This article provides information for administrators to understand how e-commerce works. This article provides information for administrators to understand how to configure e-commerce within Certain.
How Online Credit Card Processing Works
The basic process requires 3 components. A merchant bank account is one required component. A processor or third-party processor is one required component. A payment gateway is one required component.
Certain then connects to your PayPal account via a Certain e-commerce account connection.
Internet Merchant Bank Account
This special type of account is required for merchants who wish to sell goods and services over the Internet. This special type of account is required for merchants who wish to accept credit cards as payment. This type of account is different from a typical merchant account. This type of account is considered card-not-present. This type of account is considered similar to mail-order / phone-order (MO/TO) merchant accounts.
Merchant accounts are different from checking or savings accounts because merchant accounts allow processing credit card charges into the merchant account. Because refunds can be issued from the merchant account into people’s credit cards, refunds can be part of merchant-account operations. Because chargebacks are issued even if money has already been spent, merchant-account operations include responsibility for chargebacks. Because merchant account application processes include credit checks, merchant-account credit checks are more rigorous than credit checks for checking/savings accounts. Banks effectively issue a credit line when a merchant account is created.
Thousands of banks issue merchant accounts. Examples include Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase Paymentech.
Processor
A processor is a large data center that processes credit card transactions. A processor settles funds to merchants.
A processor connects to the merchant on behalf of an acquirer via a gateway. A processor connects to the merchant via a gateway such as PayPal or Cybersource. A processor can also connect to the merchant via a POS system to process payments electronically. A processor edits and formats messages. A processor switches to bankcard networks. A processor provides files for clearing and settlement. A processor provides other value-added services.
The processor may be the acquirer bank. The processor may be a third-party processor.
There are only a small number of payment processors. Banks all use payment processors. Payment processors include EDS Aurora, FDMS (Nashville), Global Payments (Central, East), Nova, Paymentech, Vital (Visanet), etc.
Other related terms
- Acquirer: A bank or financial institution that issues merchant accounts for the acceptance of credit card transactions.
- Acquiring Bank: The bank that maintains the merchant relationship and receives all transactions from the merchant.
- Third Party Processor: A non-member agent, employed by an acquiring bank, which provides authorization, settlement, and merchant services to the bank's merchant.
Payment Gateway
Certain currently integrates with the following payment gateway products:
- PayPal PayFlow Pro
- NOTE: Certain DOES NOT integrate with the traditional consumer-to-consumer PayPal Product.
- Cybersource
- Authorize.net
- Pay.gov
- Primarily used by government organizations.
- Chase Orbital
- Stripe
- Shift4
- Additional note: Shift4 is specific to the Accommodation section to generate payment tokens to be stored for room guarantee.
- Shift4 can't be used in forms to process online payments.
If you have an existing internet merchant account set up to accept card-not-present transactions, contact one of the above providers to set up a payment gateway account.
Once the payment gateway account is set up, create an E-Commerce account within Certain. Input the username and password to connect to your payment gateway.
If you do not have an existing merchant account, cannot get approved for one, or do not want to have one set up, contact PayPal directly. Request information on setting up a PayPal Website Payments Pro PayFlow Edition. Website Payments Pro PayFlow Edition acts as the internet merchant bank account. Website Payments Pro PayFlow Edition provides a PayFlow Pro account. Website Payments Pro PayFlow Edition charges a monthly fee and a percentage on each transaction.
> NOTE: When contacting PayPal and requesting the "Website Payments Pro PayFlow Edition," ensure that you specify you need a "separate PayFlow gateway using PayPal processing and access to the PayPal Manager".
Configuring Your Certain Account to Process Payments
Once you have activated one of the payment gateway products listed above, an administrator-level user should enter the payment gateway account details into the Certain E-Commerce settings.
- Navigate to Account Settings > Registration > Financial Data.
- Click Add New in the E-commerce Accounts section.
- Enter the payment gateway details.
- Click Save.