You can ask people to send you a check, money order or to transfer money into your account. Or you can offer 'Cash on Delivery', 'Pick up and Pay' or any other payment method you can think of.

Usually you will either receive the payment details by email or log into an online account provided by service providers such as GlobeCharge to review orders and payment details — a far more secure option.

The more the merrier

In fact the more of the widely used payment methods you can offer, the better. Research has shown that you can increase sales simply by offering the most used payment methods, including 'Pick up and Pay', credit cards, 'bank transfers' and PayPal.

Of course in different countries the popularity of payment methods differ. Germans for example prefer bank transfers, and in the Netherlands the payment method IDeal has become big online.

When you select an eCommerce solution you should therefore make sure it supports as many payment methods as possible and allows you to combine them: such as ShopFactory.

Unfortunately most eCommerce solutions limit you to using a specific payment gateway or manual payment methods and do not allow combining the many different options.

Accepting credit cards

Accepting credit cards can be more complex, although it doesn’t have to be.

There are two issues to take into consideration: The potential requirement for a merchant account and the Payment Card Industry Standards for Data Security (PCI, CISP).

Both issues can easily be resolved.

Merchant account

If you want to accept credit cards directly you must have a special bank account which allows you to do this. This bank account is called a merchant account and is a prerequisite to accepting credit cards yourself.

If you run an existing business, you may already accept credit cards. Ask your bank, if this account may be used to do business over the Internet. If they don’t allow you to do this, just talk to another bank.

However if you can not get a merchant account, there are still ways to accept credit cards.

Many payment service providers will help you get merchant accounts through their relationships. So even if you have failed with your own bank, you may still be able to get a merchant account.

Some payment service providers such as PayPal (www.paypal.com) or Google Checkout (http://checkout.google.com/sell/) will allow you to accept credit cards even without a merchant account. The drawback is that any money you receive will initially end up in their account. Any access to your funds will be delayed and can even be stopped by them, potentially affecting your cashflow.

PCI CISP

Complying with the Payment Card Industry Standards for Data Security (PCI, CISP) is a requirement if you or your shopping cart software store, transmit or process credit card numbers.

Fortunately ShopFactory helps making it easy to comply with these regulations. We have written an article on PCI / CISP compliance to help you comply.

Summary

As you can see, accepting payments online does not have to be difficult, if you make the right choices. It can even help you against fraud.

As you receive any payments before sending out goods, you can verify any suspect orders and decide against sending out goods if you are not sure. This is much safer than in a normal store, where thieves can just walk out the door with your products.

See also:

• PCI/CISP - how does it affect you?
• The PCI security Standard
• VISA's PCI standard CISP