Retailers need to use the Internet for their business, or they’re liable to get left behind. Why, just in 2011, 12% of shoppers visited an online retailer using their mobile devices, and 6.7% of them made a purchase. This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s double the rate from 2010, which only shows that online shopping is growing exponentially. What’s more, back in 2007, electronic bill payments for consumers surpassed the use of paper checks for bill payments.
But how does one go about setting up an online platform to sell goods and services? Believe it or not, it’s not difficult. There are payment processing companies that handle merchant accounts online who can walk you through every step of the way, and get your business on its way to making even more money. These payment processing services handle the B2B financial supply chain, which includes ERP vendors, commercial banks, billing and collections solutions providers and business process outsourcing firms. However, these services will handle all of that for you.
Processing payments online uses a system that has three distinct levels. The top level, level three, has the most detail about transactions, which includes item description, item quantity, item discount identifier, ship from postal code, and more. The whole operation of settling transactions and processing payments online only takes a few seconds, the processor will forward the details to the respective card’s issuing bank or card association for verification, and carry out a series of anti-fraud measures.
Although one-third of e-commerce transactions in 2011 were generated by online flight and travel booking services, the amount of businesses that are processing payments online will grow. Processing payments online is a must have in today’s business world. If you have any questions about how services go about processing payments online, feel free to ask in the comments!