Commissioning a new eCommerce Website is a process that demands answer after answer to questions that before you begin you may not be prepared for. One of the most fundamental choices that you must make is in selecting the payment method for your site. As part of the process of creating a new website careful thought and research should be put into the best payment solution for your online store, certainly at Advansys we make sure that our clients are fully aware of the pros and cons of each choice.
Broadly these Payment options come in two types:
1. Credit Card Payment Gateway such as that found on many internet shopping sites like Amazon or Play.com.
2. Independent Payment Facility such as Paypal.
Either can be in-line or hosted, so either launched directly within the website or opened in a new window that is hosted by the payment provider.
There are many reasons to choose either method, most of which come down to your judgement on the assurance you believe each method gives to your customers. For many a hosted credit card payment seems to lack assurance as the customer is transported away from your site and then their credit card details are requested. An in-line gateway does give a sense of authority to a site and many go for the extra security that 3D secure can give to such gateways, however be careful with this as some customers are put off by the hosted nature of 3D secure and the extra steps it adds to the ordering process.
Paypal and its fellows have the advantage of global acceptance by customers but to use it as a sole gateway can make your site seem amateurish. Again customer assurance is important and ironically it seems that Paypal fans prefer their access to payments to be hosted by Paypal. This may be evidence of a feeling that typing a secure password into a third party site is a security risk.
Paypal in particular of these independent payment facilities has a great advantage for etailers as it opens your site up for simple international transactions and many resources needed by an ecommerce solution are provided within Paypal