This is a Guest Post by David Rodwell. David is a seasoned writer in business and economics, taking a particular interest in credit card processing. You can find more of his articles located at CreditCardProcessing.net.

Having an online store means you need to accept credit cards from your customers but new store owners may be confused about how to get an account set up or even how to choose a credit card processor in the first place.

If you are ready to take your store online, or looking to start an E-commerce business, here is what you need to know about setting up an account with a credit card processor for an online store:


Choose Between an All-In-One Processor and a Merchant Account 

You basically have two options for processing credit cards through an online store: an all-in-one processor or a merchant account. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, so weigh your decision carefully before making a selection.

All-in-one options: PayPal, Google Checkout and 2Checkout are examples of popular all-in-one options for credit card processing. With most of these options, you can set up your account immediately and without a fee. You only pay fees when you process a customer credit card (all-in-one payment processors take a percentage of each transaction). This type of credit card processing doesn't not require that you have your own merchant account with a bank, which means almost all business owners and online store owners qualify to set one up.

All-in-one payment processors are very easy to set up and include a secure interface so your customers can enter their payment data; meaning you do not need to worry about having a secure server certificate installed or hosted for your online store. When payments are processed, the money (less the fees) is deposited into your account, which can then be transferred to your bank account or withdrawn via debit card.

Merchant accounts: a bank account that allows you to process credit cards, merchant accounts offer lower per-transaction fees than most all-in-one processing options, but typically have expensive set up fees and monthly fees. You may also be required to reach a minimum amount of sales per month, or face higher fees for not meeting the minimum. Many new online store owners find an all-in-one option is a better deal, at least when first starting out, because they don't typically have a high volume of sales through their online store from the first day of business.

Customers must apply for a merchant account, and not everyone will be approved based on the credit history. You want to make sure you are applying for an Internet Merchant Account, since these are sometimes slightly different from traditional retail merchant accounts and may have a different fee structure. When using a bank merchant account, you will need to make sure your website shopping cart is compatible with the merchant account provider's payment gateway – if this sounds like a different language to you, make sure you ask your web developer if the merchant account is compatible with the shopping cart before making a decision for which merchant account to use!

If your merchant account does not provide a secure server certificate with your account, you will need to purchase and host one with your online store to ensure your customer's personal information and credit card details are transferred securely.

Open for Business!

As mentioned, for most new online store owners, an all-in-one payment processor is the best option at first. They are the easiest and least expensive to set up, and will integrate with just about any online shopping cart or online store software you may use to build your store. If your business grows and has a larger volume of transactions each month, you may then want to consider a merchant account to pay lower fees per credit card processed.