Hi, I am about to start an online store where I will sale ipod accessories. I seek your help about how to start. What is the best, yet easy, payment gateway system? How to configure it with shopping cart? What they will charge me? How I will be charged? Where the amount (amount of sale) will be deposited? Do suggest for the good shopping cart script. I am most likely to use OsEcommerce for shopping cart and also thinking for Interspire. Thank you for time and writing to me.
I've worked with Verisign, Authorize.net, and a few others. Authorize.net probably has the most features. Integration is generally very similar with most gateways. We use one called Network Merchants which I personally think has the best features for the price. It includes things like recurring billing at no additional cost. Authorize.net and most others charge an additional monthly fee for recurring billing. Most payment gateways charge a small setup fee, and then $5 - $20 per month and usually $.05 per transaction. Your main cost will not be in the payment gateway, but in your actual merchant account. This is where you will incur the actual cost to process transactions. For online sales expect to pay at least 2.1% and usually $.25 - $.30 per transaction for your qualified processing rate. As far as shopping carts go, i really like Avactis, but Magento is a very solid cart that's gained a lot of popularity recently. I'm not a fan of oscommerce / zen like carts because it makes customizing a website too difficult.
It seems that you are in the United States - so you have a lot of options available to you. There are a lot of merchant account providers for you to choose from. And there are some gateways: Payflow (owned by PayPal now for a couple of years, LinkPoint / YourPay / First Data Global Gateway (they cannot make up their mind what the name should be - it has been global for years, even Australia was the LinkPoint system for over a year, Authorize.net / Cybersource, iTransact, Quantum, Yahoo!®. These gateways will will connect to a transaction processor (First Data, Nova / Elavon, etc). Some of the transaction processors that have a relationship with the issuing bank and acquiring bank can complete the transaction instead of sending it to the card associations (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc). You might even remember the lawsuit that Visa was suing First Data because Visa was getting cut out of a lot of the transactions because First Data was completing the transaction. Fortunately, that was settled. The gateways - usually around $10-$60 a month - have varying options. Some gateways only charge a flat fee per month and give away a couple of other services, like periodic billing, API, virtual terminal. Some gateways give you a few transactions a month, and then charge you a transaction fee (on top of what the merchant account provider charges) and this transaction fee might be a flat fee or it could be a percentage based on your account / volume. If you are in the United States, you have a number of options. Getting a merchant account is pretty good if you are doing more than $1,000 a month. One of the bigger reasons is getting your money. Some think this is not important but I have to object. Getting your money is usually the best thing, right? And with a merchant account, your money is deposited into your bank account within 48-72 hours usually after the batch is completed. If you do the math and look at what you might earn if the money if in your interest bearing account you might make money with your money. The IPSP (Internet Payment Service Provider) like (some versions of) PayPal are relying on your money to earn interest. Some of them will send your money weekly or twice a month, while some will send it only when you request it. The electronic payment gateways will also offer you an API to process the transaction on your website. This helps with the flow of the checkout process. The user is never directed to another website. You can get a test store from most of the electronic payment gateways but some of the skilled developers think this is unnecessary. And others think it is a great option to have. Now, even some members of Paypal can get this as well. Now, if you are in the United States, there are some very important pieces of information must be on an ISO / MSP / Agent's website. Let's take a look at CDG Commerce's web site and look at their footer: This tells you CDG is a registered ISO/MSP and what bank he is with. An agent will have something like "independent agent office" with a certain ISO. If you are a member of Sam's Club or Costco, you might check their programs to see if they are suitable. Just make sure to read the fine print and all the legalease. When looking for a merchant account provider, they will ask you some questions (like how much volume you expect). This number is very important. If it starts to look like you are going to be going over this amount, you might contact the merchant account provider or agent to let them know. Otherwise, some providers might put on a hold on that money to verify the transactions. And the link I provided over to CDG Commerce's website, you might check them out and their gateway (Quantum). Of course, they are also compatible with a few other gateways and might be able to get you an OK deal with Authorize.net. (Some Authorize.net can only get you a monthly fee plus a transaction fee on every transaction. Others who have been with them for awhile or sell a number of the Authorize.net's services, might be able to get you 250 free transactions or a lower transaction fee.)