Credit Card Processing and Payment Gateways?

Can someone give me a quick lesson on Credit Card Processing and Payment Gateways? I'm getting away from the adsense thing and starting my own online store. I see many people mention paypal, but have used it before and it didn't intergrate very well. I'm using zencart, how can I totally intergrate it for credit card processing and how do payment gateways, come into play. I plan for about $750 worth of sales a month. TIA

-Kyle

 

Zencart should make integrating your payment gateway very easy. Normally you would have to write code to connect to the gateway's API to send transaction information back and forth. Zencart should have the ability to connect to Authorize.net (the most popular gateway) built in. This means you should only need to supply it your Authorize.net login name and transaction key (these are provided to you when you purchase your Authorize.net account). That's it. Nice and easy. Authorize.net accounts can only be acquired from resellers and not from Authorize.net directly. The odds are whomever you choose to establish your merchant account will have a relationship with Authorize.net and will take care of establishing an account with them as well.

As for the merchant account, you can choose from any of the providers out there as they shouldn't have any issues establishing your merchant account. No one provider is better for ecommerce then another as they all do the same thing: process your customers' credit cards. You'll just want to pay attention to cost as it will be the main difference between providers.

You may also want to consider a third party processor as your volume is not very high. You may save quite a bit of money if you use Paypal (I believe there are add-ons for zencart that make integrating Paypal just as easy as Authorize.net). You should read the SitePoint article Solve the Payment Processing Problem as it compares true merchant accounts to third party processors and helps readers decide which option is best for them. It even includes a web-based calculator so you can do cost comparisons quickly and easily.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

 

Stymiee pretty much sums it up. I'd recommend that you take his advice.

Personally, I still use PayPal to handle just about everything - which isn't good. I'm sure I can find rates much lower then what PayPal has, and it allows countries that don't support PayPal to make a purchase.

I just find that the other merchant accounts are a bit more difficult to work with, and it takes a lot more effort and money to do everything (ex: SSL's, programming, etc.)

 

As far as rates go, you probably cant find anything lower. Paypal doesn't have any monthly fees, and their rates are very competitive.

If you do get a merchant account, I also recommend authorize.net. It should integrate very easily with zencart. You will also need a SSL certificate if you are planning on using the AIM method, which I would also recommend. You can get a SSL for about $30 from godaddy, which should work fine for smaller websites.

 

I'll have to digest this and do a little more reading. Need to figure out hte difference between a gateway and a merchant account. If one of you guys where in my situtation what would you do? I'd prefer for my customers to never have to leave me site, where the whole process is done without them having to go to a third party site.

 

Paypal sux. I don't understand why is it so ... everywhere...

 

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Its all about bad press. They are still preferred choice and popular any way.

 

Can I make a 3rd party processing service transparent during checkout? How about paypal?

 

Because they don't suck. People who use them incorrectly or just run their business poorly like to blame others then blame themselves.

 

I believe Paypal Pro offer this. But, Paypal Pro costs as much as a true merchant account with a gateway. At that point you probably would just want the merchant account and gateway so you have total control over the account (like having your business name on your customers' statements instead of Paypal's)..

 

payflow link is the best solution ... as features vs price is also great.

 

Payflow Link is actually expensive and offers very little functionality. You can get more with Authorize.net for less money. With Payflow Link all you get is the Verisign name which is useless in this case as your customers have no clue what a gateway even is much less which one you are using.

 

Anything Verisign is grossly overpriced.

As far as price for features go, Network Merchants is better than most I have seen including authorize.net. Recurring biling and fraud protection are included. Usually no setup fee, and $5 - $10 / month. It has both a simple and API integration method, and it includes a shopping cart that can be used to paste into an existing site if only a few products are being sold.

Authorize.net is my favorite overall, but it is more expensive than network merchants. There is very good support for it, it works well, and it is reasonable cheap.

 

what about worldpay ?

 

Worldpay is expensive if you are in the US.

 

How much dose authorize.net cost as a solution ?

 

That will vary depending on whom you choose as a reseller. It might be a free set up or cost up to $300. Monthly costs will be from $5 - $20. Transaction fees will be from 5¢ to 15¢ with some providers offering the first 150 free. A $99 setip fee/$10 month/10¢ transaction fee is about average.

 

IS there a list with those providers ? Do you know some url where I can sign up ?

Thanks.

 

http://www.authorize.net/solutions/merchantsolutions/stateresellerdirectory/

 

Nothing like feeling like I might be over my head. Are most people happy with 2checkout? Even though the fees are higher they include both the merchant account and the processing fees. Might be a good way to get my feet wet?