Re: accepting online payments

Here's my mini-FAQ (all MHO):

1) Order Form

An HTML form that submits the visitor's selection to a server-side
application that will process those selections to calculate final totals and
present the user with a payment form.

2) Shopping Cart

This is software used to allow a visitor to "collect" merchandise while
browsing the site.  It maintains session for a specific purpose: without it,
the site would have no way of knowing what the visitor wanted to buy when
checking out.  Obviously, this is mostly useful in a site where the
merchandise is scattered over more than one web page.  If everything is on a
single page, and the visitor is going right from selection to checkout, a
cart is overkill.

3) Payment Form

An HTML form that collects the user's payment information

4) Gateway

A service that processes online transactions, accepting the user's payment
information (currently eCheck or Credit Card), often authorizes the user's
credit, and forwards the appropriate information along to the merchant
account provider for collection and transfer.

5) Merchant Account

An account that allows the merchant to transfer funds electronically between
holders.


Note that nothing above includes the actual inventory, unless you count the
entries on the order form.  Inventory (such as a database of merchandise) is
actually the foundation of the store, but it's not really part of the
transaction process except in a supporting role for the order form or cart.

Often, the term "shopping cart" has come in common usage to cover the entire
system above, when really it's just a small part of it.   Understanding the
components of the system may help you make more appropriate choices for
yourself and your clients.

To accept simple payments online, such as payments on account or other types
that do not involve a widespread inventory, you do not need a cart.  You
will need a form from which users can submit their payment, a gateway for it
to be submitted to (if processing automatically!), and a merchant account to
move the money for you.  We use AuthorizeNet.com for the gateway, and an AN
dealer for the merchant account.

If you are processing card manually, you can even skip the gateway and
merchant account and simply store the data server-side for retrieval or
email it to yourself using PGP encryption.  Both methods have some
security-related responsibilities involved for you.  Check with your
existing merchant provider, though, as I believe some of them expressly
forbid you to submit debits collected from an online source.

PayPal also has an easy-to-use service, although there is the restriction
that both customer and merchant must be members.  Joining is relatively
painless...:).  As an order form, they often supply you with buttons that
you can paste into your web pages that are each worth a preset amount.

D





----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim" <jimb(at)aci.on.ca>

Good morning all.

I am working on a site that will seen need to accept online payments for the
service of using our site to list their vehicle to sell. I have browsed
through the archives and looked on the web for info but to be honest I am a
bit confused :-(
I keep reading that I need a merchant account , a shopping cart, etc, etc
but is this all necessary to accept credit payment?
Could someone please let me know how to go about simply accepting credit
card payments through a form on our site?

Jim
http://www.exoticautoinc.com

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA