A merchant account is actually an intermediary account that is linked to the company's main bank account. Initially, the funds received for payment of goods or services are accumulated on the merchant account, and after a few days (usually on the 3rd banking day from the moment of payment) are transferred to the specified bank account.
Acceptance of online payments in the online store
It is difficult to imagine a modern online store without the possibility of paying for goods or services with a bank card.
To automate the payment of orders in the online store, you need to connect online acquiring.
Internet acquiring is a technology that allows you to accept bank cards for payment via the Internet. The main difference from classic trade acquiring is the absence of a physical terminal for reading payment card data.
To provide buyers with such a tool, an entrepreneur must first open a merchant account.
A merchant account is a special trading account that a merchant company can accept payments from various bank cards 24 hours a day, regardless of when the acquiring bank works.
Requirements for merchants from payment systems
When connecting Internet acquiring and opening a merchant account, payment systems require that the client is not an individual, but an official entrepreneur.
General requirements
- technical condition – all pages of the online store must work normally and open without errors
- product offer - all products in the product catalog must have a clear description, characteristics, product availability status and a clearly interpreted price
- conditions of purchase - the online store must clearly contain information about the terms of delivery and return of goods or services (there must be a detailed description of how this process occurs)
- business status – your business activity must correspond to the field indicated in the registration data
- contact information – your buyers should be able to easily find a contact section with up-to-date information
We recommend using the following payment systems for accepting payments in online stores
LiqPay
Monobank
Fondy
PayPal
Portmone
Interkassa
Platon
WayForPay
Novapay
EasyPay
UAPay
ConcordPay
The technical side of the online payment process in the online store
- the buyer selects goods or services and places an order
- the buyer is redirected to the payment page of the payment system
- after the buyer has entered the card number, validity period and CVS code, this information is transmitted to the payment gateway, which analyzes the transaction for fraud.
- then the request goes to the bank, which, in turn, asks the payment system (for example, Mastercard or Visa) to execute the financial transaction
- then the acquiring bank asks the issuing bank (i.e. the bank that issued the card) to confirm the presence of the required amount of money in the buyer's account and the validity of the card
- if the issuing bank confirms all this information, then as a result the funds are debited from the client's card and transferred to the merchant account of the online retailer
- purchase payment completed