Who says that commerce (or e-commerce) is boring? With the ability to use celebrities, quirky images, and catchy slogans – anything is possible. This blog post is dedicated to those who do it best: American Express, VISA, and MasterCard. We will also briefly discuss what each of those cards can bring into a business setting.
If you’ve ever looked into accepting online credit card payments (and chances are that you have, the “Pay” in “PayLane” isn’t there just for funzies), you probably fear chargebacks more than a one-on-one meeting with your mother in law. That’s what friendly fraud is – a monster in the closet that you never knew about. For merchants, processing card not present transactions (so basically, all online credit card payments) the risk of receiving chargebacks is daunting, and rightly so, since it can be quite costly. But there is only so much that you as a merchant can do to protected yourself against them – sure, you probably have the friendliest customer support team in the whole wide world and a well worded terms of service agreement, but is that enough?
Well, it is.. sometimes. The biggest risk for any online retailer is selling non tangible goods, which are becoming more and more popular with every minute. Internet stores are basically flooded with all things digital, whether it’s a subscription to a magazine or that awesome new MP3 that’s stuck in the back of your head. These purchases that we often make with the click of only a few buttons (heck, with all these one click purchases, who isn’t tempted?) are perhaps the root of the problem.
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 :)
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:
Also – get a free whitepaper on REST!
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.
You can download the free whitepaper here: RESTful API Whitepaper.
What has happened today?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.
MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) is one of the order taking ways offered by PayLane. It basically stands for accepting credit and debit cards by phone or via e-mail order. What are the benefits? What type of businesses is it tailored to?
People often think that providing as many payment methods as possible is good, because customers can choose their favorite one. This should mean that the income will be greater; fewer people get discouraged by the lack of the payment method they prefer. Sounds logical, but it’s actually a minimal plan and there’s no guarantee it will work in every case.
If we try to go beyond the “convince to buy” approach, what is there that we might want to achieve? The first thing that comes in mind is “convince to buy again“. Make your customers become your regular customers. And how is it exactly related to payment methods?
One of the most popular payment methods in some countries (such as German-speaking regions) is direct debit. Let’s compare this payment method to credit card payments…
Do you have a business operating in Poland? Maybe you would like your company to expand to that part of Europe? Before you do that make sure you have the one thing that will help you achieve success in the Polish e-commerce market – wire transfers.
When you apply for a merchant account at an e-commerce bank, sooner or later you will hear about a rolling reserve. Since you may then urgently need to clarify this term, please let me explain in advance what it refers to.