Nowadays, with constantly increasing number of online transactions and better consumer awareness (which is great!), it is important things are under control.
The cardholders are entitled to invoke a chargeback procedure. This may be carried out in the event their merchant does not perform a contract for the items they have paid for or when their card has been used for a non-authorized payment. While this option is extremely convenient and safe for the cardholders, it is less fun for the merchants to deal with such a request.
Agreed, it is the issuer bank’s duty to take this up, on the other hand, it will be the merchant who will be charged for each procedure. Unless they have strong arguments that the chargeback shouldn’t have been initiated in the first place.
So you have decided to start your own online store. Excellent choice. But do you know what type of e-commerce platform to pick? From open source (OS) to dedicated platforms to Software as a Service (SaaS), there is indeed a variety of options to choose from. What is the best solution in your case?
Let’s go through the mentioned options with their pros and cons.
If you run an international e-business and sell goods globally, you do your best to make the purchasing process as simple and as fast as possible. When your online business is developing and the number of customers, transactions and revenues is increasing, there is nothing worse than payment limits that can stop you. But sometimes the bank can reject transactions (because of business or customer location, payments method, currencies, etc.). If a consumer lives in the UK and suddenly shops in Japan, the bank can treat it as a fraud transaction, because, for example, such card activity may not correspond with their purchasing history. It’s all in order to ensure the money’s safety. Banks sometimes reject payments when they suspect a card might have been stolen. But it’s a big problem for e-businesses. When a transaction is rejected, you lose money and customers.
How to avoid such problems?
The best way is to create more than one merchant account and integrate them in one clever payment system. And that’s what we prepared: Automatic Payment Optimizer. It is a mechanism that groups all merchant accounts of a given online business and sends money to the right one. If a bank rejects a transaction, APO attempts to send the funds to other bank accounts until it succeeds and receives a positive response. All this happens automatically and takes just a few seconds.
To try Automatic Payment Optimizer contact PayLane info@paylane.com
As you might already know, we have recently released a new API here at PayLane. The reason we’ve done that we wanted our API to be accessible in any way possible – no matter which programming language or platform you would use to integrate with us. How have we achieved that?
We started to be more RESTful :)
What is REST?
In plain English, REST is an API design standard and technology that standardizes how API should be made and how it should work. But what is more important – the basic principles of REST say that your interfaces should not be tied/connected to any specific technology or language. Also, you really should focus on keeping your API as simple as possible in terms of its usage – you are giving access to your application to your future customers – do not let them down! RESTful APIs take a good use of what’s already there – the HTTP protocol. If we want to be more specific, they use basic Internet protocols to communicate with the outside world – and that’s pretty much all you need to know about it.
PayLane presents a new version of the Developer Zone – a place for developers and entrepreneurs. There, you’ll find how to easily implement payments on your website and which payment services are worth trying out. It’s more than just a documentation – we show how to implement specific actions, so you just have to choose the desired example.
You can also download e-commerce plugins, learn how to make your payment methods suit your business model or try out a request demo.
Don’t feel like reading?
No problem, here’s a PayLane Developer Zone Guide:
We often encourage to implement payments using API. This way the whole payment process takes place on your website and is fully customizable, while PayLane stays completely invisible to your customers.
If you’re just beginning your adventure with REST, get our free whitepaper. Read about REST and RESTful APIs, learn why this is the right way to go.
Today (May 21, 2013) Google has announced that they are closing Google Checkout (it will be retired on November 20th, 2013). It came as quite a shock for many merchants, who used to use this payment option. Before I start to comment on that move let’s talk about the history of this product.
We are now well into 2013 and the “top 10” lists of design trends for this year stop being just wishful thinking. Imagine you want to re-design (or simply design for the first time) your web site. It’s good to check the current trends and stay up to date – at least with those hip elements you find applicable. The same goes for online shops. If you have one of those. You may find yourself browsing through the design trends and wondering: “do I REALLY need that?”
The question you should be asking yourself is: “does this really make my website / e-shop better?”
Let’s take a quick look at some of the most visible trends for today (we have April 2013) and see how they can be applied to an online shop. The opinions below are completely subjective.
It is a good slogan not only for social activity but also for running online business. If you’d like your brand to spread around the world think how it works in particular markets. Popularity in many regions can finally bring you closer to global success.
Some products can be universal for every user. Think about computer accessories, music streaming services or electronics. But many businesses have to target their solutions to particular markets. For example e-book stores need to offer books in a local language, written by local authors. File sharing services have to abide by the local law, clothes stores adapt to the local climate etc. This means they understand and meet their clients’ needs. If you know what your users want you are all set. You just need to use this knowledge wisely.
When you decide to run a global business it is only natural to create your product and promotion in English. It’s the most universal language, especially on the e-business markets. But it’s almost certain that your product develops and gains popularity in specific domestic markets. This would be the moment you start considering whether to translate your service, promotional materials and even to provide customer support in the local language.
To be (multilingual) or not to be?
Providing business (even online business) in the language of every possible customer can be difficult, extremely costly and absorb human resources. And, if your solution is sold all over the world, it might be even impossible. But if you launch your product in particular markets, prepare promotion actions or start partnerships with local companies, institutions or suppliers, you’ll need to be ready for an increased number of queries, clients and partners from that region. And that’s what you expect. But it might happen that your clients want to talk and write to you in their mother tongue.
Choosing specific payment methods is one thing that’s crucial when you implement payments on your website. You decide to include your customers’ favorites, naturally, and those you can afford. In the end the whole business has to be profitable. Still, entangled in all these musings, it is quite easy to forget about another factor: the currency.
If your main market is located only in the USA, or in Great Britain, or in western countries of European Union, you may not be aware that money comes in different currencies. You’ll be fine using just dollars, euros or pounds. Probably you won’t have to bother with anything else. But if you’d like to go absolutely global or aim for countries that have their specific currencies, some basic analysis is not only recommended, but will simply save you a lot of money.
As you might already know, we have recently released a new API here at PayLane. The reason we’ve done that we wanted our API to be accessible in any way possible – no matter which programming language or platform you would use to integrate with us. How have we achieved that?
What has happened today?
We are now well into 2013 and the “top 10” lists of design trends for this year stop being just wishful thinking. Imagine you want to re-design (or simply design for the first time) your web site. It’s good to check the current trends and stay up to date – at least with those hip elements you find applicable. The same goes for online shops. If you have one of those. You may find yourself browsing through the design trends and wondering: “do I REALLY need that?”
It is a good slogan not only for social activity but also for running online business. If you’d like your brand to spread around the world think how it works in particular markets. Popularity in many regions can finally bring you closer to global success.
When you decide to run a global business it is only natural to create your product and promotion in English. It’s the most universal language, especially on the e-business markets. But it’s almost certain that your product develops and gains popularity in specific domestic markets. This would be the moment you start considering whether to translate your service, promotional materials and even to provide customer support in the local language.
Choosing specific payment methods is one thing that’s crucial when you implement payments on your website. You decide to include your customers’ favorites, naturally, and those you can afford. In the end the whole business has to be profitable. Still, entangled in all these musings, it is quite easy to forget about another factor: the currency.