Advantages of Accepting Payments with Authorize.Net
What is a Merchant Account?
A merchant account is a business bank account that allows you to collect payments from credit card or consumer bank accounts. Merchant accounts are provided by acquiring banks – financial institutions that verify the availability of funds, authorize transactions, and obtain and deposit funds from the customer's bank into your merchant account.
Why do I Need a Payment Gateway?
The vast majority of e-commerce merchants do not have the technical resources, money or expertise to build a direct connection to the payment processing networks. For this reason, payment gateways like Authorize.Net provide merchants with the complex infrastructure and security necessary to connect their Web sites to the payment processing networks. (See our credit card processing diagram.) In other words, a payment gateway acts just like a traditional credit card swipe machine you find in the physical retail world.
| Merchant Account and Authorize.Net Payment Gateway Account | |
|---|---|
| Your Money | |
| Receiving Your Money | As few as 1-2 days, depending upon your merchant account provider. Automatic deposit into your merchant account. |
| Safety of Your Money | Your merchant account is with a financial institution, so your funds are FDIC insured. |
| Seller Benefits | |
| Customer Reach | Credit cards remain the most popular online payment type—accounting for 86%1 of online purchases. If you do not directly accept credit cards, you are missing out on business. |
| Competitive Pricing | Flexible pricing. We have hundreds of resellers competing for your business. |
| Advanced Fraud Protection | You set fraud controls to suit your unique business:
|
| Transaction Dispute Resolution | You are represented by your reseller and acquiring bank, both of which share your interest in getting paid. |
| Customer Support |
|
| Customer Experience | |
| User Satisfaction | The preferred payment gateway of both resellers and merchants. |
| Shopper Experience | Customers can pay seamlessly without being forced to leave your site.2 |
| Building Your Business | |
| Credibility and Professionalism of Your Site | Accepting credit cards directly on your site lends credibility that you have an established business. |
| Building Your Brand | You control the look of your checkout page, either on your own site or by using our hosted payment form, allowing you to reinforce your company's brand. |
| Repeat Customers | You control your customer's payment information, making it possible to market to your customers for repeat business. Authorize.Net provides subscription payment services called Automated Recurring Billing™ (ARB) and Customer Information Manager (CIM), which securely store customer data for simple and secure repeat transactions. |
1 Global Payments website "Only 14% of all sales on the Internet come from alternative payment methods such as PayPal and Google Checkout. Don't miss out on 86% of your sales."
2 Requires AIM integration method. Please see http://developer.authorize.net/api/compare/ for more details.
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