New To Ecommerce - Researching Payment Gateways

[blake_jl]

Hi,

We are a new business looking to process credit card payments from our website.

A programmer is building the website at the moment and has advised me that I need to organise a payment processor and he will link it to the website.

This is all new to me, but so far what I know (or what I think I know) is that my shopping cart on the website is linked to the payment processor, and the payment processor is then somehow connected to our banking institution.

I have been searching around for different options and have found a few different ones like "Gateway A" (I thought I would edit the company name as I suspect this forum is for another business).

Can someone please shed some more light on how this whole thing works and offer up some advice?

Using "Gateway A" as an example they want to charge $395 for a 12 month licence and $0.45 plus GST per transaction.

Is this all the charges I will have to pay for a transaction?
Do I have to organise anything with our bank?
Does the bank also charge me per transaction?

I did read someone mentioning processing transactions manually. If there are no hidden extras I think we would be willing to pay the $395 and 45 cents fee for the luxury.

There really isn't that much info around that is Australia specific. I'm hoping this forum is the answer to my problems!

Thanks for your help

Edit: On second thoughts, information on manual processing might not be such a bad idea considering it may be small volume initially.

[dferguson]

Hi

Please see our FAQ: http://www.ezimerchant.com/faq/show/faq50073.asp - This FAQ explains the three basic ways to process credit cards.

1. Manual/Offline Transactions
2. Real Time Transasctions
3. Third party transactions.

In regards to your specific question on charges..

Assuming your programmer is going to build you a cart and link it to 'Gateway A' then you WILL be up for more charges as you will also require a merchant account with your bank.

Banks typically charge a few hundred setup, a base monthly fee of around $20.00 and a % of each transaction - typically around 1.8%.

We reccommend several gateways as they are already plugged into our ecommerce platform (ezimerchant Professional), but these reccommendations would be still given even if you were not using our cart..

eway.com.au
netregistry.com.au
ematters.com.au

Have a chat with them and they should advise more about the type of merchant bank account you will require etc.

Thanks

[anuj.saxena810]

hiii David
I have started online Business of handicrafts. For it i am thinking that Zencart is good..but i m confused to decide which payment gateway is compatible with Zencart. I need cheapest or free payment gateway which works on PHP and MYSQL.
Please suggest me for better solution. Is paymate better?

Thanx n Regards
Anuj Saxena

[d.ferguson]

Hi Anuj

You will need to select a payment gateway that is compatible with your chosen shopping cart. Zencart seems to support a lot of payment gateway's, but if your site is for Australia I would reccommend eWay.com.au. They offer a great service.
Can I ask why you chose zencart over ezimerchant?

[anuj.saxena810]

Hi David
I have to register my website and that will be for India.
I am not aware too much with ezimerchant and want a shopping cart with best compatible payment gateway in cheapest cost and support PHP and MYSQL technologies.
I have not choosen Zen cart yet. But some people suggested me to use that because that is free, globally accepted and work on PHP.

Please suggest me if u have better solution.

Thanks and Regards
Anuj Saxena

[aschiller]

Hi Anuj,

With your focus on PHP and MYSQL, you seem to be caught up in the technologies, rather than the solution. The purpose of a shopping cart should be to sell products. With that in mind, it should be easy to implement. If you are bogged down with programming your cart, you have less time to focus on the business aspect of your website. Keep in mind also that free solutions never turn out to be free, especially if you value your time. I encourage you to have a look at the free trial of ezimerchant Professional which is available from http://www.ezimerchant.com/downloads.asp

[d.ferguson]

Yes, I agree with Joachim - choosing a shopping cart should be about choosing a cart that suits your needs and makes running the site easy and time effective. There are literally thousands of PHP/MYSQL shopping carts to choose from and many of them so bad that they could ruin a good business! Dont use PHP/MYSQL as your requiremets. Maybe write a list of 'features' that you need your site to have and go from there.

If your in India you cant use Paymate as far as im aware - its Australian only. You should be able to use PayPal however - and ezimerchant fully integrates with PayPal Express Checkout.

[anuj.saxena810]

Hi Joachim

Thanks for giving me your views.
You are absolutely right but i m the only technical resource , working on that project. So i have to think about my technical expertise also which i can use perfectly in my business website. Then i ll not need to be focussed more on technical and can put my efforts better towards business strategies and marketing.
I ll have a look on link u have sent me.
Please suggest me what else is needed.

Thanks and Regards
Anuj Saxena

[anuj.saxena810]

Thanks a lot David
I ll look on that..then ll decide accordingly.

Regards
Anuj Saxena

[aschiller]

Hi Anuj,

Being the only technical resource is even more reason to avoid taking on any technical resposibility. Using an out of the box shopping cart system will mean that you can focus on the business aspect of your website from day 1, rather than potentially spending serveral weeks before you arrive at that point.

[anuj.saxena810]

Hi Joachim

Thanks for your views. i ll definitely think over it again.
I am beginner in this field so i need much more guidance from u people.

Thanks and Regards
Anuj Saxena