Whether you are in a business or a non-profit, taking payments online can dramatically increase efficiency, sales, and security. When it comes to registering for events, most people prefer to register online. Taking payments online makes a lot of sense.

However, I sometimes get questions from organizations that are apprehensive about online payments because it's unfamiliar territory. Like most things, however, e-commerce is not as scary when you understand how it all works so I'd like to help dispel some of the mystery about e-commerce so that it's more easily understood.

Taking payments online requires a few things:

• Secure website and payment system
• Payment gateway
• Merchant account

Your website need to have a payment system in order to accept payments online. If you are selling products, this could be a shopping cart. If you are taking event registrations, it could be an online registration form. A payment gateway is an a service provider that authorizes payments for an organization (the "seller"). A payment gateway is the online equivalent of the card swipe machines that you see in stores when you are checking out. A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by debit or credit cards.

When someone makes a payment online (such as registering for an event or buying a product), the process from start to finish looks like this:

1. The customer enters credit card information and clicks the "Submit" button
2. The website encrypts the information and sends the credit card information to the payment gateway
3. The payment gateways checks to see if the credit card number is valid, does some fraud screening, and checks to see if the charge is approved (this takes a few seconds)
4. If the charge is approved, the payment gateway sends an approval notice back to the website so that a confirmation message can be displayed to the user
5. The website completes the purchase however it is designed to do so
6. The payment gateway captures the fund and makes a deposit into the seller's bank account (it takes a few days for the money to appear)
7. The seller ships the product, allows the customer into the event, or does whatever needs to be done to fulfill the purchase

All of this happens behind the scenes while the customer is waiting for the confirmation.

At SpinWeb, we provide the secure website and payment system for online product sales, registrations, and donations. However, the payment gateway is handled by a third-party provider. We prefer to use Authorize.Net, since this gateway is a proven provider with a good track record. We connect our clients with Derek Bogard from Immediate Payment Solutions, who does a great job of walking our clients through the paperwork. If a merchant account is needed, that can also be set up at this time.

The monthly fees from the gateway and merchant account are usually somewhere between $10 and $30 per month with a percentage fee of about 1% - 2.5% per transaction.

Once the paperwork is filled out, the Authorize.Net is activated and we plug it into the organization's website. At this point, the seller is now ready to accept payments online and the process should be automated from start to finish.

Whether it's selling products, taking donations, or allowing online event registration, online payments make your organization easier to do business with. This means happier customers and more revenue. What's the cost of not taking payments online?

Want to talk more about this? Don't hesitate to call us (ask for Michael or Adam)

Tags