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"Are You Losing Up To 40% Of Your Sales?" Copyright © 2000 By Gauher Chaudhry, All Rights Reserved. In order to successfully sell products or services on the Internet, you need to have a payment system in place that will allow you to accept credit card orders from your customers. People want instant gratification and don't want to be bothered with having to write and then mail a check. That is why over 80% of online transactions involve a credit card. Statistics also indicate that online businesses that do not offer credit cards as a payment method are losing up to 40% in potential sales. In the past, being able to accept credit card orders meant that you would have to go to your bank and open a merchant account. Having a merchant account would enable you to accept credit card orders from customers. But opening up a merchant account sometimes requires special software and leased equipment that can cost you hundreds of dollars a month, not to mention the monthly processing charges and 3-4% commission fee that VISA or MasterCard will take. This can get mighty expensive for the small business owner. A few years ago, online retailers came onto the scene that offer to do all your credit card processing under their retail name for a percentage of the sales For example, if you sell an ebook for $50, they might require an 8% commission fee to process your customer's credit card, which means that they would deduct $4 as their fee. With an online retailer, you do not have to worry about purchasing fancy software or entering credit card orders yourself. The online retailer will take care of all the daily administration and notify you by email when an order has been placed. The major difference between having merchant account or using an online retailer is that if you use an online retailer, it is the customer that has to enter their credit card information. This means you will not be able to accept orders over the phone or by email. Your customer has to be the one that enters their credit card information. Most online retailers are very user friendly, as they allow you to enter your products for sale with the price directly on their web site via online forms. Other online retailers go even a step further by offering additional services free of charge such as sales reports and an affiliate program. Some online retailers can have you accepting credit cards in as little as twenty minutes. Here is a list of a few online retailers: PaySystems
CCNow.com
2checkout.com
Clickbank
Here is a list of a few merchant account providers: Total Merchant Services
Merchant Express
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