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Payment gateways are applications that are used to facilitate payment. This method of payment is especially needed in doing online business. Usually, credit cards are used to pay for any products or services acquired from a certain online business. What happens is before payments are received, from the credit card, they first go through a merchant account with a bank. What connects a certain website to the bank is the payment gateway itself. Thus, it serves as the gate that makes it possible for money to be transport from one end to another, hence the term payment gateway.

What makes payment gateways very useful in online payment transactions is it enables swift processing of payment. One can receive his or her money while waiting for some minutes or even seconds. It saves both ends the agony of waiting when the payment would arrive and worrying if ever the payment is indeed going to reach the intended party.

There are three types of payment gateways. First is the kind of gateway that makes use of an API. API is Application Programming Interface. What this kind of gateway requires is a secure certificate in your server. Thus, it is quite expensive to maintain since secure certificates cost around a hundred books or more. However, on a brighter note, gateways using API can make the payment process much easier for customers. They are not directed to another site just to transfer their money. Also, it makes life much easier for online business owners since gateways using API need not a lot of support.

The next kind is what is called as the third-payment gateway. For the administration of the site, it requires simpler setup. What happens is that although the whole purchasing, choosing and buying of products happen in the online store, during the payment process, the customers are directed to a page where they do the actual payment. This kind of payment is usually frowned at by most newbie in online payments.

The last kind of payment gateway is the integrated payment gateway. It provides very simple means of payment which is also very compatible with budding online businesses. It does not require any merchant account from a bank. Although it is quite expensive, this kind of gateway does all the hard! A very popular example of this kind of gateway is PayPal.

A lot of people are thinking how shopping cart software solution is related with ecommerce. How do shopping carts affect the performance of online businesses? What can shopping cart solution contribute to online businesses? Before shopping cart software, doing business online was difficult. Majority of the reason lies on the fact that online business transactions between users and consumers were very limited and, not to mention, difficult. With shopping cart solution, it was able to provide much flexibility. How is this so?

Shopping carts provided consumers the capacity to download electronic products and be able to browse products with more efficiency. An example of this is not having to open a lot of windows just to be able to compare products according to their features and prices.

It also allowed merchants who directly or indirectly manage the admin of the online store to set up their online store and customize it according to their own needs and wants, complimentary to what the nature of their business needs. They could easily set up displays of their products which makes the whole shopping experience for their customers a breeze.

Payment had also been made much easier. Since shopping cart software allows merchants to provide customers with almost a limitless number of possibilities for payment, it has now become much accessible for more consumers. There were times before that consumers were discourage to purchase a certain product because, regardless of their need for that product, the mode of payment was not accessible for them, making the purchasing process much more difficult. However, now, they do not have to worry about what mode of payment is accepted in a certain online store.

Shopping cart software also made the way for making transaction more secure. Through password protect, both the merchant and the users are given the right to have all their information properly hidden from unwanted voyeurs. Also, a built-in firewall has also been made possible. Thus, making the online sites equally secure.

Accounting has become also a breeze for the merchants. They could easily monitor their sales through the periodical sales reports that the software provides.

Shopping cart software solution has more than these to offer. That is why, if you intend to set up your own online business, be sure to choose the shopping cart software solution that you use because it is very crucial to help you in making your transactions and your customers’ much, much easier.