<-- Back to Current Category
Internet Merchant Accounts and Gateway Features
By: Dushan Vaithilingam, Sun Sep 6th, 2009
When shopping for Internet merchant accounts, there are a number of factors to keep in mind: from integration with your back-office operations, to the customer's shopping cart experience.
Consider these features when making your selection:
Does it accept both checks and credit cards? By including expanded payment options you can capture more customers. It can also be confusing for customers to have separate interfaces for credit and ACH transactions, so look to see how seamlessly this capability is integrated.
How fast is it at approving and completing transactions? The last thing you want is to have a shopping cart abandoned because it takes too long to process. Slow checkout can also make people nervous because they do not know what is happening to the sensitive information they have just entered.
Does it use a 128-bit Secure Server (SSL)? Consider also, at what point a browser will indicate that an SSL connection is active. If this happens too late in the checkout process, it could result in a lost sale because customers are not sure at what point their information is protected.
Does it allow the ability to void transactions, issue refunds, and set up recurring billing? You can streamline your operations and simplify the customer experience by including these functions.
How fast and easy is it to set up? Will you need to have custom code written to integrate your gateway?
Once you have verified that the Internet merchant accounts that you are comparing have these features, it will be a lot easier to make an apples-to-apples evaluation. Rather than simply looking at the setup costs and the per transaction fee, also determine if a long-term contract is required, and what amount the early termination fee is, if there is any. Recurring annual, and minimum monthly fees are also worth considering.
