Sean P Jones asked:




Credit card payment is the most common way of online transaction, yet when it comes to understanding how credit card processing works most of us are quite confused.

When a retail store cashier swipes your credit card through credit card terminal, the following process takes place: credit card and payment details are sent electronically to merchant’s acquiring bank, which contacts credit card issuing bank; in case transaction is approved, funds are deposited on the merchants account.

Online credit card processing in ecommerce adheres to the same processing steps, except the physical credit card terminal that swipes your card in a retail store is substituted by payment gateway (Authorize.Net, 2checkout, CHASE Paymentech, etc.) – a service that processes online payments in a secure way.
The overall credit card processing scheme in an online store usually looks like the following:

A merchant needs to have a merchant account and a payment gateway account in order to set up credit cad processing in his store.

Let’s follow the steps from the time a customer types his credit card number in an online store to pay for his order till he receives a response whether the payment went through:

1. A customer places an order and types his credit card number on a secure site of an online store. Store administrator sees the shopping cart details, which include order and billing information.

2. Shopping cart details along with merchant account are sent to payment gateway secure server for processing.

3. Payment gateway forwards transaction information to merchant’s acquiring bank.

4. Merchant’s acquiring bank forwards transaction information to the credit card issuing bank for transaction verification.

5. Credit card issuing bank verifies transaction and sends response code (Approve, Deny, and reason for denial if applicable) back to merchant’s acquiring bank.

6. Merchant’s bank sends credit card transaction details and response back to payment gateway. If payment is approved, the bank will deposit funds on a merchant’s account at the scheduled time.

7. Payment gateway sends transaction details and response back to merchant’s online store.

8. Payment information is displayed to the customer; i.e. “credit card was charged”, “credit card was denied”, etc.

At certain processing stages fees will be charged from the transaction total. The amount of fees depends on a payment gateway used, merchant account, credit card type, and other factors; it usually adds up to be two to three percent of total charges.

Chester

Geraldine Oaks asked:




Today, the usual local retail and appliance stores are not just the places in the world to buy a TV set because in cyberspace one can actually buy TV online. No matter what the type of TV unit is, may it be the traditional TV, flat TV, HD TV, plasma TV or LCD TV, all of these units are surely available for buying online. Moreover, every unit coming from virtually any manufacturer in the world is being sold through the internet. Giant manufacturers like Toshiba, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, or Sony do not only rule over the TV market in the real world but also on the internet arena.

Although many claim that online purchases are mostly scams, there are still a handful of very satisfied customers bragging about the convenience brought about by online shopping. If you buy TV online, you get to see the customers rating of the product. These are the ones who had bought the product in the past before you. However, there are rumors spreading throughout the internet that these customer comments are not so reliable after all because the advertising domain has the capability to generate self-made comments that are predominantly positive. This is a marketing tactic that lures customers to their advantage. The good thing with online shopping is that there is practically more to choose from than any normal retail store can handle. You can view, select, examine and compare TV units in different aspects like price and customer satisfaction. The domains also list the number of stores selling the unit of your choice and give you vital information as to who sells the TV unit at the cheapest price possible and who sells that same product at the most expensive price. Truly, the internet market had become a very competitive place.

Edwin