What Payment Options are available?

Before you begin selling products online, there are a few things that you must consider before jumping into the marketplace. First and foremost, is establishing the method by which to accept payment from online customers. Soholaunch allows credit card and check/money order payment options.

There are two types of systems in place to take credit cards online from your customers: Online (Real-Time) processing and Offline processing.

Offline Credit Card Processing

In most cases, small business who are new to the Internet already have the ability to process credit cards from a retail outlet or office. If this is the case, it is recommended that you start your online venture using the offline processing method included with the Shopping Cart module.

Your web site will take credit card information from your customer, encrypt it, and store it in a database table for your retrieval. You will then be notified, via email, that you have a new order. At that time, you can login to soholaunch and view customer invoices and credit card information. This allows you to process the credit card manually through your local terminal. Offline processing is a far cheaper route when starting a new Internet venture. Please note that the general offline processing encryption utilized by Soholaunch is not classified as a defined bit type. Therefore it should be understood that the storage of credit card data is in no way represented as secure. You should also use some form of SSL certificate when using the offline method.

NOTE: You can also specify which “Name Brand” credit cards can be accepted by your shopping cart and processed through available methods.

Online Credit Card Processing

This method requires a bank merchant account and credit card gateway system. Most small business are equipped to process credit cards already, and can easily understand the merchant account process. The gateway simply acts like a local “terminal” used to “swipe” credit cards when purchases are made at retail stores. Both features necessitate additional start-up and monthly costs, based on the merchant account provider and gateway used. The Soholaunch system incorporates the Verisign™ gateway product. However, through the use of custom PHP includes, any gateway system can be incorporated.