osCommerce

osCommerce, Google Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay
accepting payment via credit card

"UK shoppers spent £15bn at web stores in the run up to Christmas [2007]... overall sales rise of 54% in 2006. " (source: Computing, Jan 2008) "Online sales have soared to their highest sustained levels in 4 years, in sharp contrast to the recent fall in high-street sales." (source: Computing, Aug 2007)

"UK online sales were up 33 per cent to £11bn last year, and are expected to triple again to £28bn in the next five years" (source: Computing, May 2007)

To achieve the maximum number of sales you need to accept payments online via credit and debit card, in addition to cheque and bank transfer.  If you do not offer this ability/ease with which to pay, your potential customers may never become your real customers.  The majority of your visitors will want to pay via this current simplest method available - DEBIT or CREDIT CARD.

NEW: osCommerce admin VIDEO tutorials

Accepting online payments via credit card must be done securely.  It is not adequate to take credit card details via SSL then to email the results to yourself or the administrator.  There are at least three issues with this method:

1. Sending sensitive details via email is not secure (unless you intend to use some sort of sophisticated encryption prior to sending the email).
2. Storage of credit card details must be kept secure else you could be breaking the law.  If credit card data is not protected in a manner in accordance with the PCI DSS then you could receive heavy fines.
3. Detection of fraud - how do you check if the credit card details are stolen?  This is very important and is highlighted in our Accepting online payments article.
4. By taking payments via the Internet you maybe contravening your terms of use of your current merchant account.

It is far better to use a credit card processing company that specialises in Internet payments, then the transactions are carried out securely and monitored for fraud.  

When comparing the prices remember that you do not require an Internet Merchant account if you are using Google Checkout, PayPal or WorldPay.  Using an alternative online payment processing company you will need an Internet Merchant account and your bank will charge you anything from 2 to 5% per transaction depending on your business in addition to the costs charged by the online payment processing company.

Google Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay

Google Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay are proven leaders online and we recommend and support them within all our ecommerce hosting accounts. WorldPay can provide PRE-AUTHorisation accounts (which many others do not offer).  This allows you to confirm the order and customer are real before logging in to WorldPay to complete the transaction; until this is carried out by the seller NO funds are transferred.  PayPal have a similar safe-guard in that they do not charge if you refund a payment.  If there has been a fraudulent payment just refund it within 60 days and there should be no charges. Google Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay are setup and ready to use on all our ecommerce hosting.

  Google Checkout the newest contender offering great savings:  

Google Checkout now offers you a safe and secure method for you to process online payments. There is a prerequisite to using this over other payment options offered, such as PayPal or WorldPay, which is the requirement of SSL (https - secure server). POA.

The great bonus for using Google Checkout is there are zero charges until the end of the year (2007) and then the charges will be free dependant upon your Google Adwords spend, and there is no cost to setup the Checkout account. For most traders the additional premium for SSL will be recovered within a short period of time due to Google Checkout Free transactions and the future free processing as per your Adwords spend. More details on Google Checkout Free transaction processing, and future Google Checkout offers.

  WorldPay WorldDirect:   

The type of WorldPay account you need to operate in conjunction with osCommerce is a "WorldPay WorldDirect" account - product type: Select Junior (at the time of our last update - June 2007 - the price was £200 setup fee, then £30 per month with 4.5% per credit card transaction charge and £0.50 for debit cards).

If you require a PRE-AUTHorisation account then you MUST state so when ordering.

  PayPal are now a VERY viable option for business use as:  

• PayPal now accept most of the main stream credit cards and debit cards
• PayPal now have a HUGE user-base due its successful owner ebay
• PayPal do not charge if you refund a payment.  If there has been a fraudulent payment just refund it within 60 days and there will be no charges (correct as of June 2007).
• PayPal do not charge if you refund a payment.  If there has been a fraudulent payment just refund it within 60 days and there will be no charges (correct as of June 2007).
• Now there is no need for your customers to have an account with PayPal.  To make a payment to you all a customer now needs to do is enter their credit card details.
  To ensure your PayPal account can accept payments from non members:
  • Login to your PayPal account.
  • When logged into your PayPal account click here to set your website payment preferences
    Scroll to the end of page and set the
    PayPal Account Optional: to On
    and click the Save button

  If you decide to open a PayPal then to reap the best benefits from it ensure the account type you open is a Business Account.

Is it worth it?

1. Yes, you can expect to sell several times more by accepting payment by credit/debit card than by cheque, or bank transfer. 
2. "THE increasing maturity of UK Internet users will lead to an ecommerce boom in the next few years." (source: Computing 14th Aug 2003).  This is continuing to be correct (June 2007).

One of our featured web sites, The Singles Agency, has increased revenue by 1000%, when they started to accept payments via credit card in March 2003 and they are continuing to reap the rewards:

"Cheque payments were very slow to say the least. Many potential clients promised to send cheques that never arrived. Since taking online credit card payments we have never looked back. The one regret with taking online credit card payments is that we should have done it sooner."
        Tony Pollitt, webmaster of TheSinglesAgency.co.uk

Also read about the osCommerce: Return on Investment

We recommend & integrate Google Checkout, PayPal and WorldPay within our default installation of osCommerce

We recommend the use the following online payment processors and our default installation of osCommerce now includes:

• Google Checkout payment module*
• PayPal IPN payment module*
  
• WorldPay payment module*
• 2Checkout payment module
• SECPay payment module
• Cash on delivery payment module*
• cheque/bank transfer payment module*
  
  Or easily install any of the payment modules as shown here.
  
  *supported by our osCommerce Support contract.
  

The currencies already setup within our default osCommerce installation are:

• £ Sterling (default)
• $ USD
• EURO

Having these modules and currencies already integrated into the osCommerce shopping cart now makes it even easier to get your products online with our Ecommerce hosting.

Find out what some of our clients think about using osC...

To appear professional and of serious business stature in most instances it would be best practice to offer both payment options, WorldPay and PayPal, to your customers. 

For more help and details on osCommerce please refer to: oscommerce.com/community/

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