Do you have an online business? Or, do you have a brick and mortar business that is trying to establish an online presence? If so, you will need to know more about accepting online credit card payments on behalf of your business. After all, you will likely have a very difficult time getting your customers to make purchases if you do not accept credit cards as a form of payment.
Establishing a Presence Online
In order to become a successful online business, you need to take some very specific steps. Obviously, you will need to put some work into drawing traffic to your website. Once you have accomplished this, your next goal is to get your customers to make purchases. If you do not have a simple and safe method for making payments, however, your potential clients will simply go somewhere else with their business. Therefore, it is important to offer as many payment options as possible.
Keeping Your Customers Safe
Of course, it doesn’t matter how many payment options you offer to your customers if they do not feel safe making payments on your site. Therefore, it is important that you provide your customers with a safe and secure environment in which they can make their purchases. This involves providing a secure website that is hacker safe. Otherwise, smart shoppers will stay away from your site and won’t make any purchases.
In addition to providing a secure website, you can also help keep your customers safe by putting a few safety measures in place. For example, your customers will need to enter their security code when making an online purchase. This code, which is referred to as the verification code, is located on the back of the card. This information is used to verify the authenticity of the credit card by making sure the person making the charges is physically in possession of the credit card.
Setting Your Prices
In order to accept online credit card payments, you will have to pay fees that are called interchange fees. Interchange fees are fees that you have to pay for every transaction that your customers make. Therefore, you need to consider these fees when setting the prices for your products or services. Obviously, you need your business to remain competitive as well. Therefore, you need to set prices that are competitive while still helping you earn a profit.
Going Beyond Paypal
Some business owners try to bypass credit cards by only accepting Paypal payments from their customers. While it is certainly a good idea to offer Paypal as another one of your payment options, you should not rely on Paypal as the only method for accepting payments online. First of all, not all of your customers will have a Paypal account. In addition, even if they do have a Paypal account, they have to actually have the money in their accounts in order to make a purchase. With a credit card, your potential customers can make purchases through their line of credit, which means they will be more inclined to make purchases.