Hello wht folks!

I've asked a gazillion questions in the main hosting forum, but the main problem I'm having now is with e-commerce so here goes...

I'm new to developing web sites, let alone e-commerce, and I've taken on a job to produce a site for a mid sized company. As you can see from the title I'm totally confused on how to implement a payment system on this site.

At first the owner wanted to have a form that the customer would fill out and send via email to the company, then call with their cc #. I learned quickly this was a bad idea. He wasn't too thrilled when I mentioned to him that his original idea would lose him a ton of $ and that the solution would be pricey, so I'm looking for something that will be customer, merchant, and designer (easy for me to implement it..very easy if possible)friendly at a reasonable price and that has good reviews.

I wanted to use Media Temple as my host, but they said the only shopping cart software I can use with them is Miva Merchant. This looks complicated and it's too expensive. Sooo, now I guess I need to find a new host as well.

I like the whole set up of PayPal, but the owner refuses to use it. I'd rather dodge the SSL certificate and all that and just have a button that links to a secure site like PayPal.

He had a crap site up last year that was doing $20k+ a year so I don't know if that will make a difference on who I should choose.

Could someone please explain how the payment gateway/merchant account/reseller stuff works? If you have shopping cart software do you have to pay for that + the merchant account? This part has confused me as well. I need to be able to quote him on what the monthly costs of running the web site and I can't even figure out what all I need to sign up for.

I've also got to convince him on whatever service I choose, as he's VERY weary of the whole online payment thing. He also knows absolutly nothing about computers so that doesn't help much either.

Someone on the hosting forum suggested authorize.net but you can't just simply use that can you?

I hope what I'm saying makes sense. I'm a total newbie and never even buy things online myself so I'm hoping to get some good advice from you guys. Any suggestions are more than welcome too. Thank you in advance!!!!

Pisces80

As someone who just went through the whole payment gateway/merchant account process I can vouch that it is very complicated and overwhelming. Before I switched I was using a 3rd party merchant account, www.2checkout.com. That worked for me, but didn't exactly have all the features and options I would have liked and thats why I switched.

2checkout is cheap and theres no setting anything up from your end. Just login to your account, create the products and stick the coding into your website. Its much like paypal, but with a few more features. I would give them a try.

Hope I helped.

This looks great! Thanks man :) . Are the fees involved pretty much average compared to similar companies? Let me see if I've got this strait.. I won't need an SSL, and the shopping cart is free? Do I still need a merchant account? Also, how easy was it to set up? Works for me. Now I've got to see if I can get him to buy it, and check on reviews. Like I said he absolutly hates PayPal, so how much is this like Paypal? Thanks again!

Pisces80

Its a one time $50 cost. Then you pay something like $0.35 per transaction + 3%. You don't need an SSL cert and it comes with a shopping cart, although I didn't use it so I can't say whether or not it was good. The only reason I said its like paypal is because it just cut and paste code like paypal. GL

Since both paysystems and 2checkout business models are same, what is the guarantee that 2checkout will not follow paysystems way soon ?

It is obvious that you have not read the threads .If your client hates PayPal then he/she will go balistic with the one you are choosing.

Forgetting for the moment the possibility that Visa might pull the plug on 2CO as well as Paysystems (in the same way that it's possible they won't), I do think that 2CO is a better choice than Paypal.

Obviously without knowing the reasons why your client doesn't want to use Paypal it's difficult to say for certain, however I suspect that it's the "membership" side of things at Paypal that he/she is unhappy with.

At least with 2checkout the customer is not required or encouraged to open an "account" - they can just make their payment and that's the end of it.

Ali

Originally posted by vengavenga
At least with 2checkout the customer is not required or encouraged to open an "account" - they can just make their payment and that's the end of it.

Ali


https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&leafid=78554&answer_id=6845718




Do I need a PayPal Account to pay my seller?

No. If your seller has the PayPal Optional feature turned on, you will not be required to create a PayPal Account to complete a purchase.

Note: This feature is only available to the off-eBay market at this time.

Yep, thanks for clarifying that - you are of course correct, however it doesn't apply in all countries.

Most international Paypal account holders still require their customers to "signup" in order to receive payments ... in the case of Pisces that shouldn't be a problem, however what about an international customer purchasing from a US based Paypal account holder, can anyone confirm what happens there?

Ali.

Depending on your your location & sice your average was more than $1,000 a month, you should consider a merchant account if you are in the US.

A merchant account basically consists of a cc processor and an electronic payment gateway. Think of the gateway as the POS terminal at the grocery store. It connects you to the the platform to verify the CC charges..

Paypal is good - you might recommend that in conjunction with a merchant account, but not as your sole provider. Get your own SSL. They are very cheap now & most hosting companies will offer different brands.

A lot of merchant accounts come with their own shopping cart - but usually they are & can be two separate entities.

Authorizenet.com is only a payment gateway - like LinkPoint & Verisign. You still need the CC processor as well to complete the merchant account.