Choosing a merchant account, payment processor, or shopping cart can be a difficult and sometimes confusing task. It is necessary to know ahead of time what you want and don't want. But how do you know this if you don't know what to look for? Being clued-in to what is ideal for merchant accounts, payment processors, and shopping carts is the best way you can make informed decisions and that will keep you on track.

Merchant Accounts and Payment Processors

• Make sure the payment processor or gateway is compatible with your shopping cart.
• Make sure the payment processor or gateway has an Address Verification System (AVS).
• Be on the lookout for hidden fees. Inquire about all fees associated with your potential merchant account, payment processor, or shopping cart.
• Be careful when a company's offer seems relatively low. Don't be misled if a company says you will have low, fixed rate. Visa and MasterCard are constantly increasing their rates, thus merchant accounts and payment processors increase their rates.

Shopping Carts

• Know if there are any product limitations.
• Know if you have to know HTML or Perl Script Programming.
• Find out if it can be integrated into the look and feel of your website.
• Know if it is compatible with your gateway.
• Know whether or not it keeps track of all products when the customer is shopping or returns later.
• Know if it automatically calculates shipping, tax, and grand total.
• Find out if it has multiple payment options such as credit card, check, money order.
• Find out if it has a built-in search engine for product searches.
• Know if it is compatible with your database.
• Know if it handles volume discount pricing.
• Find out if it does multiple discounts based on the subtotal or total number of items ordered.
• Find out if it has a coupon-gift certificate feature.
• Know if it calculates sales tax for more than one state.
• Know if it can tag certain items as "non-taxable."
• Find out if it has different methods to calculate shipping charges. For example, by weight, flat-fee per item.
• Find out if it accepts multiple currencies.

With this list in hand, you can be sure to ask all the right questions and get the answers you need to make the right decision on selecting a merchant account, payment processor, or shopping cart. If, for any reason, a company does not respond to your questions within 24 hours, be very hesitant to choose that company. Answers should be readily available and you shouldn't have to wait.

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