First, you need to understand that there are a lot of different ways to sell on-line. Some people sell on Ebay. Others put up pages of products but require shoppers to call in orders. One very popular option is to set up an on-line catalog of products and a shopping cart to calculate totals and process orders. Invisible Gold has a shopping cart built-in that handles shipping, tax, discounts, and automatic processing of credit card orders. Note that many businesses choose to process orders by hand, and only later when they are comfortable (and busy) transition to having the site charge credit cards automatically. It's also important to understand that security on a shopping cart site needs to be tighter. Invisible Gold automatically encrypts all of the data stored on the server - but you also need to encrypt the communications between the website and your customer. You can do this by signing up for an SSL or Secure Certificate. This is what prevents hackers from stealing your clients' credit card information. It also turns on the little padlock symbol on a website. Don't worry. The process process is simple and we'll help you through it. Finally you need to choose between different payment options: paypal, checks, VISA, MasterCard, etc. |
PayPal For more information visit the PayPal website. |
ProPay It is basically just a virtual card reader. You login to the ProPay website and process orders by typing them in by hand. There are limitations to how much each item can cost, and how much per month. On the other hand, it is relatively inexpensive when you are starting out, and you can easily transition to a more automated system at any point. For more information visit the ProPay website. |
Authorize.net Processing This option does come with a cost of roughly $30/mo. plus relatively small percentage charges (and $150 to signup). If you are processing more than a handfull of orders a month, the time savings should be worth it. It also simplifies maintenance of your website because any orders that come in simply need to be fulfilled - you no longer need to deal with the occasional customer that doesn't have sufficient funds in their account. |
Purchase Orders There's actually one more type of payment option. Some businesses generate purchase orders. You can setup your cart to accept these numbers - but keep in mind that you don't actually restrict whether orders can be placed - this requires a degree of human control. |
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