Quand
il s’agit d’argent, tout le monde est de la même religion
(When
it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion)
Voltaire, French
Philosopher and revolutionary in his
Letter to Mme. d'Épinal, Ferney (26 December 1760) from Oeuvres
Complètes de Voltaire:
Ok,
so you wanna set up an E-Commerce Website but don’t know how. You’ve come to
the right place as I’ll reveal how it is done. Note however, you have to love
reading and lots of experimentation via trial-and-error, as my article points
you to various Websites but you’ll have to read and then try them out to see
which of these Payment Gateways is a best fit for you. First, though, I’ll
start off by explaining Mobile Money and how it’ll enable Local E-Commerce in
Jamaica.
Please
note with JCUES (Jamaica Credit Union e-Payment Services),
the Mobile Money partnership between Mozido Jamaica and JCCUL (Jamaica
Co-Operative Credit Union League) are now on the cusp of reality by Christmas
2013, I though it only prudent to do an article on the various methods of
Paying for items online and Receiving Money.
In
other words, Payment Gateways used to enable Local E-Commerce on the Internet.
After all, the main thing that will motivate Jamaicans to embrace Mobile
Internet on smartphones and use it for other things than Social Networking is
making Money online as argued in my Geezam
blog article entitled “Jamaica’s
Low Net Penetration – Broadband Internet A Universal Right”.
This
article is for my readers who read my blog article
entitled “How
to make US Dollars as Freelance Web Content or Blog Affiliate Writer Online in
Jamaica using your Scotia VISA Debit Card or Credit Card” and “How
Jamaicans can Legally make US Dollars as Freelance worker Online - Jamaican
Flexworking to make Money from the Internet”
Such
persons are curious about setting up an E-Commerce Website and are interested
in the various ways to receive Money legitimately via Credit Card Transactions
online!
Mobile Money Services
in Jamaica – PowderKeg of Local E-Commerce
Mobile
Money will help the Unbanked who are recipients of Remittances from abroad to
become a part of the Banking Sector and thus be able to pay Income Taxes as
explained in my Geezam article entitled “JCUES
Mobile Money brings Cashless Society to the Unbanked as NCB debuts Cheque
munching ATM Machine”.
Mobile
Money differs from Mobile Banking in that it basically turns your feature phone
or smartphone into a Digital Wallet to do financial transactions as explained
in my blog
article entitled “BOJ
to regulate and approve Mobile Money Industry in Jamaica - JCCUL JCUES is the
Man of Steel as GraceKennedy joins The Last Stand for a Cashless Society”
It’ll
also empower local E-Commerce Website businesses as it’ll finally give business
entrepeneurs a reason to set up Websites in order to easily and conveniently
send and receive Payments without using a Debit or Credit Card or Remittance Service.
JCUES and the other pretenders to the Mobile Money throne are all basically a kind of Digicel CreditU. But instead of Mobile Calling Credit, which is ironically the first area of business for JCUES, their long term goal is to eventually allow Customer of the various Credit Unions that are a part of the JCCUL to send and receive Money wherever they are in the island, be it Money in their Credit Union Accounts or Remittance they receive via Western Union, JCCUL’s Remittance partner.
This
via using the Mobile phones in a process as described in detail in my blog article
entitled “JCCUL
get's approval from BOJ to launch their JCUES Mobile Money Platform - JCUES Mobile
Money Wolverine (2013) marks the Kick-Ass 2 (2013) beginning of a Cashless
Society”. The convenience of being able to send Money via simply sending a
text message instead of having to go into a Bank and wait in long lines or
deposits Money in a ATM (Automated Teller Machine) implies that one can even
pay for Goods and Service using Mobile Money Services.
This
seems to be of interest to many of my followers on my blog as well as my
friends at the St. Andrew Parish Library on Tom Redcam Avenue that’s within
walking distance from where I live in Swallowfield, Kingston, Jamaica. If the Mobile
Money Service JCUES and its various competitors come on stream, SME (Small and
Medium Enterprise) entrepreneurs can set up Websites or Services in Jamaica
locally and place their phone numbers online to accept Payments.
Potential
Customers can then pay for Goods or Services sold on a Website simply by
sending Money to their JCUES Account via a simple text or SMS (Short Message Service),
which is represent by their phone numbers no matter where they are in the
Island. More on Mobile Money Services when they come on stream later this year!
Payment Gateways - Ways
to accept International Money Payments online
At
this point I’ll assume you already have a website set up and you want to enable
it with E-Commerce capability in order to process Credit Card payments. Before
I begin, I need to lay the groundwork by explaining a few terms as defined in “10 Excellent
Online Payment Systems”, published May 15 2012 by Rosston Meyer, SixRevisions:
1. ACH
(Automated Clearing House) - Electronic Credit and Debit transfers for monthly
subscription-based transactions, allowing Customers to make Payments from their
Bank Accounts for utilities, mortgage loans, and other types of bills.
2. Merchant
Account - is a Bank Account that allows a Customer to receive Payments through Credit
or Debit Cards.
3. Payment
Gateway - Middleman between Customers and Merchants that securely passes Credit
Card information between the Customer and the Merchant and also between Merchant
and the Payment processor.
4. Payment
Processor - company that a Merchant uses to handle Credit Card transactions
with anti-fraud measures to protect both the Customer and the Merchant
5. PCI
compliant - A Merchant or Payment Gateway sets their Payment environment up in
a way that meets the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) set
up by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to increase Cardholder
data security and reduce fraud.
6. MSME
(Micro and Small and Medium Enterprise) - an umbrella term usually used to describe a
business persons who usually has less than five (5) employees (Micro) and is
below the Tax threshold of the country or has between five to ten (5-10)
employees (Small) and is probably above the Tax Threshold of the Country
7. POS
(Point of Sale) - usually used to refer to the device used to transact Credit
or Debit Card Payments with a Customer who is physically in your presence
When
it comes to E-Commerce and accepting Payments from buyers in the US of A,
Canada or the rest of the world, many of my readers fail to realize that if you
wish to spend or receive Money online, you HAVE to have either a Credit Card or
a Debit Card with International Credit Card support e.g. Scotia VISA Debit Card or CIBC VISA Debit
Card.
This
is because you HAVE to use this Credit Card or a Debit Card with International
Credit Card support e.g. Scotia
VISA Debit Card or CIBC VISA Debit
Card to register with a Payment Gateway in order to
process Credit Card transactions which basically involve processing the
following bits of information for you Customers securely:
1. Sixteen
(16) Credit Card Numbers
2. Expiry
Date
3. Three
(3) digit CVV Code
4. Personal
information for the Customer i.e. Name, Address, telephone number
There
was once a time having such a novelty was an impossibility unless you were
earning at least JA$100,000. With the advent of Scotia VISA Debit Card or CIBC VISA Debit
Card,
it’s now possibly for anyone to get a Debit Card with the power of VISA and
then use it to buy items online as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “ScotiaBank’s
VISA Debit Card – Jamaica’s Online E-Commerce Renaissance”.
Other
Banks rolling out Debit Cards associated with one of four (4) Credit Card
Companies in the US of A also have the capability to buy items online as
describe in my blog
article entitled “How
to purchase items and subscribe to Magazines online and ship them to Jamaica”:
1. VISA
2. Discovery
3. MasterCard
4. American
Express
In
much the same way JCUES will end up being the Payment Gateway for Local E-Commerce,
the list of E-Commerce Payment Gateways listed below can be used by E-Commerce Websites
to send or receive Money online. They main differ by their level of Service as
well as their Fee structure as some charge fees and some do not, opting for Flat
Service Payment models.
This
list is condensed from the articles “18
Online Payment Services and Systems”, published JUNE 15 2012 by AWWWARDS
TEAM, Awwwards Team and “10 Excellent
Online Payment Systems”, published May 15 2012 by Rosston Meyer, SixRevisions:
2. Paypal
5. Dwolla
6. Stripe
7. Braintree
9. WePay
10. 2Checkout
11. Skrill
12. WorldPay
13. eWay
14. IcePay
Some
of the Credit Card Institutions also have their own Payment Gateways, You might
want to check them out as an alternative to Third Party Payment Gateways as
they have lower fees:
1. V.Me by VISA
If
you have a Smartphone and you’re a SME that accepts physical Payments from Credit
Cards in Jamaica and you can't wait for JCUES to start up, here are a few Mobile
Payment Gateways that turn your smartphone into the same thing as a POS:
1. Square
Setting up your
Jamaican E-Commerce Website – Trial-and-error via Experimentation
Jamaica
is seen as a country that’s steeped in Money Laundering and Tax Evasion, the Payment
Gateways can only pay out Cash via cheque, which usually takes three (3) weeks
to clear as explained in my Geezam blog
article entitled “How to
use Scotia VISA Debit Card Online”. Also most of them do take a small
portion of the Money paid to you via the transaction as a fee for their Services.
The
above services are the only way aside from the Customers shopping on your E-Commerce
Website sending you cash via a Remittance Agency to accept Payments from Credit
Cards purchases online. So despite these inconveniences, if you’re really
serious about getting your foot into the E-Commerce game, you’ll check them out
via Reading and doing your research and then via Trial-and-error determine
which is best for you.
They
all pretty much work the same way though:
1. First,
you set up an Account profile with whichever service you choose.
2. Then
register with your Credit Card, Scotia VISA Debit Card or CIBC VISA Debit
Card as you Payment method
3. The
Payment Gateway Service will then verify your Credit Card by taking US$1 from
the Credit Card and then returning it in 5-7 working days to verify the Card is
active
4. Once
verified, from that point on your able to accept Payment with nothing more than
the email Account you gave as part of your registration.
5. You
can also purchase items with your email address which is now linked to your Credit
Card via the Payment Gateway, making it easier and more convenient to receive Payments
You
thus avoid having to give out your Credit Card Number whenever purchasing items
online as described in my blog article
entitled “How
to purchase items and subscribe to Magazines online and ship them to Jamaica”,
making it both secure and convenient to remember only your email address and
password for you Payment Gateway to authorize transactions, the MAIN advantage
of Payment Gateway Services.
This
makes it much safer for you, especially if you are going to make purchases at
an Internet Café, as persons may be lurking about doing Spear Phishing using
keyloggers as described in my blog article
entitled “Professor
Marco Gercke warns of Scammers using Keyloggers for Spear Phishing - How to use
Keyloggers and how to Protect yourself from Scammer's American Hustle for Fast
Cash”.
Receiving Payments from
Credit Cards – Payment Gateways needed as Trust is key
As
it relates to receiving Payments, you can set up hyperlinks, buttons or even
Shopping Carts depending on how large your E-Commerce Website is in order to
facilitate the processing of E-Commerce Transactions. You can even just use
your email Account associated with the Payment Gateway to accept Payments via
sending a Payment Invoice via email e.g. Paypal Invoice, but it’s better to
integrate the Payment Gateway into your E-Commerce Website as that is an
automated process.
The
best way to do this is via HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) Embedding similar
to embedding HTML Code for Video Sharing as described in my blog
article entitled “How
to use Dropbox, Google Drive and Sound File Sharing Websites to Share and
Promote your Content online - Sharing is Caring”.
If you’re NOT the individual who set up your E-Commerce Website, you’ll need
the assistance of your Website Administrator to make the changes necessary.
Just as when you’re buying something from a Website, when the Customer purchases something from your E-Commerce Website, they don’t have to flash out their Credit Card numbers if they don’t have to. Rather, if they are signed up with the same Payment Gateway that you are signed up to, they can use that to pay for the item instead of using their Credit Card.
Embedding
the Payment Gateway into your Website via hyperlinks, buttons or Shopping Carts
is easier and more convenient for the Customer, the main thing that make an E-Commerce
Website successful. It also helps in terms of Customer Service, if they have trust
issues as it relates to revealing their Credit Card online while buying items
from your Website.
That’s
it gentle reader!
More
reading and a little experimentation and trial-and-error with the various Payment
Gateways will enable you with the ability to learn more about E-Commerce, as
Research is key. When you’re comfortable with a Payment Gateway, you can then
sign up with your Scotia VISA Debit Card, CIBC VISA Debit Card
or Credit Card, embed their HTML Scripts into your E-Commerce Website and
enable your Website to accept Payments from International Credit Cards online.
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