How to Accept Credit Card Payments Online

Launching an eCommerce website brings the challenge of selecting the right tools and services to ensure a smooth operation, particularly when it comes to processing payments. In the Americas, where credit cards dominate as the preferred payment method, providing a seamless payment experience is not just a convenience, it's a necessity. As trends shift towards digital payments, integrating a robust and flexible hosting solution that supports various payment gateways becomes paramount.

This article will delve into the benefits of accepting credit card payments online and offer practical tips on how to implement these options effectively.

How to Accept Credit Card Payments Online

Accepting credit card payments online can benefit you for several reasons:

• Speeds up your business receiving money

• Builds trust with customers

• More ways for customers to pay

Speeds up your business receiving money

For years, aside from cash, you could pay using a check. Depending on the bank, your business could receive the cashed check in your account anywhere from 1-5 days. This is too long, especially if you’re a small business needing the money now. With credit cards, you are paid right away and the money is in your business account, ready for you to use.

Builds trust with customers

Credit cards that use American Express are trusted and customers have a higher satisfaction rating. However, credit cards that have the VISA, Mastercard, or Discover are also used by a lot of people. When you accept those types of credit cards for payment, you’re building trust with your customers.

Most credit card programs have a buyer and seller policy. The credit card acts like a contract that if the item is what they expected, then you have no worries of the buyer asking for a refund, or going over your head to ask the credit card company for a chargeback.

More ways for customers to pay

When you accept credit card payments online, you’re opening up to receiving more options to be paid with. There are many different companies that issue credit cards. Banks often have their own type of credit or debit cards that have the VISA or Mastercard logo on them.

Website eCommerce solutions that integrate credit card payment options

In order to accept credit card payments online, you need some type of eCommerce solution that has a payment gateway. The payment gateway is where your customer’s order is processed. While there are a lot of third party ecommerce solutions like BigCommerce, Shopify, and even Wix, there are hosted solutions that give you more freedom, and more access to different payment gateways.

Below are some solutions that even Verpex web hosting offers in their cPanel script auto-installer, that can help you with your online shop, as well as help you accept credit card payments online.

• WordPress and WooCommerce

• Magento

• OpenCart

WordPress and WooCommerce

WordPress and its eCommerce plugin extension WooCommerce are one of the leading content management and online shopping tool solutions. It’s so popular that WordPress powers over 43% of websites that are online, as of 2022. WooCommerce is installed on about 20% of WordPress websites.

When using WooCommerce with WordPress, you’re getting a SEO-friendly experience, while having access to so many different and free solutions to run your online shop, like running a membership site, or selling digital downloads or products you can ship. WooCommerce offers you dozens of different payment gateways that can accept credit card payments online.

Magento

Magento is a CMS owned by Adobe, that is focused on the ecommerce end and used by 0.6% of websites online. With Magento, aside from being able to manage products, you can do a lot of things including accepting credit card payments. Magento is known to be a super SEO-friendly ecommerce platform, and has tools to help in that area.

As a note, Verpex offers managed Magento hosting.

OpenCart

OpenCart is totally Open Source that allows you to accept credit card payments online, so you don’t need to pay unless you need any special paid extensions. This shop cart script is used by .5% of websites online. For smooth performance, consider our OpenCart hosting solutions.

5 Major Tips to Consider When Accepting Credit Card Payments Online

• PCI compliance

• Website security

• Shipping methods

• Payment processor

• Refund and return policies

PCI Compliance

Depending on your bank, they may ask that your business be PCI compliant when you accept credit card payments online. PCI Compliance is short for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which is all about making sure that you keep your customer’s payment information secure. From the PCI Security Standards council website, you can learn what you need in order to be compliant. Some of the rules for PCI compliance include making sure your web host can comply with their standards.

Website Security

A lot of PCI compliances deal with website security. However, your web host can only offer so much. You will need an SSL certificate properly installed, and even put in anti-malware solutions to scan and keep your site secure. Keeping your site secure means that your customer’s experience will not result in their sensitive data stolen.

Shipping Methods

Choose an eCommerce solution that not only can help tabulate your shipping costs, but also that works well with the payment gateway that you’re using to accept credit card payments online. There are so many solutions out there for specific payment processors or banks, so you should be able to find one that works well for you.

Payment Processor

Make sure to choose a payment processor that will integrate with your banking solution. PayPal, Stripe, Square, Authorize.net are pretty popular. WooCommerce even has payment gateways for Cash App and Venmo, which are fairly new, and also accept credit cards.

Refund and Return Policies

Always have a refund policy, and return policy. With digital items, like specific software you may not have a return policy, especially if you don’t have a licensing program in place to help control who can download and use your programs, music, or other digital media. It’s important to state these so customers know how to get support when things happen unexpectedly during the item’s use, or how to get a refund or return the product.

If you don’t have a refund or return policy in place, you might see more credit card chargebacks, which can have a negative effect on your merchant account.

Conclusion

Now that you know a bit about how to accept credit card payments online, you should be looking for an eCommerce solution and payment gateways to help you launch your own store.

A robust hosting environment is critical for ensuring that these payment gateways operate smoothly and efficiently. Consider exploring hosting options that are optimized for eCommerce, such as those offered at Verpex, which can provide the reliability and scalability necessary for your online store’s success. Try out some of the solutions listed in this article, and see what you like the best. Good luck selling your products!

Frequently Asked Questions