Blog

eCommerce Guide, How Should I Accept Payments Online?

Phillip Kingston
21/03/2009

Businesses and not for profit organisations are often uncertain about the best method of accepting payments or donations online. I thought today that I'd outline some of the different options available, and the various costs, pros and cons of each.

If you're a small business then you have two main options - PayPal or a retail bank merchant account. PayPal has no setup fees, but charges higher percentage fees on transactions.

Retail banks, such as Commonwealth, NAB, ANZ and Westpac, all offer merchant facilities to approved businesses. There are reports that new or very small businesses have difficulty receiving approval, but I haven't experienced this.

To use a retail bank, you need three things: a merchant account with the bank, a secure payment gateway to transfer sensitive data from your website to the bank, and a security certificate (SSL certificate). There are usually no setup fees, but there is a monthly account fee of around $30.00 which may or may not include a secure payment gateway. Secure payment gateways are a necessary element in the equation which can cost $50+ per quarter. NetRegistry is a great gateway provider, but there are others such as SecurePay. An SSL certificate can be picked up for around $170 per year from just about anywhere.

You can avoid using a secure payment gateway, and buying an SSL certificate but your customers will have to check-out (enter their credit card details) on the bank's website, not yours. Some seller's dread the thought of this, others like to borrow the legitimacy of the bank's brand to their business.

PayPal has no approval process, and therefore is easier for start-up companies. It is not very customisable and is largely clinical. However, PayPal has some very generous customer protection policies and so it's likely your customers will be very comfortable using it. PayPal definitely out-does retail banks in terms of peace of mind to prospective online purchasers.

From Kingston Development's point of view, the price of integrating PayPal or a retail bank's merchant facilities into your website is the same, so don't worry about cost implications from our side.

If you're a not-for-profit then you have the same options described above although you may be able to negotiate your way out of a retail bank's fees - though it's likely these days are gone. I think St. George and Bendigo are nicer in this regard. Good luck.

Not-for-profits also have the great services of Ourcommunity.com.au available to them. There are a number of predatory "free" e-commerce providers to NFPs that charge huge percentage fees on donations. Do not use or support these. Use Ourcommunity.com.au which is a legitimate and great service. You can find out more here

We have cut a lot of the costs out of integrating e-commerce into our client's websites. Please talk to us about your options and to obtain a cost estimate.