If your web site's purpose is to sell your products or services online, then you need to become involved in what is known as e-commerce. This stands for Ethernet commerce, with Ethernet being the original name for what is now commonly called the internet.

Obviously for anyone to buy your products through the internet, they need to know that the payment method is completely secure. From your point of view you need to be as satisfied as you can be that the customer is totally genuine and you're not going to end up out of pocket. Whilst it is possible to just ask the customer to send a check, in reality you'll find that this method is not acceptable for the vast majority of sites, simply because the customer is looking for an instant transaction. Web sites which offer both methods of payment discover that they very rarely receive orders through the post.

Fortunately there are several solutions to this problem - at varying costs to the merchant.

Large companies tend to make use of Third Party Payment Processors. These are companies who specialize in providing the secure facilities required for credit card transactions. It works by the customer being transferred to their site once they have completed the ordering process on your site. Payment is then collected and you are notified directly of the order. The money is then transferred to your account either immediately or on a monthly basis. Companies who offer this service are those such as PayPal.

This is obviously the most convenient way to transact through the internet, but unfortunately comes at quite a hefty price for the small business owner. Typical set-up costs can be around £500 plus there is normally a minimum monthly charge of around £20 to pay if you don't make a sizeable amount of sales. You then have the actual individual charges per transaction which are typically around 4%.

So, you can see that this is quite prohibitive for the small business owner who is just venturing on to the internet highway, unsure of success.

Fortunately there are several other possibilities at a much lower cost whilst being equally effective in providing customer confidence.

Small Business Options
For the most cost-effective option on your web site, we provide a shopping cart link which also contains a secure page for safe credit card detail entries. Of course to then process the card payment you would need to have a merchant account and electronic terminal - please talk to your bank.

Alternatively, or additionally, you can use one of the other third party payment options for small businesses such as PayPal. 

The most convenient and recognizable one to use is PayPal.  You need to set up an account with them by providing details of either a credit or debit card and they will then process any payments for you which can be downloaded into your credit or debit card account at the time of your choosing.

The advantage to this is that there are no set up costs and they do all the verification of the customers details before passing the order to you. There is a percentage charge per transaction - so bear this in mind when calculating your prices.

We will always discuss the various options with you before accepting the work so that you completely understand how everything will work.

Any other questions - please ask.