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本文介绍了在线支付机制，包括支付网关的作用及运作流程，并对比了商户支付服务和个人支付服务的区别，帮助创业者理解如何选择合适的在线支付方案。

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Monday, February 22, 2010

On-line Payment Mechanisms

Frequently online businesses want to be able to collect payments over the Internet. This is usually accomplished through some sort of Payment Gateway, which is is an e-commerce service that authorizes payments for e-businesses and online retailers.

It is the equivalent of a physical POS (Point-of-sale) terminal located in most retail outlets.
Payment gateways encrypt sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant.

Payment gateways encrypt information handled through SSL. This reduces the opportunity for fraud, and adds security to the transaction process. Gateways communicate with a variety of entities, including:

The customer
The merchant (through their website)
Credit Card companies (by verifying information)
Internet Merchant accounts that relay order information from the gateway to the merchant's bank account.

There are hundreds of online payment gateway providers that allow you to process commercial transactions over the Web without compromising credit card numbers or other confidential information, they can be grouped into two different groups:

Merchant Payment Services
Personal Payment Services

The advantage of using most payment gateways is that you are not responsible for storing your customer's credit card numbers.

Merchant Payment Services

Merchant Payment Gateways use specialized software on the merchant's server to provide for secure payments across the Internet.
There are numerous Merchant Payment Gateway providers:

VeriSign Payment Services
Authorize.net

For you to use most payments via many merchant payment services you must:

Get an Internet approved merchant account from an affiliated merchant bank.
- An Internet merchant account is configured to allow you to accept "card not present" transactions which are specifically designated as originating through the Internet.
Select (or create) code that will be installed on your server that allows you to take payments on your website.
- Buy Now Buttons that send payments directly to the Merchant Payment Service
- Select a pre built shopping cart that automatically connects your Web site to the payment gateway and to a database on your server, allowing you to accept payments immediately and write orders and other customer information to your database.
Register with with the merchant payment gateway provider: The online registration guides you through the process of setting up your web page to process payments.

How the Merchant Payment Gateway works:

Step 1: The merchant submits a credit card transaction to the Merchant Payment Gateway on behalf of a customer via secure Web site connection, retail store, MOTO center or wireless device (using the buy now buttons or shopping cart provided by the merchant payment service provider).
Step 2: The Merchant Payment Gateway receives the secure transaction information and passes it via a secure connection to the Merchant Bank's Processor.
Step 3: The Merchant Bank's Processor submits the transaction to the Credit Card Network (a system of financial entities that communicate to manage the processing, clearing, and settlement of credit card transactions).
Step 4: The Credit Card Network routes the transaction to the Customer's Credit Card Issuing Bank.
Step 5: The Customer's Credit Card Issuing Bank approves or declines the transaction based on the customer's available funds and passes the transaction results back to the Credit Card Network.
Step 6: The Credit Card Network relays the transaction results to the Merchant Bank's Processor.
Step 7: The Merchant Bank's Processor relays the transaction results to the Merchant Payment Gateway.
Step 8: The Merchant Payment Gateway stores the transaction results and sends them to the customer and/or the merchant. This step completes the authorization process – all in about three seconds or less!
Step 9: The Customer's Credit Card Issuing Bank sends the appropriate funds for the transaction to the Credit Card Network, which passes the funds to the Merchant's Bank. The bank then deposits the funds into the merchant's bank account. This step is known as the settlement process and typically the transaction funds are deposited into your primary bank account within two to four business days.

Advantages: merchant payment services is that it provides the merchant with a fully functional, externally managed payment processing system that allows:

Risk Management – Sensitive data is stored in the payment service data center, never on your computer.
Accept a Variety of Payments – Most merchant services will allow you to accept all major credit cards, eCheck.Net (electronic checks from bank accounts), gift cards, and signature debit cards.
Manage Your Transactions – Most merchant services provide a Merchant Interface which will allow you to to monitor and control payments through your Web site.
Prevent Fraud – Many tools can help to identify suspicious transactions using fraud tools.
Receive Payments Quickly – Your funds are automatically deposited into your merchant bank account within days.
Free Help – Most services provide live technical and account support to merchants, as well as access to online documentation and user guides
While you have access to all transaction-critical information, VeriSign protects credit card data with the highest level of security, so you never have to worry about compromising your customer's sensitive credit card data.

Disadvantages: Setting up a merchant account generally requires you to pay set-up fees, monthly fees and per transaction fees which may not be cost effective for new ventures with small volumes or for small purchases, such as "pay per play" on-line video games:

Setup Fee: $99.00
Monthly Gateway Fee: $20.00
Per-Transaction Fee: $0.10

Personal Payment Services

PayPal, Amazon Payments & Google Payments enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online.
Personal payment services cater to small businesses that do not want to set-up their own online payment mechanisms.
Personal payment services cater has a number of options that allows users to quickly set-up online payment mechanisms on their Web sites:

Request Money just enter the recipient's email address and the amount you are requesting. The recipient gets an email and instructions on how to pay you using PayPal at www.paypal.com.
Buy Now Buttons Buy Now Buttons or Pay now buttons are a low-cost way for you to accept credit card and bank account payments, and can be fully integrated with your website in a few easy steps.
Subscriptions allows you to set-up subscriptions for recurring payments from customers.

On PayPal:

When a buyer clicks the Buy Now button, he will be taken to a secure PayPal payment page, where he can log in to an existing PayPal account or sign up for a new one, and quickly complete the purchase.

If you dynamically generate portions of your site, you can populate your Buy Now buttons dynamically and save time by updating the variables with information from your database. To use the button above for a different item, you would only need to edit two variables: item_name, and amount.

PayPal Shopping Cart: When you use PayPal's free Shopping Cart on your website, your customers can purchase multiple items with a single payment, browse your entire selection, and view a consolidated list of all their items before purchasing. The PayPal Shopping Cart is a low-cost way for you to accept credit card and bank account payments, and can be fully integrated with your website in a few easy steps.

When a buyer clicks the "Add to Cart" button, a new window will appear listing the contents of the buyer's PayPal Shopping Cart, including the item just added. To make the purchase, the buyer clicks "Checkout" from this window.

Personal payment services charge fees based on the type of account you set-up and how much you sell. Currently the fees for PayPal, Amazon Payments and Google Checkout are the same and are paid per transaction:

	Premier/Business Account
Open an Account	Free
Send Money	Free
Withdraw Funds	Free for US bank accounts
Add Funds	Free
Receive Funds	2.2% + $0.30 USD to 2.9% + $0.30 USD
Multiple Currency Transactions	Exchange rate includes a 2.5% fee*

Advantages: The advantages of personal payment services is that they are lower cost for small payment volumes and they are very easy to set up.

Disadvantages: The customer completes the transaction on the payment service website - which can look less professional than having your own integrated payment mechanism.

Whatever payment service you choose, it is your responsibility as an Internet merchant to use a reputable payment service that will handle credit card information with care, minimizing the likelihood that information for your customers will be lost, stolen or misused in any way.

Labels: payments, website tips