Small stores and the possibility of accepting credit card payments

How to accept online credit card payments with minimum requirements.

Date: Aug-2007

Comersus receives several inquiries from end users and small businesses about the need to enable credit card payments.

Even though an ecommerce site has numerous possibilities of accepting alternative means of payment (bank deposits, postal money orders, payment on delivery, checks, etc) credit cards keep on being customers' preferred means of payment, and it is vital for a BtoC store to have that means of payment enabled.

Small stores and end users drown in a sea of options at the time of implementing online credit card payments: bank accounts, sales tax, merchant accounts, payment gateways, discount rates, setup fees, monthly fee, reserve fees, ACH, wires, integration with the cart, call backs, silent responses, SSL, credit verifications, approval terms, etc and sometimes they get discouraged on their way to gathering the necessary information in order to choose with clarity.

In this case it is advised to simplify. By simplifying I mean choosing a global and immediate solution providing everything necessary to accept payments immediately without having to worry about dealing with multiple suppliers, terms, integrations, configurations, etc.

Of course, with a global solution discount rates are going to be higher - thus, the amount received by the company for each sale will be smaller - and the possibilities of integrating a global solution will be fewer - therefore, customers will surely be redirected for payment - but despite these facts, it is very convenient for a small business to start selling immediately and take its first steps in ecommerce. There will always be a chance to choose a more flexible solution and with better discount rates later on. Comersus in fact allows its customers to change the originally-selected payment integration by another option and supports more than 90 different payment gateways.

Now, what I mean when I speak of a global and immediate payment solution is:

1. A solution that does not require requesting or having a merchant account.
2. A solution accepting merchants, regardless of their geographical location and legal status. That is, that it does not require a SSN or FEIN to operate.
3. A solution providing terms no longer than 48 hours to activate accounts.
4. A solution that does not require merchants to request and use their own SSL certificate.
5. A solution with multiple choices to clear payments for merchants.

There are two exponents of global solutions, one of them is 2Checkout and the other is PayPal. Both cover all the previously mentioned requirements and do and excellent job allowing the entrance of small businesses and end users into the world of ecommerce.

Comersus offers PayPal integration scripts in its free version. Regarding 2Checkout, we currently have a promotion; if the merchant subscribes to 2Checkout using the link provided by Comersus, we give the scripts that allow connecting the shopping cart to 2Checkout payment gateway free of charge.

Comersus Open Tech, July 2007

Links to mentioned resources

1. Comersus Shopping Cart
2. 2Checkout
3. List of payment gateways supported by Comersus