Payment Processing Gateways

Here is a step by step of how payment processing gateway work and what their purpose is. A payment processing gateway works hand in hand with your merchant account to accept payment online. The payment processing gateway is the tool that takes money from the customer’s account and puts it into your merchant account. You will not be able to use a payment processing gateway in your online store until you have opened a merchant account. Most merchant account providers will also offer you compatible payment processing gateways.

So how exactly does a payment processing gateway work? Here is a brief explanation. When a customer is ready to check out they are taken to a payment processing page to enter their credit card information. The payment processing gateway then processes the transaction by sending the order to the bank for credit approval. The results are returned to the payment gateway. After the transaction is complete an email receipt is sent to both the customer and to you letting you know that a sale was made.

The payment processing gateway will take care of all of your customers for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so you don’t have to. By signing up for a merchant account and a payment gateway, most of the work will be done for you so you can concentrate on advertising and marketing your online business. Of course there will also be set up fees and monthly maintenance fees for your gateway just like there will be for your merchant account, so make sure you do your homework before committing to one.

Choosing a payment processing gateway will bring you one step closer to a fully automated online business.