By Jeannine Gailey
| Applies to |
| Microsoft FrontPage® 2002 |
This article gives a small-business owner an overview of how to build a system for accepting online payments at an e-commerce site.
So you have a great new product or service to sell, have built a nifty Web site, and are ready to sell your product. You have settled on an e-commerce design but are worried about accepting payments online and not quite sure how to get started.
In this article, we will look at some of the options available for building an online payment system using the Microsoft FrontPage Web site creation and management tool, and discuss which is most convenient and appropriate for your small-business site. I will address these questions:
- What are my online payment options? Do I need a merchant account?
- How do I accept credit card payments online?
- What are the alternatives to online credit card payments?
What are my online payment options?
If you want to sell a product or service on your Web site, there are many decisions to make: How much work do I want to invest in the payment process? Will I also sell from a physical store or just the Internet? How much convenience do my customers require? How will I guarantee the security of my customers' data?
Merchant accounts
One of the first things to consider is whether or not to obtain your own merchant account, which is an agreement with a bank that allows you to post charges to a customer's credit card. If you are doing business from a physical store or by distributing printed catalogs, you probably already have your own merchant account that you use for payments.
An alternative to obtaining your own merchant account is to obtain one through a third party. Having your own merchant account gives you the greatest amount of control over things like returns and has a slightly lower cost than getting a merchant account through another company. And there may be restrictions associated with what you can sell when you obtain the merchant account through a third party. But having someone else manage your merchant account can mean fewer hassles such as negotiating returns with a credit card company.
Payment service solutions
If you have never accepted credit card payments before, you may wish to avoid the complexities of setting up a merchant account and opt instead for an online payment service solution that can simplify the process by handling online payments for you. Even if you already have a merchant account for your bricks and mortar store, online payment services can greatly simplify the work needed to accept online payments by taking care of things like properly securing your customers' sensitive information and integrating with existing e-commerce solutions such as shopping carts or online catalogs.
While there are many online payment service solutions available, we will describe the ones that leverage the power of FrontPage and that can greatly reduce development time when you are short-staffed. The following is a partial list of the e-commerce payment solution providers that integrate with FrontPage:
- Microsoft Commerce Manager
- PayPal
- LaGarde StoreFront
- JustAddCommerce
- Mercantec SoftCart
- ComCity SalesCart
- NetStores
There are a number of e-commerce solutions that integrate with FrontPage. While we can't possibly describe every solution in detail in this article, we will look at two: Commerce Manager and the PayPal Purchase Button Wizard.
Security considerations
No matter which online payment option you decide to use, keeping your customer's sensitive data secure must be your primary concern. Today's e-commerce applications transmit sensitive data such as credit card numbers using a technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL requires that a trusted connection be negotiated between the customer's Web browser and a company's Web server. After that, all data communications are encrypted using 56-bit (strong) or 128-bit (very strong) encryption keys. When a Web site implements SSL, the address of the Web page begins with https:// and most Web browsers display a security icon (a yellow padlock in Microsoft Internet Explorer, for example).
In addition to securing the transmission of sensitive data, an e-commerce site must be able to securely store user information in a database (although most sites do not store credit card information).
Security is one of the major reasons to go with a payment service provider for handling online payments, because such providers tend to have the infrastructure in place and the experience in handling these issues. However, they also could be seen as targets for hackers, and some companies just don't want to trust a third party to handle their customers’ valuable data.
What you decide to do depends on whether you have the expertise in secure e-commerce development in-house and whether you can afford to pay for a custom-built site (because developers who are experienced in this area are usually expensive). For a small business, it's usually easier and cheaper to go with a ready-made solution like the ones we will describe.
How do I accept credit card payments online?
We will focus on just the payment part of the e-commerce process. In the case of the Commerce Manager example, we assume that you have already set up an account and have built a shopping cart and online catalog for your e-commerce site; we will not walk through the steps for opening a bCentral account. In the case of the PayPal example, we assume that your site currently does not have any shopping cart or checkout features and that you have already set up a PayPal account. Both of these solutions allow you to set up a trial account in order to test these solutions before having to pay for them.
PayPal
The PayPal Purchase Button Wizard for Microsoft FrontPage is a simple, single-button solution that can be used for accepting PayPal payments when you do not have your own e-shopping cart system. The wizard is available for download from the PayPal Developer Network and from the Microsoft FrontPage Add-in Center. This is a good choice if you want the convenience of using PayPal's shopping cart solution or if you are selling a single item or service.
To use the PayPal Purchase Button Wizard
- After installing the wizard, on the FrontPage Tools menu, click Add-Ins.
- From the Tools menu in FrontPage, select PayPal Payment Button Wizard for Microsoft FrontPage and click OK.
- In your Web site, go to your payment page.
- On the Insert menu, click PayPal Purchase Button Wizard.
- In the PayPal for Microsoft FrontPage wizard, click Start Wizard.
- On Page 1, type your e-mail address and select the Type of Purchase feature that you want to provide to your customers:
- Add to Cart—Add an item to the PayPal cart.
- View Cart—View the contents of the PayPal cart.
- Buy Now—Purchase the selected item.
- Donate—Accept donations.
- Subscribe—Accept recurring payments.
By choosing the Add to Cart or View Cart option, you can take advantage of the pre-built PayPal Shopping Cart solution and allow your customers to either add an item to the PayPal Shopping Cart or view items in the cart and checkout. If you are selling a single item or service, choose the Buy Now option.
- Click Next.
- On Page 2, select the icon that customers will use or select Yes, I would like to use my own button and type the URL to your own online image that you want to use.
- Click Next.
- On Page 3, type the Item Name/Service, Item ID/Number (optional), and Price of the item or service that you wish to sell.
- Click Next.
- If you originally selected the Buy Now option, enter the appropriate fees:
- Base Shipping
- Extra Shipping
- Handling
- On Page 4, type the URLs for your logo, your Successful Payment page (where customers will be sent after the payment process is complete), and your Cancel Payment page (where customers will be sent if they do not complete the payment process).
- Click Next.
- On the last screen of the wizard, review your choices, as well as the HTML that will be generated by the wizard.
- Click Insert HTML to add the new button to your page.
When users click the PayPal button on your Web site, they will be sent to the PayPal site where they will be presented with the payment details that you entered in the wizard and given the option to complete the purchase. When the purchase completed, the payment is transferred to your account, and an e-mail confirmation is sent to both you and the customer.
Commerce Manager
The Commerce Manager Add-in solution covers more than just payments; it is a total e-commerce solution that allows you to set up an online catalog, set up a shopping cart, and accept online payments. This solution is a good choice if you don't want the bother (or cost) of developing your own custom shopping cart and catalog, and you want the ease of a total solution. Commerce Manager is available as an add-in that integrates with FrontPage; it can be downloaded from the Microsoft FrontPage Add-in Center. For more information, see Combine FrontPage with Commerce Manager for e-commerce success.
Before enabling online payment, you must create a product catalog using Commerce Manager. For more information about Commerce Manager, see the Commerce Manager site.
To enable online payments using Commerce Manager
- In your Commerce Manager site, click Settings on the left toolbar.
- Under Sales, click Payment.
- In the Payment Types screen, select the types of payments that you want to use on your e-commerce site:
- Credit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover)
- Person-to-Person Payments (like PayPal)
- Checks, Cash, and Money Orders
- To use automated credit card processing services on your site, sign up with a bCentral online payment processing service offered through Paymentech or Cardservice International.
What are the alternatives to online credit card payments?
While accepting credit cards can make your site much easier for your customers, you may not be ready to commit to an online payment system. Also, while your customers have discovered e-commerce, they still may not be ready to send their credit card numbers to you over the internet, no matter how secure you have made your ordering process. In such cases, you might consider the following alternatives:
- Set up a toll-free phone number for ordering.
- Have a printable order form that can be mailed or faxed.
Some of the online payment solutions (such as the Commerce Manager) help you to present such payment options in a professional-looking manner.
Conclusion
Taking online payments can be as simple or complex as you choose. If you want control over your catalog layout and shopping card graphics, choose a solution like PayPal that provides only the payment service you need. If you would like to build everything in one fell swoop and want the quickest and easiest solution for your e-commerce needs, go for a total solution like Commerce Manager. When you look over such products, consider which company you trust most in terms of security and longevity. If you decide to go with a custom solution, keep in mind that security should be your number-one priority. Work with someone who has expertise in technologies like SSL.
Jeannine Gailey, owner of Webbish6.com, author, and Web consultant
