What about the requirement that any code that touches CC payments has to be PCI compliant? Doesn't these leave only PayPal and Auth.NET as the only option for smaller players?
Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
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Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#12Suddenly the App Store doesn't seem so bad.
That's pretty poignant. We pay dearly for it, but the App Store and in-app purchasing is about as easy as processing payments can get.
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#13What about the requirement that any code that touches CC payments has to be PCI compliant? Doesn't these leave only PayPal and Auth.NET as the only option for smaller players? ref: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1314560
If you use an API like Braintree's Transparent Redirect ( http://bit.ly/d5wD4P ) you can host the payment form on your site without touching any credit card data. That way you won't have to deal with the drawbacks of redirecting your customers to a third party hosted page. Disclosure: I work for Braintree.
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#14Sachin - the online payments industry is indeed very complex. I'm impressed that you both took the time to write this up and did such a nice job. I would add a few things. (Disclosure: I'm with Braintree)
1) There is much more than meets the eye when choosing a merchant account provider, and not all are created equal (it's very true that few understand online payments). We will be first to say that providing merchant account services to online merchants is very challenging for a host of reasons. Because it's so complex and because there are so many moving parts, no one is immune to mistakes, misunderstandings, complex situations and difficult situations. With that said, the importance of choosing the right provider cannot be overstated. Merchants need to find a company they can trust because when stuff happens (i.e. account closure, reserves) you need someone in your corner that can help navigate. In our experience, merchants are most likely to make mistakes when solely focused on price.
2) I'm very pleased to see you call out data portability. We were the first in the industry to start raising the alarm bells about providers holding stored credit card data hostage. It's a huge issue with very serious implications. To address this problem, we created the Credit Card Data Portability Standard and invited all providers to participate (http://bit.ly/a0i86v).
We've been blogging about the industry for years now trying to help educate merchants. Here is are two resources to contribute to yours:
a) New to Payments - http://bit.ly/cIY58t b) Don't get duped. Use this checklist - http://bit.ly/dliMpH
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true from a rational perspective, but people aren't rational. They have expectations of a nice, consistent experience that doesn't bounce them from one service to another. I'm working on a business-oriented startup that requires credit card transactions, and part of my desire to have payments on my own site is because of the signal it sends out that you have your stuff together.
Precisely it. Everyone knows anyone can throw up a Paypal link, but to have the transaction go through on your site makes it feel more official. Sure, it's not completely rational, but people sometimes like it better (alternatively, some people will only pay through Paypal, but unfortunately I can't sell my merchandise through Paypal/Google/Amazon).
to have the transaction go through on your site makes it feel more official
You tech people keep forgetting that reading a URL bar requires superpowers. I guaranteed you, having suffered many customer support incidents because of this: many people cannot tell the difference between getting redirected to Google/Paypal and the site they were originally on. (For that matter, a huge portion of my customers don't understand that I am not Yahoo or Internet Explorer.)
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#16Sachin - the online payments industry is indeed very complex. I'm impressed that you both took the time to write this up and did such a nice job. I would add a few things. (Disclosure: I'm with Braintree) 1) There is much more than meets the eye when choosing a merchant account provider, and not all are created equal (it's very true that few understand online payments). We will be first to say that providing merchant…
Bryan,
Can you add an email to your profile, or shoot me one?
Really, it's good to have a human being reachable. I was at your site all morning, comparing you to Zuora, and this couldn't have come a better time.
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#17Wow, top story on HN. Thanks, folks! I wanted to call out a number of things I glossed over to see if it's worth doing a follow up or seventeen:
* Personal guarantee. Most merchant account providers require a personal guarantee. I signed one for Dawdle.com, but I never would again, even if it costs me more.
* Recurring billing. There are a number of startups focused here, including Recurly, Chargify, Spreedly, and CheddarGetter.
* PCI compliance. The physical access tenet makes it technically impossible to be compliant if you're using any cloud hosting provider for e-commerce; in reality, almost no one is PCI compliant.
* Gateways. There are a bunch. ActiveMerchant (Ruby gem open sourced by the good folks at Shopify) can do basic handshakes with most. There isn't an AM equivalent for Python, PHP, or other common languages that I know of.
* Processors. First Data ostensibly processes 75% of credit cards in the U.S. This is a more academic topic than the others, but it's terribly interesting if you want to understand why online payments are the clusterfuck they are.
* Chargebacks. You'll almost never win one.
* AVS and CVV. They protect you, but goddamn, are they expensive to process. AVS can sometimes cost you a dime (or more!) every time you check a card - and it rarely works on non-U.S. addresses (and American Express often fucks up apartment addresses even within the U.S.).
* Vaults versus reference transactions. Reference transactions are an elegant way to handle credit card data, but they lock you into the gateway. Vaults give you portability, but those providers are always more expensive than the ref tranx folks.Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Precisely it. Everyone knows anyone can throw up a Paypal link, but to have the transaction go through on your site makes it feel more official. Sure, it's not completely rational, but people sometimes like it better (alternatively, some people will only pay through Paypal, but unfortunately I can't sell my merchandise through Paypal/Google/Amazon).
to have the transaction go through on your site makes it feel more official You tech people keep forgetting that reading a URL bar requires superpowers. I guaranteed you, having suffered many customer support incidents because of this: many people cannot tell the difference between getting redirected to Google/Paypal and the site they were originally on. (For that matter, a huge portion of my customers don't understa…
This is true. But it precludes you from doing two-click checkouts on the second transaction (wink wink) and real users really don't have a problem whipping out their credit cards on a new site.
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#19If you want another perspective on this, we have to answer these kinds of questions a trillion times a week at FreshBooks. We're posting a guide to help people get through it. The most salient post is Part II, which helps people choose their gateways. http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2010/04/30/part-2-how-do-paym... Speaking as someone who frequently has to call into the payment gateways' customer support on behalf of…
How easy/painful would it be to switch from PayPal Standard to Authorize.Net or PayPal Payflow Pro, if the situation arises?
Re: Introduction To Online Payments - TL;DR: It's A Total Bitch
#20Sachin - the online payments industry is indeed very complex. I'm impressed that you both took the time to write this up and did such a nice job. I would add a few things. (Disclosure: I'm with Braintree) 1) There is much more than meets the eye when choosing a merchant account provider, and not all are created equal (it's very true that few understand online payments). We will be first to say that providing merchant…
Bryan, Can you add an email to your profile, or shoot me one? Really, it's good to have a human being reachable. I was at your site all morning, comparing you to Zuora, and this couldn't have come a better time.
bryan.johnson@getbraintree.com