Whats invloved in creating website for taking CC payments?

Im thinking of creating a website to sell a product from but have no idea whats involved in doing this and how to do this?

Basically i have a very marketable product which i plan to sell online and want to be able to accept secure payment via credit card.

Can anyone help me with this or point me in the right direction?

Any help very much appreciated.

the only problem with storring customers CC details on a server is if the security is breached and those CC detaisl and lost YOU are the one who is responsable - that is why I think you would be best of going with a 3rd party company to handle all your CC billing needs. They may charge a small % of each transaction but the peace of mind having someone else worry about making sue those details are safe IMHO is well worth it.

v_Ln

Never thought about that......maybe i will go 3rd party, thanks for the advice ;)

With any kind of business idea, it's good to have a solid business plan to work with. When it comes to accepting credit card payment and dealing with processing fees, knowing what kind of money you're going to have to work with is a big bonus before even worrying about how to go about setting these things up.

Basically, you're faced with two issues here:

Getting the orders from the customers
and
Processing the orders

For the first, security of course should be a major concern and data should be carried via SSL.

This is where choosing the next path comes into play. If you feel comfortable with your development skills to build something secure and accessible for your customers to take orders, this is where you'd do that.

Or you can go an easier route and use a shopping cart program to handle orders.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/...309051,00.html

Next is processing. If you handle the orders yourself, you have a few options.

You can download the orders and process them at home with your own credit card machine and a merchant account (usually through your bank) or set up and process orders through a third-party gateway which will handle verifying the credit card for you and getting the money where it needs to go.

An example of this is authorizenet:

http://www.authorizenet.com/

Also, some shopping cart programs integrate with some of the available gateways out there, and you may consider that an option as well.

You definitely want to do some shopping around here and find what fits into your budgeting, as it can get costly with per transaction fees, monthly fees, and set-up costs.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ard+processing

This comparison is a little old, and there are more recent ones out there, but you can get a good idea of how prices vary from option to option:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/biz...p?prodtype=biz

Overall you need to find what will best fit into your business plan and go from there.

Many thanks for your input GG, you seem to have a very good handle on this.

Ill definitely have a look into what you've suggested.

Thanks

X-Cart.

I do these for a living, and we use this product quite a lot. It is relatively inexpensive, quite full-featured and will talk to a very large number (~50) of different payment processors, from PayPal to proper merchant accounts.

Disclaimer: I do not work for x-cart, I'm just a happy customer.

If your product is a digital product or service, you should consider ClickBank.

They set me up with everything I needed (Acceptance of VISA, MasterCard, ECheck,...) for a one-time fee of $49.95.

How difficult is it to actually set up a payment gateway with say, Paypal? and do u need to code a script which validates a purchase to say that the person has payed for the product which then rights it to the customer details on the database?

PayPal does it all for you. Just copy and paste their script, and you're on your way. You can find all info and sign up here.

well buddy,

the 3rd party idea is very good and safe for you..I think u shld go for it and play safe

Miva Merchant is an affordable way to obtain a shopping cart that interacts with a number of payment gateways including, PayPal, LinkPoint, AuthorizeNet, Commerce 3.0, etc.

We offer hosting and a Miva Storefront for only $147 1st year.

Dave

Orlando WEB Development

We can set you up with a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway via E-Commerce Exchange. You'll find the Terms easy to understand, the Rates excellent and the Customer Service great.

Dave

Dang, are you promoting your business or what...