Web Merchant Account

Web Merchant Account (Also Known As E commerce Merchant Account)

Whilst there are ways to enjoy the benefits of ecommerce without one, ultimately the most cost effective and practical way for any web based venture to be able to accept payment via cards is through a web merchant account.

The web merchant account enables you to accept major credit cards through a secure transaction gateway, but there are some things to take in consideration when looking to setting up your web merchant account.

There are a few types of merchant account available, a payment gateway, where your customers are transferred to the providers own servers for the transaction, and those that offer integration into your own cart system, so the transactions happen from within your own ecommerce site. Many people suggest the latter offers more consumer confidence although this is debatable, having everything within your own system does offer a more streamlined process for customers.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the web merchant account to consider are the charges, the overall cost for taking payments is the most obvious effect on your profitability, and yet many people just take the first service offered and never really look much further,

A trap many fall into is simply looking at the transaction rates, expressed as a percentage of the transaction itself plus a fixed cost per transaction, however whilst of course a major component of the cost of using a web merchant account, they are not the whole story. Many service providers also include charges to set up the payment gateway, some even charge to apply in the first place, all of these kinds of charges add up and must be taken into consideration when you assess just how much it will all cost you. Another charge that you must take into account is the annual or monthly fee for the service, this is in addition to the transaction charges themselves, this can vary quite significantly depending on your location and type of business, certain products and services are considered high risk by banks and do incur additional charges, providers will tell you whether your particular business falls within these high risk areas.

The other aspect to consider is at the other end of the pipeline, how easy it is to access your funds. Ideally you want weekly or, if you are in an exceptionally high volume business, daily, access to your funds, but with some providers you can find 7-14 day or even 30 day access accounts, this could be extremely problematic for cash flow and when choosing your web merchant account, it is important to look at how long it takes you to access your funds in tandem with the costing aspect to determine the best possible deal for you.

Once you have all the relevant information, finding the right web merchant account is a straight forward process of the best balance between features and fees.

Get started today: [ APPLY FOR A WEB MERCHANT ACCOUNT ]