Accepting credit cards on your website can help increase your sales and spur your company’s growth. Whether you feature one item or a wide selection of goods for sale, accepting credit cards can be the key to your online success. This website will instruct you on how to accept credit cards on your website.

Accepting credit cards is a standard practice in most businesses. This is true for normal storefront retail businesses and is especially true for online businesses. Websites that do not accept credit card transactions on their website my have limited sales as customers question the legitimacy of the website.

Apply for a merchant account through a bank or third party provider. If you are just starting your online enterprise, or have limited credit, consider using a third party merchant like ClickBank, PayPal, 2Checkout or CCbill to process your credit card payments. If you anticipated strong sales and have good business or personal credit, a direct merchant account approach will give you greater flexibility and freedom.

Install or initiate shopping cart software for your website. Many website hosting providers and merchant banks offer free or low cost shopping cart solutions. This software is essential to managing and keeping track of your sales, shipping and order processing. Popular shopping cart software includes Shopsite, Miva Merchant, 1shoppingcart and Mercantec.

Configure your website’s payment gateway. A payment gateway connects your shopping cart software to your merchant bank or third party processing provider. The payment gateway provides secure transactions through encryption processes and helps prevent fraudulent transactions through a credit or debit card verification process. Most third party processors and merchant banks have preferred payment gateway providers that are easily integrated into your website and their credit card processing system.