we offer you a customized payment gateway solution. With our payment gateway solution, you will be able to accept all card types including: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Card, JCB, Diners Club and more.
SecureGlobalPayment Gateway is Compatible With the Following eCommerce Shopping Carts and many more
New shopping carts are being integrated every day. If for some reason your specific cart is not on the list or you are a developer interested in integrating a new shopping cart, please call us.
Below is a list of shopping carts that we are compatible with:
1Shopping Cart, 3D Cart, 800 Cart, A Shop Software, Abante Cart, Agora Cart, aMember Professional, Americart, Americommerce, Antamedia, Filemaker, Wild Apricot, Avactis Shopping Cart, Ashop Commerce, Asp.net storefront, A SecureCart, BigCommerce, Blogger, Bookeo, Canada Cart, Cart Technologies, Cart Manager, CartWeaver 4, CiviCRM, Concrete 5, Contact Your Client, Core Commerce, Professional Credit Repair Software, CS Cart, Cube Cart, Cydec, Design Cart, Duda Mobile, Early Impact, Eblox, Ecommerce Templates, Ecwid, Engarde, eStore Advanced, Formsite, FoxyCart, GlobeKey, GoeCart, Ignite Builder, iHost Networks, IM Creator, Infusionsoft, Kentico, King Cart, Leash Time, Lemon Stand, Thrive, LimeLight, Limo Anywhere, Loaded Commerce, Magento, Mal’s E-Commerce, Marketers Choice, MA Webcenters, Method CRM, Miva Merchant, Modern Bill, Monster Commerce, Microsoft Dynamics, NetiDnow.com, Network Solutions, NetzCart, Office Autopilot, Opencart, Orderwave, PD Shop, PennyPro, Pictures Pro, Pinnacle Cart, Plexum, PrestaShop, PresoMart, PHP ProBid, QuickCart, Securenet Shop, Shopify, Shopsite, Site Cube, Smart Cart, Smart Win Technology, Spreedly, SquirrelCart, Sunshop, TicketSpice, www.tix.com, Tomato Cart, Ultra Cart, Volusion, VPAsp, Web.com, Webs Vistaprint, WHMOS, Wix, Xcart Gold, Authorize Ecommerce, Yola, Zen Cart.
As you can see, shopping carts are not actually as intimidating as you might think. If you are looking for a Merchant Account Provider, we are well equipped to handle a variety of solutions to fit your shopping cart needs.Call us Today!
