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If you thought simply offering credit card processing was enough for your business, think again. In our digital age, internet credit card processing is an absolute must.

With the advent of smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, you can be on the web virtually anytime, anywhere – day or night. That means your customers can be, too. In order to truly reach them, you need to be just as web savvy as they are.

Put simply, you need to start offering internet credit card processing today.

The Basics of Internet Credit Card Processing

Internet credit card processing allows you to accept payments from your customers online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even when your brick-and-mortar store is closed and you’ve gone home for the night, you can still be making profits using internet credit card processing.

Customers simply visit your website to browse your products and services. Once they find something they’d like to purchase, they add it to their shopping cart, where it is totaled up and tax is calculated. From the shopping cart, customers can “check out,” and input their personal information, credit card details, and shipping preferences, effectively initiating the purchasing process.

Once the customer has completed their part in the shopping cart, their information is transmitted to a payment gateway, which works with the card’s issuing bank or financial institution to authorize the purchase. If the bank confirms there are enough funds in the account to cover the transaction, the payment gateway sends a response back to the website to allow the customer’s transaction to proceed. All of this happens behind the scenes in just a matter of minutes.

After a transaction is approved and processed, merchants will receive their funds shortly. The customer will get their products in the mail (or via whichever delivery method they selected) in just a few days.

Security of Internet Credit Card Processing

Many customers often worry about the safety of their personal and financial information when making purchases via the internet. Fortunately, most credit card processors, payment gateways, and web servers also share this same concern; that’s why they implement a variety of security measures to help prevent fraud, identity theft, hacking, and more.

Some of the security methods merchants may expect to see when offering internet credit card processing are:

• Geo location and address verification – These tactics compare the customer’s shipping address or current GPS location with the location listed with the credit card company. If the zip codes don’t match up, it indicates that the user could be using fraudulent means to make the purchase, and they are blocked from moving forward with the transaction.
• PCI compliance – Any company that processes, stores, or transmits credit card information must abide by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. These set forth rules and regulations for how personal and financial details can be stored and transferred, so as to keep them safe from unauthorized access.
• Secure Socket Layers – SSLs are a type of web layer that help to encrypt and encode sensitive information. When a customer’s personal details or credit card information is sent to the payment gateway, an SSL will protect it from being vulnerable to unauthorized access or hacking.

There are numerous other ways internet credit card processing companies protect customer information, as well. Some employ IP blacklists, keeping track of past suspicious activity and banning users from websites on the servers. Others implement velocity limitations, putting a cap on the number of transactions that can be processed from one credit card in a set amount of time. All of these can help prevent customers from becoming victims of fraud or identity theft.

Choosing Internet Credit Card Processing Companies

There are a wide variety of internet credit card processing companies available. The services, rates, and options they all offer differ greatly and, in order to choose the right one for your company, you have to be diligent in considering all the involved factors before signing a contract.

Some factors you should consider are:

• Rates – What are their rates? Are they charged on a per-transaction basis, or do they depend on the type of card processed? Are these rates subject to change any time within your contract period?
• Support – What is their customer support system like? Do they offer phone, email, and chat support? Are they available 24-7 to answer your questions?
• Integration Help – Do they simply hand the shopping cart and payment gateway off to you, or do they help you integrate it seamlessly into your website? Do they offer support for your on-staff developers?
• Security – What security measures do they take? Do they work to prevent fraud, identity theft, and unauthorized access of your customers’ information?
• Customer Reviews – What have past customers said about their services? Were they satisfied? Would they use them again?

How Internet Credit Card Processing Improves Your Business

Opting to offer internet credit card processing can greatly improve your business and bottom line. Most importantly, it affords you a new sales venue. While a customer is purchasing a product at your in-store location, hundreds of others could be making a purchase on your website simultaneously. Additionally, instead of simply offering your products and services in-store, on a 9-to-5 basis, internet credit card processing allows you to make sales any time of day, from anywhere in the world. You’re no longer limited to typical business hours, or when your staff members’ schedules will allow. You’re free to accept customer purchases when your customers want to buy from you.

Internet credit card processing also helps improve customer convenience and satisfaction. Instead of having to drive to your store, physically peruse your items, and then wait in a long cash register queue, customers can simply browse online at their leisure, making the purchase when it’s easiest or most convenient for them. This makes them much more amenable to buying and, in the end, leads to a happier, more satisfied customer in the long haul.

Get More Information

Want more information on internet credit card processing? Check out these helpful links:

• How to Accept Credit Cards on Your Website
• Understanding Internet Credit Card Processing

The Best Credit Card Processing Services