Merchant Accounts As an Ecommerce Solution to Getting Online Payment from Your Customers

A Home Business Article Contributed by Christopher Kyalo

Merchant Accounts As an Ecommerce Solution to Getting Online Payment from Your Customers

When looking for a complete ecommerce solution, one of the areas of great concern that any home business owner will have to deal with is how to accept payments from clients.

There are basically two ecommerce solution options to choose from. Firstly there is the option of setting up your own online merchant account to receive online payments. The other option is to receive your payments through a third party payment processor.

This article will specifically deal with the option of accepting payments by setting up your own online merchant account.

An Ecommerce Solution That Gives You Control

Most ecommerce entrepreneurs will be looking for a solution that gives them total independence and control. This is probably the only way of ensuring that one has control over the quality of service that will be delivered at the end of the day.

Although the initial set up costs are high, this is usually the preferred solution in ecommerce, because it give the business total control and freedom in its' delivery of service.

Ecommerce Merchant Account Solutions Require Many Different Functions

Apart from the merchant account, the ecommerce entrepreneur will require many different functions to complete his payment system solution. A store or site host will be required as well as a processor. A secure payment gateway will also be needed. Each will have it's own different provider and cost implications.

To simplify matters, some home business ecommerce web site owners have opted for turnkey solutions where a single provider offers everything in one package.

The business owner will have to make a decision on their personal preference depending on a number of factors including how comfortable or uncomfortable they are with the technologies and what access to technical and back up support they are able to get.

Too Many Different Fees Make This Ecommerce Solution Difficult for Small Business

By far the largest hindrance that forces many small home based businesses to abandon merchant accounts and opt for third party payment processors instead, is the fact that there are too many different costs involved in setting up this account. And to make matters worse, you will not get all the costs revealed in one source.

The result is that an option which looks cheap ends up springing so many nasty surprises along the way that it ends up being the most expensive of the lot. Similarly an alternative that mat look expensive at the beginning could end up being the lowest priced.

The challenge for many ecommerce entrepreneurs is being able to work through all the different services and costs involved to come up with the best solution. You can be sure that this is no mean task.

Advantages

There are a number of advantages that encourage business owners to work through the obstacles of setting up their own merchant account. The first is the flexibility merchant accounts give. Third party processors usually specialize in a certain area of business. For example Clickbank mainly helps clients sell digital products online. While CCNow will process payment for tangible products only.

But the biggest incentive to insist on merchant accounts is usually the fact that transaction fees are substantially lower than those of third party online payment processors.