Selling Online - Getting Started

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You are going to need 4 things - and we can organise and set up all four for you.. It's what we do.

1. A domain name.. www.yourCompanyName.co.uk
2. A suitable hosting plan
3. A suitable ecommerce website
4. A method of taking payments (a payment gateway)

Since we cover points 1, 2, and 3 elsewhere on on our site, we are going to explain point 4.

The Payment Gateway

There's no doubt that the fastest and most hassle-free way to start taking payments online is through PayPal. Your customers dont need a PayPal account to pay you through PayPal these days, however it remains a common misconception that they do need an account, so some potential customers may drop out at the checkout when they discover you're using PayPal.. On the other hand, for the millions of people who DO have a PayPal account, providing the option on your site is a major advantage for them.

Funds taken through PayPal are kept in your online PayPal account. To get them into your bank account you need to log into PayPal and do a trasfer, it's very simple and free on transactions over £50. The transfer in reality takes around 4 or 5 working days but they say allow 10. Other payment gateways transfer the funds straight into your business account (although with some providers the delay can be considerable, 30 days maybe). Of these types of payment gateway, from a cost and ease of implementation viewpoint, Sage Pay appear to provide the best solution for businesses wishing to establish a full online credit/debit card processing facility. There are other alternatives such as WorldPay and NetBanx etc, but here we will concentrate on PayPal and Sage Pay.

Opening a PayPal Account PayPal is by far the quickest and easiest to set up, and our shopping cart comes with a PayPal payment facility built-in, including Instant Payment Notification. Simply go to the PayPals Website and open a BUSINESS account. PayPal accounts are tied to an email address and we suggest you set up a new mailbox called something like accounts@yourdomain.com which you can use for all your online payment dealings. (You'll need to set the mailbox up and have access to it first). PayPal Charges If your total online transactions per month are less than £1,500 then the fees per transaction will be 3.4% plus 20p. So if somebody pays you £400 through PayPal, you would actually receive £386.20 because the PayPal fees on that transaction would be £13.80. The fees go down slightly as your transaction values increase.

Opening a Sage Pay Account To set up a Sage Pay account, you first need to establish an "Internet Merchant Account" with your bank, and Sage Pay only work with certain banks (Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland, HSBS, NatWest, Bank of Ireland, Alliance & Leicester - a full current list can be found on their merchant account page. You will need the details of this account before you approach Sage Pay. Having opened the Merchant Account, go to their account application page and click APPLY. They will supply you with certain information which we need in order to programme your online payment gateway. Sage Pay Charges You will pay Sage Pay £20 per month on their "Small Business Service" which allows up to 1,000 transactions a quarter. If you go above that number of transactions you will automatically move onto their "Corporate" package which costs 10p per transaction regardless of how many transactions you process. In addition to paying Sage Pay, your bank will charge you on your merchant account and these fees vary from bank to bank.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PayPal Only

Advantages		Disadvantages
1.	Dead easy to set up.	1.	May be perceived as a tacky Ebay type thing.
2.	Greatly simplifies the checkout process for millions of PayPal account holders.	2.	Some users may still think they need to set up a PayPal account before paying.
3.	Loss of sales at checkout may be offset by a higher throughput of those with PayPal accounts but no credit cards.	3.	A higher percentage of users drop out at checkout, so you will lose some sales (in our experience).
4.	Loss of sales at checkout may be offset by a higher throughput of those with PayPal accounts but no credit cards.	4.	Transaction charges are quite high compared to Sage Pay (but take into account your banks internet merchant account charges with Sage Pay).

Our Advice?

Do both if you can. It's a belt and braces approach which caters for everyone at the checkout. There's nothing to stop you from getting up and running with PayPal first whilst you jump through the hoops to get your internet merchant account up and running.

Disclaimer: Please note that we have no incentives, financial or otherwise, to coax our customers into any one online payment provider over another. The choice of payment provider for your site is entirely yours based on your circumstances and timescales.