David Behan's Web Design Ireland Blog

So, you’re a business based in Ireland and you’re interested in setting up an online venture. There are a lot of options out there for you to utilise from software to payment service providers. Here’s a short guide to what you will need to get up and running.

1. Website
   I know I’m stating the obvious but first off, you need a website. I believe that your website should look at least “half” professional looking. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased off a site that was built by the owners son using Frontpage. That said, it really depends on your budget but as long as the image of trust is conveyed, you’re onto a winner.
2. Shopping Cart Facility
   This requirement will be an addon to your website so that your customers can browse your products, add products into a basket and easily checkout and pay for their chosen goods. There are a number of off the shelf software packages out there that will reduce the development costs dramatically and you can discuss these with your web development partner.
3. Merchant Accounts and Payment Service Provider
   By far this is the most confusing part to setting up an e-commerce project for the first time. This is where I have had the most questions in the past. You have a lot of options out there to choose from but first let me explain what this means and differences. A merchant account is a special bank account that allows you to accept credit card payments, which is arranged with your local bank, e.g. AIB, BOI, etc. A payment service provider is a company that will receive the credit card numbers that you collect on your website, check for funds, and if successful, tell you bank to debit the credit card holder for the required amount. You have a number of different options for merchant accounts and payment service providers. You can expect to pay a percentage and possible a fee for each transaction that you process. Here’s an overview of some your options:
   • PayPal - PayPal is a merchant account and a payment service provider rolled into one. They will accept payments on your behalf and store them in an online account that you can cash out to your local bank account. PayPal is a very secure way of accepting payments and is widely popular with ebay users. However, not everyone has a PayPal account (although it easy to set one up at checkout stage) and novice users may not feel comfortable with putting their credit card details into PayPal. On the other hand, more experienced users of the Internet (and anyone that has bought or sold on ebay) usually have a PayPal account and find payments through this method quick and easy. To get a PayPal account is quite easy and you can sign up online without any hassle. You can expect to pay approx. 3.95% of your transaction value as a payment to PayPal for their service and the funds are available immediately for you to spend through PayPal or withdraw to your own bank. More information at www.paypal.com.
   • Worldpay - Worldpay are similar to PayPal but the customer does not need to have an account with Worldpay. Worldpay act as your merchant account and payment service provider rolled into one. Upon checkout, the customer is redirected to the Worldpay servers where they enter their credit card details. Worldpay send you a response for the transaction after accepting payment. Worldpay act differently in that they hold your payments for upto 4 weeks. You can get a WorldPay account easier than a normal merchant account but there are a number of forms to fill out, which makes it that little bit more difficult than PayPal. More information at www.worldpay.com.
   • Realex Payments & Local Merchant Account - Realex Payments are an Irish payment service provider that will accept and process your payments on your behalf and have your local bank debit your transactions from your customers credit cards. The difference here is that you need two seperate accounts, one with Realex Payments (quite easy to obtain) and another with your local bank, e.g. AIB, BOI, Ulster Bank, etc. You pay a fee to Realex for their service, approx. 50c a transaction or less and you pay a fee to your bank as a percentage of the transaction value. Depending on your relationship with your bank manager, you can negotiate a rate for your transactions and they range from 1% to 5% (typically around 2%-2.5%). Merchant accounts are more difficult to obtain because you need to satisfy certain criteria with your bank and they establish a rate for your business transaction fee based on the risk of chargebacks. Since the Internet is regarded as being more risky than traditional credit card transaction scenarios, the rate tends to be a little higher. However, there are facilities in place that can lower your risk. You have most likely heard of, or used, chip and pin with your credit card in the shops. Well, there is also a chip and pin type system for Internet transactions available for customers within Ireland and the UK, known as “Verified by Visa” and “Mastercard SecureCode”. By installing this system into your checkout process, it will lower your risk, shift the chargeback responsiblity over to your bank and generally make dealing with customers online much more secure for you and for them. More information at www.realex.ie.

Well, that’s generally what you need from a business/technology standpoint to start trading online. You, of course, will need the staff to process orders, the stock, policies, marketing, etc. but I’m not covering any of that here. I hope this helps you in understanding some of the things you need to start selling online but do contact us if you have questions. We’ll be glad to help!