Sometimes, the world of the Internet seems quite bewildering – there are all sorts of questions to be answered with even the most basic e-commerce website. For instance, you have hosting concerns, security questions and the need to purchase an SSL to make your site secure. You have questions about layout (ex: where is the product information going to be?) and questions about content and marketing and everything else that needs to be hashed out well before the launch.
You also have that troubling issue of payment. Any shopper wants verifiable, platform-backed transactions – they want security, and most of them want familiarity as well. So that leaves any type of business web project with a need for dedicated, concerted leadership and people who know what they want on a site.
There are also a lot of sizing issues – bigger e-commerce stores will need different solutions than smaller ones.
Two popular choices for modest e-commerce sites are PayPal and Square – both of these have that familiarity we talked about, and are also efficient, secure platforms from which to trade.
PayPal Options
With PayPal, companies setting up a site can choose from Payments Pro, Payments Standard or Express Checkout options. The first two options allow merchants to accept all major credit and debit cards, where Express Checkout limits payment to PayPal only.
All three platforms have customized payment options, but only Payments Pro allows the merchant to customize the checkout experience. As the most comprehensive option, Payments Pro comes with a monthly fee of $30.
Then there’s Square, a platform that merchants can integrate into a site, or use a card-swiping attachment to take payments on their device.
Online payment APIs help Square to support Apple Pay and Google Pay – this technology also provides key tracking for sales orders and inventory.
Then there’s the internal technology that makes Square effective – the Square checkout service uses a hosted workflow setup to facilitate online transactions – on the security side, it comes with SSL support, and it’s also user-friendly with a great interface.
These are just a couple of the most popular solutions for easy merchant transaction processing.
But the questions don’t end there. There are all sorts of customized additions and features that companies will need to make the most effective web platforms. WebSubstance knows how to consult on all of these issues and much more. We help our clients to create those customized web projects that will serve them best in a vibrant and competitive market. Let our pros sit down with you and help you chart a course for a finished web project that has the potential to take your business to the next level.
