Setting up online payment systems for your website is the first step for establishing a commercial online presence for your company. But before you can do that, you need to get familiar with the online payment solutions available. This will help you recognize when it's necessary to upgrade your software to accommodate more customers and their payment preferences.

When you do upgrade, make sure that you get the most for your money by adding security to keep your customers' information safe.

There are many ways to recognize which type of payment processing solutions might work for your business. The first step is to look at the type of customer you want to attract. Other steps to choosing the right upgrades for your software include:

1. Offering a variety web payment solutions, such as PayPal and credit cards.

2. Adding the security you need to process online payments processes.

3. Providing customers easy navigation through the buying process with a shopping cart feature.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Know what online payment solution works best for your business

There are many options for payment solutions you can use with your online business. The best type of ecommerce payment solutions for your business will depend on how large an online presence you want and what type of options you want to provide your customers. Many customers prefer to use a credit card, so most businesses make sure that's the first form of payment they can accept.

I recommend: My Solution Spot offers the article 'How to Choose an Ecommerce Provider' to help you sort through the issues. If you are still unsure about the best payment processing solutions for your business, check out a great article at Idealware.

Upgrade your online payment software as necessary

If your business is just starting out online, you may look for the simplest and cheapest option for online payment solutions. But once you move to being a profitable online business, you'll have to upgrade your online payment tools as necessary. This will give you more options for payment collection, and it opens your business up to more customers who may be looking for different payment options than the ones you currently offer.

I recommend: If you are using a basic system like PayPal one-click buttons for purchases, think about adding a shopping cart feature from X-Cart or credit card payment options from Visa Payment Technologies.

Choose online payment systems that offer additional resources and security

Making the most of online payment solutions means getting the answers you need when you want to change the way you accept ecommerce payments, or how to best use the features offered by many online payment companies. This information is often available from the company itself, but you can also find articles that explain these features.

I recommend: Bitpipe connects you with many resources to find additional information online payment programs and solutions, including data sheets and journal articles. A good article called 'How to Keep Information on Your Website Safe' is available from Nick Dalton, who publishes a blog devoted to Internet business issues.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Many online payment processing companies offer a variety of products. If you start out with the basic software, there may be discounts available when you need to upgrade later on.

No matter what your business, the sooner you set up to accept payments online, the more quickly your sales will accumulate. If you sell products or services through your Web site you can use a service such as PayPal to accept payment or you can make a shopping cart available. On a more basic level, you can even invoice customers via email.

No matter what your setup, you'll need to take these three steps to shore up your online payment strategy:

1. Calculate your average monthly transaction volume. If you anticipate a small number of transactions, your needs might be quite simple. However, they'll be more complex if your transactions number in the hundreds or thousands.
2. Determine how much money you can allocate toward an online payment budget. Some online payment solutions involve monthly fees, startup and cancellation charges.
3. Assess your risks. Online and credit-card fraud could wipe your business out. Look into services like chargeback protection.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

If your needs are simple, keep it simple

If you accept payment on your Web site through PayPal, your customers can use credit cards and debit cards, even if they don't have a PayPal account. PayPal has several plans including ones with no annual commitment, monthly, startup or cancellation fees. Transactions fees start as low at 1.9 percent + $0.30 USD.

I recommend: Compare Paypal's various plans to traditional merchant accounts and gateways.

Get yourself a shopping cart

Shopping-cart software converts an existing Web site into an e-commerce store capable of handling multiple purchases and processing credit-card transactions.

I recommend: Go Earlyimpact.com for helpful information on choosing the best shopping cart for your business.

Starting from scratch?

Online store-builder software creates e-commerce stores with features such as Web space, shopping carts and credit-card processing, so if you don't have a Web site and don't want to develop your own, consider a software package with lots of bells and whistles.

I recommend: Yahoo, GoEcart, and Fortune3 provide several store-builder packages.

Merchant accounts and gateways

A merchant account is an account you establish with a bank to accept credit cards. Unless you use PayPal, you'll need a merchant account to accept credit cards through your Web site.

I recommend: Check out companies like Charge.com and Discountcreditcardmachine.com for Internet-based credit-card merchant accounts.

Cut risk and minimize loss from fraud

Cutting-edge security, fraud prevention and chargeback protection are a must in online commerce.

I recommend: Use Clearcommerce.com for real-time screening of transactions without slowing the purchase process for your customer.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Appearances count, so keep in mind the customer interface your e-commerce store presents.
• •  Include shipping choices and multiple payment options for buyers.
• •  Remember, the faster the transaction, the happier the customer.

Online payment systems are very important to any business that buys or sells items through its website. There are many options when it comes to the pricing and costs of online payment solutions. You could find online payment software, set up an e-commerce merchant account, or work with other online payment companies to secure payments from the customer. Most fees are relatively low when you consider the overall sales you could potentially bring in.

Online payment services have different ways of charging you for their product. They may take a percentage of the final sale total, charge a flat monthly fee, or charge a flat fee that applies to each sale. In order to choose the right web payment solution for your company, consider the following:

1. What will cost your more: a percentage or a flat fee.

2. How many customers you get.

3. The average amount spent at your online store.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose an e-commerce merchant account or other e-commerce tool

Choosing an e-commerce merchant account is one of the simplest ways to make an e-commerce payment for products and services from your website. Merchant accounts are relatively low in cost and you can add on different features to make it easier for customers to shop, such as a shopping cart e-commerce tool.

I recommend: The e-commerce shopping cart packages from Network Solutions are easy-to-use tools that provide your customers with a way to buy multiple items from your store for around $50. ACH Direct offers an e-commerce merchant account that can be customized to your business's needs.

Try different brands of online payment software

Shopping for online payment software is just like shopping for any other type of software. Software is similar to ecommerce payment solutions, but more of the process is done by the program instead of a web resource. Make sure to check out product demos or trial versions of online payment software before choosing the best one for your website.

I recommend: Yellow Zone has a variety of software products for the basic web based business, up to the most professional sites on the Internet. The costs for standard and custom products start at $3,500. If you want to check out a program before purchasing it, check out the demo for Web Payment Software from Mountain Media. This software is under $1,000 for the licensing, and you can choose to host your site with the company as well for a small monthly fee.

Consider online payment services without software

There are many online payment services that do not use software at all. This drastically cuts down the cost of turning your website into a store. You do not have to purchase any type of program, and setting up an account is usually free. The only time you pay is through a transaction fee.

I recommend: PayPal offers a simple way to turn any website into a store with small transaction fees and no software to install. Transaction fees are between 1.9 and 2.9 percent with a standard $0.30 fee. E-gold is a similar type of payment system to PayPal, but E-gold works differently when you need to cash out your account or transfer funds to a traditional bank. To liquidate E-gold funds, you usually have to pay a higher transaction fee than PayPal.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  No matter what you use for electronic payment solutions, prepare to check up on the system at regular intervals to make sure it's working correct. You want to be sure you're not cheated out of any ecommerce payments owed to you.

Business owners that do not accept online payments are leaving money on the table. Allowing customers the ability to make purchases from your website is essential in the modern age. When researching online payment services, you may be confused by some of the words you hear. If you want to choose the best payment service for your business, you should learn some of the lingo, so that you understand the available features and can choose the ones that are most appropriate for your business.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

PayPal

PayPal is one of the most popular and well-known online payment services. They allow you to accept payments online, taking a certain percentage of the payment in fees.

I recommend: Learn more about how you can accept online payment through PayPal.

Shopping cart

An online shopping cart allows your customers to place many items into a virtual shopping cart and pay for all items at one time. This is essential if you own a store with physical products.

I recommend: X-Cart offers a demo of their shopping cart service. Select the features you would like to see and run the demo to see how it works.

Merchant services

Merchant services are offered by banks to allow small businesses to accept credit card payments. Many banks allow you to use their merchant services to accept online payments.

I recommend: Wells Fargo explains their merchant services program and how you can accept online payments.

Electronic check authorization

With electronic check authorization, business owners are available to accept electronic checks, or e-checks, from their customers. This eliminates some of the hassle of paper checks and allows customers that do not have credit or debit cards to make purchases through your site.

I recommend: Fidelity National Information Services talks about some of the highlights of using electronic check authorization.

Hosted and licensed e-commerce solutions

A hosted e-commerce solution is both hosted and owned by the main company. It has a lower initial cost, but higher monthly fees. With a licensed e-commerce solution, a business purchases the rights to use the software. It has a higher start up cost, but lower or no monthly fees.

I recommend: ProductCart discusses the difference between the two solutions, along with a cost calculator to see which solution is more cost-effective for you.

Recurring billing

With a recurring billing system, you can effortlessly charge regular payments from your customers. This is ideal for subscription-type services. You can also use it to spread the cost of a high ticket number out over a few months.

I recommend: DowCommerce offers free recurring billing capabilities with its program and describes the features.