If you are looking to accept credit cards online then you (along with your web development company) will have to decide what type of payment integration to implement. Common types are A) Integrated solutions and B) Hosted solutions and both are acceptable commonly used ways of processing transactions online. You will have to select which company to process the cards to work in concert with your bank and most offer either type of service - they just might call it something else.
Integrated Payment Solution
Both types of services are payment gateways. The integrated solution can be coded into your website or e-commerce application, so you have complete control over the look, feel, and functionality. With an integrated solution, your customers don’t leave your site to enter their payment information during the checkout process. Its really a scalable, fully-integrated payment processing solution, so it is ideal for businesses with moderate to large number of transactions.
You can send transactions to the gateway using a variety of methods and languages. For each Language there is an API with sample code, as well as instructions. Most processors provide APIs for a variety of different languages. Common Programming Language for API’s include: COM, DirectPost, .Net, PHP, ColdFusion, Java, Perl. Check with payment gateway for the programming languages supported.
Hosted Secure Payment Page
The hosted solution is the solution for clients who do not wish to purchase an SSL certificate. This other payment method is more suitable for low to moderate number of transactions. With this hosted solution your customers go to the payment gateways-hosted payment page with limited customization. So your customers are actually taken to another site to enter their payment details and then upon either a declined or approved transaction sent back to your site. In this case you will be able to upload your logo and perhaps colours but not much beyond that as far as customizing the hosted paypage.
In order to perform a successful integration using the hosted paypage solutions you will require: Knowledge of HTML - ability to create and post a form.
If you have more than one(1) item you will require the knowledge of a scripting language to calculate the totals.
Most payment gateways offer both solutions in their suite of offerings including Moneris, WorldPay, Paymentech and PayPal and countless others.
More about payment gateways at Sitepoint:
About the Author
Tony Tullio is the Director at Inorbital Inc. and always in search of good web services and useful websites. Let us know of what you think about this topic. Connect with him via Twitter and LinkedIn.