In some cases, payment gateway may actually display variable name that has been used for a specific data field in response page (e.g. if you use “CustName” as variable, this may be what is displayed to user in response page, email, etc.). Wherever possible, try to use “customer-friendly” variable names rather than cryptic ones to avoid confusion on part of user.

4. Fail Safe Development

Put fail-safes in place to compensate for internet connectivity failures that might result in customer not getting a payment response from gateway. This involves working through logic of how a customer processes a transaction and receives notification of transaction to identify possible points of failure (e.g. what would happen if Internet connectivity failure occurred immediately after a customer posted a transaction to payment gateway but before response page was returned? How does customer know what status of transaction is?).

Fail-safes can take many forms. EasyPay123, for example, has a Get Transaction Status feature that allows application to query Skipjack based on unique order number to determine (a) whether transaction is in system, and (b) if it, what its status is (e.g. approved, declined, settled, etc.). Once status is known, application can be programmed to determine correct course of action to take automatically.

5. Third Party Linkages

In some instances, there may be a requirement to pass transaction data to a third party application, either at time data is posted to payment gateway, or using results returned from payment gateway after transaction is processed. There are a number of ways to do this, either by having gateway post to a specific location, or by extracting and formatting data for import into third party application.

Talk to your payment gateway provider to determine best method of integrating to application.

Step 4: Test

Testing can be accomplished during development stage by using payment gateway’s development environment (if one is available) and a test credit card. This allows developer and user to ensure that application functions in manner that it should. Development testing only provides assurance of functional parts of application, however. To ensure that funds are approved and settled properly, testing should also be performed with application on “live” platform before making it available for general use. We recommend following:

1. Using a live credit card, authorize a transaction in amount of $1.00 2. Ensure that transaction is successfully approved, and that: (a) The response page is displayed and contains all of necessary information (b) The email receipt is received and contains all of necessary information (if an email receipt is being used) 3. After 24-48 hours (depending upon merchant bank), check merchant bank account to determine if funds from authorization were successfully deposited. 4. Verify that merchant name appearing on live credit card statement used in Step 1 appears as expected (this is defined during merchant account application process, and is typically a derivative of “doing business as” name on application).

Step 5: Communicate

Chances are that you built your payment application because it helped you streamline your operations, reduce your costs, increase your sales, improve customer service, or all of above. If your customers/users are not aware that it exists, your success at achieving your objectives may be reduced. You will need to get word out that your application exists. This could include advertising or leveraging search engines in case of online retail, or a link to your payment interface in your emails and invoices in case of bill payment applications. Many methods of communication exist, including advertising, affiliate programs, “viral marketing” efforts, search engine submissions, and others. The Internet is an excellent resource to research these various options. We also have an article, “Gaining Visibility for Your Website”, that highlights a few of these different methods. You should also use your offline marketing efforts and collateral material to make customers aware of your application.

Don’t ignore your employees when sending out communications. They should be aware of value and implications of new payment application, since it may affect how they do their job or interact with customers. Sending an internal bulletin to them describing application, its value, and how it may impact them, will go a long way toward avoiding confusion once application launches.

Design and Development Tips

* Data validation and required field coding will dramatically reduce end-user generated errors and dissatisfaction by end user. * Design and test for all browser types. * Test, test, test to ensure that all elements of system are functioning properly. Mapping out data flows and developing an exhaustive test protocol to follow will ensure that most issues will be identified and tested prior to launch.

Summary

A complete discussion of how to integrate a payment gateway to an application is beyond scope of this document. There are, however, basic steps that should be followed regardless of nature of integration. If you are a developer looking to integrate a payment gateway, your gateway provider should provide you with documentation, scripts, software modules and support to make your task easier. If not, then you may wish to look at alternate gateway providers. If you are a merchant that is engaging a developer to do this work for you, you may find value in using points in this article to ensure that your developer is following a comprehensive approach that will result in an error-free, customer-centric solution.

About EasyPay123

EasyPay123 is a leading supplier of payment processing solutions to businesses across North America. Offering world-class solutions at affordable prices, EasyPay123 helps merchants simplify process of acquiring, launching and using payment applications to improve way they do business. Visit us at www.EasyPay123.com.

For a description of some of e-commerce terms used in this article, please visit our online glossary at www.EasyPay123.com.

If you found this article helpful, you may wish to request one or more of other articles in EasyPay123 series by visiting our website. Articles in this series include:

Understanding E-commerce Transactions How Transactions are Processed Getting Merchant Accounts How to Design and Build Payment Applications How to Choose a Payment Gateway How to Pick a Shopping Cart Preventing Online Fraud Gaining Visibility for Your Website Understanding Wireless Payments

© 2003 EasyPay123. All Rights Reserved. This article may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit written permission from EasyPay123.

4. What Fees are Associated With a Merchant Account?

The fees that you will pay for a merchant account vary depending upon many of factors discussed earlier, such as perceived level of risk, estimated dollar volume, aggressiveness of acquiring bank, etc. In general, however, following rates will apply:

Setup Fee: sometimes called an “application fee”, this one time fee varies widely, from $0 to $500 depending upon acquiring bank.

Discount Rate: discount rate is percentage of total sale that you pay to acquiring bank. These rates are determined using a number of factors, including average order dollar amount, estimated total monthly dollar volume, perceived business risk, etc. Discount rates range from approximately 2% to 4%. Small variations in discount rate can have a large impact on your total cost if you are processing significant dollar volume.

Transaction Fee: some acquiring banks levy a transaction fee in addition to discount rate. Of those that do levy a fee, they typically range from $.10-$.30 per transaction. Note that banks that waive transaction fee sometimes “build it in” to discount rate to make their fees appear more competitive. Comparing total cost of different providers will allow you to make informed decisions by comparing “apples to apples”.

Statement Fee: this fee covers cost of producing your monthly statement. Typical fees are $10 or under, although some banks will not charge a statement fee at all.

Monthly Minimum: some acquiring banks will charge you a minimum fee (e.g. $25) if your discount rate plus transaction fees do not exceed some minimum amount.

Chargeback Fee: if a customer successfully repudiates a charge from you, bank will charge you a “charge-back” fee. This rate varies from $10 to $25 for each chargeback. Note that too many charge-backs will likely result in loss of your merchant account status, so be sure to take advantage of available fraud control technology and apply sound business judgment in order to reduce incidences of charge-backs.

Reserve Funds: if acquiring bank perceives that your level of risk exceeds their standard guidelines but is not high enough to result in a rejected application, you may be required to set up a reserve account with bank. This typically consists of a percentage of your sales volume (e.g. 10% of your estimated first six month’s sales). This provides a fund that merchant account provider can access should you exit business.

Because of number of fees involved, we recommend that you prepare a spreadsheet to calculate total cost of various merchant account alternatives that you are exploring. This will help you make your final decision. EasyPay123 has a simple online fee calculator available on our website that helps simplify process of comparing different merchant account providers’ fees.

Merchant Account Tips

1. Determine what software you are going to use to process credit card payments before you get a merchant account. This will determine whether you will need a card present or card not present type of merchant account. 2. Be sure to shop around in order to get best value from your merchant account provider. Remember that price should only be one factor in your selection process. Service, reputation and policies should be evaluated as well. 3. Ensure that your merchant account provider connects to a processor that your payment gateway also connects to. 4. Minimize your charge-backs by employing latest fraud detection technology and exercising good business judgment before shipping products. 5. Be sure to calculate total costs when comparing merchant account providers. Often fees are “hidden” in discount rate to make it appear that, for example, transaction fees or setup fees are being waived. Understand various components that will determine your cost and take a few minutes to do necessary calculations. It could save you a lot of money down road. To speed up your comparison process, use EasyPay123’s merchant account fee calculation located on our site.

Summary

Obtaining a merchant account is a necessary step in providing your merchants convenience of paying by credit card. If you haven’t gone through process before, it can be somewhat confusing, since many players and fees are involved. Shop around, understand all of related fees and policies associated with merchant account, and ensure that you’re dealing with a reputable company. Your business deserves nothing less. If you have any questions about process, please call us at EasyPay123 toll-free at 866-438-8767.

About EasyPay123

EasyPay123 is a leading supplier of payment processing solutions to businesses across North America. Offering world-class solutions at affordable prices, EasyPay123 helps merchants simplify process of acquiring, launching and using payment applications to improve way they do business. Visit us at www.EasyPay123.com.

For a description of some of e-commerce terms used in this article, please visit our online glossary at www.EasyPay123.com.

If you found this article helpful, you may wish to request one or more of other articles in EasyPay123 series by visiting our website. Articles in this series include:

Understanding E-commerce Transactions How Transactions are Processed Getting Merchant Accounts How to Design and Build Payment Applications How to Choose a Payment Gateway How to Pick a Shopping Cart Preventing Online Fraud Gaining Visibility for Your Website Understanding Wireless Payments

© 2003 EasyPay123 All Rights Reserved. This article may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit written permission from EasyPay123.