Chapter 1. To paypal or not to paypal, that is the question!
As if there isn’t enough to think about when you are developing an eCommerce store now you have to make a decision about how you are going to accept payments!
One of the most recurring questions I get asked every day is around whether or not my clients should go via PayPal or set up a merchant account and accept payments through a payment gateway.
The way to address this question is budget and volume. If for example, you just wish to sell a downloadable item from your site, like an ebook and you think you may sell around 5 a month and the cost of that ebook is $9.95 Paypal is probably the wisest option as the revenue isn’t there to support the fees and charges of a payment gateway.
If however you have an online store selling t-shirts for example and you are selling in high volume then you would probably find that the fees paypal charges are higher and in the long run it is more cost effective for you in this case to set up a payment gateway.
But hang on, what is a payment gateway??? And what’s a merchant account??
When you go to your bank to let them know you are setting up an ecommerce website and you want to accept payments online they will set up what is called a merchant account for you. A merchant account is just a type of account that gives you the ability to take credit card payments from your customers.
Now you have the account and the customer you need the guy in the middle to connect it altogether and this is the payment gateway. At Neubreed we prefer eWay and so do our clients. This payment gateway is supported by 23 banks across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and can be used with all major credit cards.
At Neubreed we build our ecommerce stores complete with Rapid SSL Certificates thus ensuring your customer's banks account or credit card details are safe at all times. (this is the padlock symbol you see on ecommerce stores to let you know it’s a safe place to shop)
Follow us on facebook to make sure you get Chapter 2 ( Shipping – oh yeah, I forgot about that!) of our 3 part eCommerce series or connect with us today to chat about your eCommerce store!
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