Online Payments is a very important topic to be considered when building or managing an e-commerce web site. Implementing an e-commerce web site requires a knowledge of both the business and development aspects of online payments. There are financial costs associated with this and there are various Online Payment Service Providers out there who are looking for your business. Each of these companies offer a range of products and services, some of which will be more suitable to your business than others. WebPayments.ie is an Independent Resource, we are not tied to any vendor or company. This means we can give independent payments advice and information. With this advice and information you will be able to make informed decisions and choose the best service to meet the needs of your business.

The best place to start is to get an understanding of how an online payment is processed and various steps involved. The most common form of online payment today is a credit card authorisation. So we have taken this type of transaction and produced an animation that explains the various steps involved in the processing of an online credit card authorisation. We have simplified the process in an effort to illustrate the important concepts and organisations involved. Based on the feedback we receive, we will be adding further animations to explain other payment methods and provide more detailed information. Check out our animation explaining online payments.

Once you have an understanding of what is involved in the processing of an online payment the next step is decide what services would best suit the needs of your business. There are various options available and lots of different items to consider when choosing a payments platform. These range from technical items such as how you will integrate the payments platform to your website to business related items such as chargebacks and monthly minimums. Our online payments guide will introduce you to all of these topics and concepts. Our Online Payments Guide will tell you what the options are, what you should be looking for and what questions you should be asking. Armed with this information you will be in a much better position to choose a web payments platform that gives value to your business and saves you money.

As mentioned earlier there are various companies looking for your business and there are lots of options available. Some of these companies are more well known than others. Not all of these companies offer the same services but this may not always be obvious. For example if you are using PayPal you cannot accept payment with Laser card. This is a very important method of payment if your customer base is Irish. Our Provider Comparison Section will introduce you to the companies involved and allow you to compare the services provided by each.