Q: What is an eCheck?

It is an electronic check. This form of payment takes days to clear . For online businesses, there is a risk involved in accepting this form of payment as it could "bounce." Therefore, unless you are professional service that has one-to-one relationships with their clients, this form of payment is not recommended . Square has a great blog post on how an eCheck works .

Question 1

My business is outside the U.S.  What should I use?

Accepted Answer

The gateway comparison above is for U.S. based businesses. You will need to do some research for your country or region.

Question 2

What is Authorize.Net?

Accepted Answer

Authorize.net is a middleman that handles online transactions between your website's cart and your bank's merchant account.

In order to connect your merchant account to your online cart, you will most likely need to buy Authorize.net. There is usually not direct connection between your merchant provider and your cart.

Question 3

Can I use more than one Payment Gateway?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Quite a few online stores have more than one payment method.

It is common to use Paypal and a second gateway. This is because some customers prefer Paypal and others are repelled by it.

Also, since Paypal reaches most countries, it is very useful for businesses with a global reach.

Also you may have an offline payment method if you take some checks or use a merchant account for on-site transactions.

Question 4

What is Braintree?

Accepted Answer

Braintree is a payment gateway that integrates with Paypal so you can take Paypal payment as well. It also accepts several other payment types such as Apple Pay.

Question 5

Why not just use Paypal?

Accepted Answer

Paypal seems like the ideal solution because it so well known and reaches globally. However, there are some customers who will do anything to avoid using it.

AND it can be clunky. The checkout process can be a bit confusing because you are taken to Paypal to complete payment and then you have to wait a few seconds to be taken back to the site. Things can go wrong.

For Paypal Standard, the customer has to have a Paypal account. For the business, if you have a limited cart, weeding through subscriptions and transactions to refund can be cumbersome.

Question 6

Stripe doesn't notify me when a recurring payment fails.

Accepted Answer

This is correct. Stripe does not send out any email notifications for payment failures or, for that matter, when a recurring payment goes through.

This is the job of your cart or you can purchase a subscription with another service to handle upcoming expirations and payment failures.

Question 7

What is an eCheck?

Accepted Answer

It is an electronic check. This form of payment takes days to clear. For online businesses, there is a risk involved in accepting this form of payment as it could "bounce." Therefore, unless you are professional service that has one-to-one relationships with their clients, this form of payment is not recommended.

Square has a great blog post on how an eCheck works.

Question 8

What are the minimum hosting requirements?

Accepted Answer

For e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce, Digital Downloads and CartFlows or membership and e-course plugins, you can use shared hosting as long as you have an unexpired SSL certificate installed. This is because the credit card information is not stored on the web server.

Any shared hosting plan is not HIPAA compliant. Other sensitive information such as contact information is stored on your web server.

A Let's Encrypt certificate is fine for eStores that do not need the extra certificate validation.

To get started, a low-cost hosting company I recommend often is SiteGround.

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