Shopping Cart and Payment Gateways are inseparable!! If a business has decided to go online, selling products or services on the Internet, a shopping cart is required, as well as a way to accept payments.

Let me take the liberty of differentiating between a shopping cart and the associated payment gateways. Hopping cart is the back-end software that allows you to sell products online while payment gateway is a service without which a business cannot accept money for goods/services sold. Personal and financial data submitted in the eShop is transmitted to the payment gateway service, which then routes the information securely through the relevant financial networks. Upon confirmation in real time, your transaction appears to be complete. It is as if you have gone to a grocery store and at checkout, you are asked the mode of payment: cash, card or coupon. For your convenience, the store has partnered with different agencies to be able to accept money, and these are payment gateways.

In the world of search engines and social media, you can no longer control the message, but you can control your process. On the web, with the shopping cart options available, the choice of payment gateways is vast. A correct selection is required; otherwise, the business could end up losing money instead of making a profit!

A good amount of shopping cart software is capable of processing orders using most of the payment processing companies available on the Internet, such as:

• authorize.net
• QuickBooks Merchant Services
• bankofamerica.com
• paradata.com
• cybersource.com
• Pagoech.com
• ecs-world.com
• Pagoech: smwp.com
• Korta.es
• Paypal.com PRO
• Google Checkout
• linkpoint.com
• plugnpay.com
• innovativegateway.com
• NOVA viaklix.com
• safeinternet.com
• verisign.com
• Moneris.com
• worldpay.com

Rather than listing many factors that could affect the efficient running of your business, here are a few things to consider when deciding on your choice of shopping cart with payment gateways:

• Payment Gateway Transaction Fees – Do your homework to find the transaction cost per sale, which can typically affect your earnings.
• Ability to add “custom” payment options – While you may not feel the need to offer options other than some standard ones, however, if you are going to be selling internationally, your current one may not have a global presence. Or, in another case, you are looking to expand your customer base by penetration. Therefore, it is imperative that you check with your shopping cart provider (hosted/independent) about the ability to add a custom option easily, without excessive investment!
• Effect of multiple payment option: As a business owner, you need to understand whether offering multiple payment options is a smart choice or dilutes brand equity. Although you get better reach, it could eat away at your margins through the cost of processing. Also, depending on the industry and size of the company, the customer may like several payment options; however, if you’re a small business owner, managing multiple payment options can be difficult.