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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.
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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 (e.g.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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