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Credit Card Processing

tjbeaulieutjbeaulieu subscriber Posts: 9
I`m still struggling to get through the startup process.  I would love to hear all of your suggestions and advice in setting up credit card processing on my website and for my local storefront.  Any particular vendor you might recommend?  I truly appreciate all of your responses. Thank you for your time and consideration.
 
Theresa B

Comments

  • foodietwoshoesfoodietwoshoes subscriber Posts: 3
    We are using Paypal direct,  and also a regular credit card merchant. Everything we read said that our percentage of sales would be much higher with a combination of the two.
    We chose not to use Google checkout, because the customer has to go to Google before they even hit our shopping cart, and we also cannot require or ask the customer to log in to our site. So we have no order traceability if the customer calls in with a question. Well we can, but it will be a long paper trail. It`s a shame, because they were very inexpensive.
    For our credit card merchant, we chose Authorize.net with Dharma Merchant Services as our reseller. Initially we chose a different vendor, but they were not forthcoming about their rates, so we canceled and went with Dharma. They have excellent rates and they are a small business, so we always get great customer service. They`ve been most helpful.
    If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
    Jennifer
  • foodietwoshoesfoodietwoshoes subscriber Posts: 3
    Hi Ruksana, I`m sorry I didn`t write you back, I must not have had email notification turned on. Dharma Merchant Services does have a service that you can sign up for to take credit card payments in person. However,  you need to buy the credit card processor (I bought a used one from them for $200) and pay a monthly fee. I`m not sure that would be to your advantage if you are only going to use it short term.
    I am not the reseller, but you can see who I use at www.dharmamerchantservices.com . They can answer any question for you, and go over rates. The monthly service is not high, so maybe it could be cost effective for you. If you have any more questions for me, you can also email me at info@ ifancyfood.com and I will answer all I can.
    Jennifer
  • MerchantProfMerchantProf subscriber Posts: 0
    @ Foodietwo shoes: You mean, you need to buy the credit card terminal, right?
    You can also use a virtual terminal like Virtual Merchant which runs on your PC and uses an inexpensive credit card stripe reader that hooks up to your PC`s USB port.
    Very elegant ecommerce shop, BTW. Makes me hungry just looking at it.
    @Ruksana
    But for festivals, art fairs, flea markets and farmers markets, what is really cool is that you can get a wireless credit card processing terminal.
    Your shop is cute. But you need to do some search engine optimization. Change the Titles of your pages so that they reflect the unique contents of each page. Also make sure your META description and keywords are about the products on the page. Put some keywords in the headings on each page, in links on each page and in the `alt` tag of the images on each page.
    Doing these things will help your search engine traffic a lot over the next few months.
  • foodietwoshoesfoodietwoshoes subscriber Posts: 3
    Yes, I did buy the terminal. I like the cc swiper you show, but I`m not using a PC based cash register, so that wouldn`t work for me.
    I do have a question about the wireless terminal - it runs on wi-fi, but if the festival I am at does not have wi-fi available, is there an alternate method for it to work? I haven`t done any festivals, but we might try some out next year.
  • MerchantProfMerchantProf subscriber Posts: 0
    It also connects via a cellular network. So unless you are in the middle of nowhere, you can process credit card payments.
    Here is a nifty little demo of how it works:
    Wireless Credit Card Processing with WAY
    MerchantProf10/18/2008 6:19 PM
  • foodietwoshoesfoodietwoshoes subscriber Posts: 3
    Nice! For future reference, how much does it cost? And is it required to keep year round, or is it something that can be activated for a few months a year?
  • MerchantProfMerchantProf subscriber Posts: 0
    Hi Foodietwoshoes,
    Sorry it took me so long to get back to your question.
    A merchant can have a seasonal merchant account if their business is only active for part of the year. The wireless service is $20 a month, and this fee is paused along with the merchant account at the end of the season. If you have an ongoing business at a retail location where you don`t want to stop processing for the season, you could use two merchant accounts and pause one in the off season.
    The VX610 shown on our site can be purchased new for less than a thousand dollars, perhaps as low as $900, though I have heard of them selling for $2100. Depends on who you get it from.
    Also, note that the demo I linked to shows a different product–a WAY systems product–Not the VX610. I hear that tech support is better for the VX610 product as it is offered through Elavon.
  • MerchantProfMerchantProf subscriber Posts: 0
    Hey! I notice that you have done some search engine optimizations on your site, too. Have you seen a traffic increase?
  • foodietwoshoesfoodietwoshoes subscriber Posts: 3
    Are you talking to me? I saw your advice above about the SEO, but I thought you were directing that to Ruksana. As far as I know, we have been doing the same thing since the start. We put in the keywords, etc as we enter the foods in the database. But I`m not the webteckie, that`s my partner! We`ve been online for 6 months, and I`d say for the limited amount of advertising that we`ve done, we`re doing well. I look forward to seeing how we`ve grown by this time next year. We have a lot of sticks in the fire!
  • MerchantProfMerchantProf subscriber Posts: 0
    Ha Ah! I let this thread go so long with out answering that I forgot who I was giving advice to.
    Yes, I think I must have been talking to Ruksana.
    keep those sticks smoking,
    Tim
  • John09John09 subscriber Posts: 0

    I'm a big credit card junkie. I know credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through credit cards.Debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money he or she has spent. I didn't tell this to my wife. What should I do?
    Credit Card Services
    I know there are many credit cards services available today but how to determine which one is the best?


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