Finance Agnes Lai on 29 Mar 2008
The advent of Paypal
If you have an online business, you will need to have a way to accept credit cards online; we take it for granted but a great deal relies on this now.Offering goods or services but only accepting checks or money orders won’t work; unhappy customers will not place an order with you again. There is no point spending time on a site that doesn’t offer a credit card payment facility; providing this service will see customers return.
These days visitors placing an order on a website don’t expect to have problems making a payment that would result in delays. Websites in the business of making money make sure that they accept credit cards online so ordering from them is simple and painless; these sites aim to please their customers by accepting payment at any time of the day. If you don’t take payments this way then you should enquire about having the option of online payments available as soon as you can.
It is possible and quite normal to use more than one method to accept credit cards online; which systems are used will ultimately be based on cost. Accepting credit cards online does pose some problems though, as some payment systems are quite expensive to set up and maintain.
Often the traditional systems of accepting card payments can be expensive and out of the reach of many small internet businesses; however, a good alternative is to use Paypal to accept your credit card payments. Paypal has become increasingly common in the last few years owing to the popularity of ebay. Ebay started the service to help people buy products from them.
People know the Paypal sign as it has gained great recognition in recent years; when you have your own account, payments are very quick and easy. The only way to keep customers is by supplying a safe online payment service for them to purchase your products or service; you need to ensure they trust you when they arrive at your site so they do not leave it, worried about purchasing from you.
This means that the transaction is encrypted so that their information is not broadcast around the Internet for those who may take those numbers for their own use. Knowledgeable customers will click away from a site that does not have the obligatory https:// at the start of the domain name as it means the site is not secure and information will not be encrypted. It is important to have this facility if you accept credit cards online. You will be on the right lines if you provide the customer with a website where the ordering is easy and they feel safe making a purchase. Building trust with the customer is what the internet is all about, especially when you are running a business.