These days most payment processors offer a securely hosted payment page. These pages make it easier for the merchant to accept payments on their website. Each one seems to be a little different from the other. There are many to choose from so what features should you look for before signing up with a provider?
Payment Card Industry Compliance
This is an easy one, the Payment Gateway and the form you use should be PCI compliant. Most are, if your unsure ask your provider. If they are not compliant switch providers.
Customizable Secure Page
Some payment forms are very customizable while others only give you a very basic layout that your stuck with. Here are some options you should be aware of.
Look and feel items such as the color and logo of the form should be able to be changed to match your site. You don't want customers to see a totally different looking web site when they check out. They may be scared off.
Some advanced forms allow you to change not only colors, but the form fields your customers have to fill out. For example you can make shipping address mandatory and hide company name. Also pre-filling those fields so a customer cannot change certain items when they are at the payment page is desirable.
Configurable fields allow you to add a field such as invoice number or customer ID. It allows you to use the language your customers are familiar with. Even more advanced applications allow you to choose what type of data you want in your configurable field such as telephone number, email, etc.
Page flow. Where should your customers go after a sale has been approved or declined. Do they have the option to post those values back to you so your shopping card database can stay updated.
Special instructions to your customers before, during and after the sale. This helps direct your customers using your own language.
Payment Methods Accepted
The payment page almost always is set up to accept credit cards, but what about eChecks. If you want to give your customers an alternate way to pay look out for this feature.
Single and Recurring
Not all transactions are are for today. Make sure your provider has single and recurring type payments configurable on your securely hosted payment page.
Ease of Use
How easy is it to set up your payment page? It should be a very straight forward process with a clean interface. When your done you should be able to copy the HTML code into your website easily.
Hopefully that helps to explain the securely hosted payment page. Oh and don't forget you shouldn't have to pay extra for this!
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