How To Open An Online Merchant Account

An online merchant account is an account that is known
as a "Payment Gateway". It is not a very difficult
task to open an online merchant account.

A payment gateway is a software that your web
developer or engineer will have to incorporate into
your web site.

This is software that may or may not include a
shopping cart, a system that allows visitors to your
online merchant site to browse through your products
and add them to a virtual cart, much like a shopping
cart at a super mall.

The visitor will ultimately keep or remove items from
the cart and pay for the remaining items through the
payment gateway.

A payment gateway may or may not be linked to your
merchant bank account. This depends on the type of
online merchant solution you have chosen. You may have
had the software created especially for your site; in
this case the software will naturally accept all
credit cards and will be linked to the major credit
card processing companies such as VISA or MasterCard.

The software will also be linked to your merchant bank
account. Customers can use this software to pay for
services and products using credit cards, debit cards
and bank transfers.

When someone uses a card or online banking to make a
payment the user is connected to the bank that issues
the card and the money is transferred to the bank
within a matter of days. Nevertheless, you may go
ahead and complete the transaction by delivering the
product to the customer as the payment will definitely
come through.

Online merchant solutions are a way of taking your
business to your customers instead of waiting for them
to come to you. The online payment systems are an
added advantage as anyone will like to have
convenience at their fingertips.