Get The Perfect Electronic Payment Gateway Now!

The right choice of a fitting Electronic Payment Gateway is crucial for the success of your online business. Your informed decision WILL save you a lot of time and money in the future.

As you are shopping for a payment gateway system for your online business, you'll be confronted with four different types.

• Prepaid E-cash Accounts
  
• Service Bureaus
  
• Order Form Hosted on the Electronic Payment Gateway's site
• Order System and API Hosted on the Merchants Site

The first two of them are not technically electronic payment gateways, but since from a merchant's viewpoint they function in a similar way, we will touch upon them...

• If your company processes $1 million or more per year online...
• If you process at least $100,000 but are growing rapidly...
• If you are a well-funded startup with a substantial ecommerce concept...
• If you are a large offline company, moving to online sales...

... mainly the following two types of electronic payment gateways will apply to your business. Nevertheless, as we will see later, a payment gateway provider - complementing his service with the option of a Prepaid E-cash Account Service - could be of substantial additional value for your online business, whether big or small...

This type of electronic payment gateway is a simple secure order form, not hosted on the merchant's server but on the payment gateway provider's site. It takes the purchaser's credit card information and purchase price, and then passes it on to the processor via leased telephone lines (This process is accurately called credit card transaction processing, whereas the operation done by the card issuing bank and the credit card company is called credit card processing. Since both operations are performed in the process of real-time credit card verification - usually taking 3-5 seconds -, they can be summarized as Internet credit card processing, online credit card processing, web credit card processing and the like).

This kind of service is often less expensive than having the order form hosted on the merchant's website. However, since the credit card and address information is entered on the electronic payment gateway provider's site rather than on the merchant's site, it is more difficult to get that data into the merchant's customer database. The merchant may never know the customer's credit card number at all, making it more difficult to track chargebacks that often come with only a credit card account number to identify the purchaser.

The most professional and capable type of an electronic payment gateway is an order form hosted on the merchant's secure website that collects all the purchaser's information and then transfers the information needed by the credit card processor via a secure web connection to the electronic payment gateway provider, which passes it on to the credit card processor.

To make the merchant's website capable of transmitting credit card information securely between its host server and the server of the electronic payment gateway provider, two things are required:

• a secure server with SSL security, which encrypts the information in a way that is virtually hack and crack proof...
  
  
• an API (Application Programming Interface, made available by the electronic gateway provider).
  This is a computer program that is usually installed in the merchant's website cgi-bin directory for transmitting and receiving data securely.

These APIs are specific for the operating system that is hosting your website. While searching for a payment gateway, make sure that your hosting service operating system matches the APIs that are available for the electronic payment gateway. Complete ecommerce package solutions offer the advantage, that you don't have to worry about compatibility. All components are already proven to cooperate seamlessly. This can save you a considerable amount of time and frustration...

The great advantage of a merchant-hosted API is that it allows you to collect all your customer's information into your own database. This will be conducive for superior customer service and you will have superior control over your sales and customers data...

The bad news is that merchant-hosted APIs can be notoriously difficult to install on a server. Getting it installed and configured with your e-commerce program will probably require a programmer's help.

It is because of these aspects, that comprehensive all-inclusive-solutions are to be preferred. (Nevertheless you have to pay utmost attention to some important details. Please click here for more information...)

Most of the popular full-service electronic payment gateway providers provide both a simple form hosted on their own sites and hosting of the form on the merchant's site, depending upon a merchant's needs and budget.

Taking all this information into consideration, I especially recommend one specific leading electronic payment gateway provider.

SureFire Premium Processing is capable of offering a wide range of Internet payment solutions, precisely tailored to the needs of each and every Internet business...

Click here to find more information about SureFire Premium Processing...

SureFire Commerce provides e-commerce solutions for businesses large and small - solutions that are making e-commerce simpler than ever before. They stand apart from the competition in their commitment to delivering fully integrated, end-to-end proprietary products and services that simplify and accelerate the process of selling online. Their solutions are built on the core strengths of Internet credit card payment processing and merchant enabling. On track to process more than $1 billion in transactions this year, SureFire Commerce is a leading provider to businesses who need back-end electronic payment gateway solutions for their Web sites...

Look to this newly revised resource for an up-to-date, in-depth examination of how payments are made electronically across the Internet. The second edition covers the very latest developments in this quickly expanding area, including new security techniques such as the advanced encryption standard (AES) and multi-application smart cards.

Please read the following pages to get further information about the discussed topic...

How to Find The Perfect Ecommerce Solution for Your Online Business...
If you really want to succeed online, you require more than Internet Credit Card Processing or a Web Merchant Account. Of utmost importance is the seamless integration of these different components...

Increase your online sales by providing new and easy Internet payment methods...
Complete real time credit card processing with new Internet payment methods and you will not miss out on a single sale due to a customer's reluctance to share their credit card information online...