Selecting a payment provider like Authorize.net is the first step in enabling your store, website, or mobile device to accept digital payments and deposit the funds automatically into your merchant account.
It’s important to have tools and solutions to help you manually submit transactions, protects your business and customers from fraud, gives secure online access to transaction records so you can track sales, and charges for customer support.
When creating a merchant account, consider how you’ll be accepting payments.
If you’re already selling products from a physical location, you probably have a Card Present (CP) merchant account. If you plan to sell online or through the phone, you’ll also need a Card Not Present (CNP) merchant account.
- Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), Payment Facilitators (PFs), and Acquirers are the organizations that provide merchant accounts.
- Details on various industry players, such as acquirers, ISOs, and PFs, are available through an internet search or checking out the accpeting payments by setting up a Visa Merchant Account page.
When evaluating payment providers, some things to look for:
PCI Compliance
Merchants that accept card payments are required to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), a set of comprehensive requirements to facilitate the adoption of consistent data security measures.
Check to see if the payment provider offers an information security and compliance management service, that can help you comply with PCI DSS. Because Authorize.net is part of the Visa family, you have the credibility and integrity of Visa's secure servers on your side.
Fraud prevention
Preventing fraud requires a balance of minimizing risk without turning away business. Check to see if the payment provider offers EMV chip payment terminals to prevent in-store fraud. Also, see if your payment provider can help you mitigate fraud by using anti-fraud tools like card verification values, address and zip verifications, and fraud scoring engines. Our Advanced Fraud Detection Suite can help mitigate the risk of fraud, and its included with your payment gateway account.
Options to accept payments in store
See what kind of alternatives the payment provider offers to accept card payments in-store. For example, a virtual POS or mobile POS is a card reading plug-in for either your computer or phone. With these pieces of hardware, you can easily swipe, dip, or tap customer’s cards or phones and accept payment. Authorize.net allows for Virtual and Mobile Point of Sale for quick and easy in-person sales.
Contactless cards allow consumers to pay in seconds. Check if the POS system accepts both EMV contact chip and EMV contactless cards. To do so, check that your payment provider offers these solutions, and ask about enabling “Quick Chip” to offer consumers an even faster payment experience.
PRO TIP: Check with your payment provider to confirm that your POS terminals are in compliance with the latest EMV specifications.
Card on file solution
If applicable for your business, card on file solutions can facilitate checkout and process recurring transactions as well as loyalty programs by securely storing your customers’ card information. Customer Information Manager allows customers to keep their card on file and protected on Visa's secure servers.
Digital invoicing
For certain industries, digital invoicing could improve the customer billing experience. Digital invoicing is a convenient way to send customers their bills through email—they simply click a link in the e-mail to pay you securely online, even from mobile devices. If interested, check with your payment provider if they offer this service. With Authorize.net, you can easily send a custom invoice that's optimized for mobile and desktop.
Ready to get started? Check out Authorize.net's features and see if our solutions are right for you!
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Excerpt from Digital Transformation of SMBs: The Future of Commerce, presented by Visa.