How Retail Processing Works - Tips on Setting Up Your Retail Merchant Account

Although retail merchant accounts are the most straight forward types of merchant accounts, you still will want to educate yourself on how to set up the account. Follow the tips below and you'll avoid some of the possible pitfalls of setting up a retail account. Give yourself enough time: While it's true that most merchant accounts can be set up in a day or two, it does sometimes take longer. It's a good idea to start thinking about setting up a merchant account at least a few weeks before you plan on using it. While you will probably be pleasantly surprised about how quickly you get set up, nothing could be more nerve wracking than waiting for the delivery of your credit card terminal on your businesses opening day. You will have plenty of other challenges in those last few days before you open your doors.

• The merchant slides the customer's card through the credit card terminal and enters the amount. The terminal dials a toll-free number and connects to processor for authorization. Once the terminal has connected it will send the credit card information and amount of the purchase.

• Processor will then pass that information onto the bank that issued the credit card. The issuing bank will then check to see if the card is valid and see if the amount requested is available on the card and set aside the amount of the purchase for the merchant.

• The issuing bank will send back an approval number or a decline message to processor.

• The information will be passed back to the credit card terminal which will print a receipt for the customer to sign if the card is approved. It will take approximately 12-15 seconds to complete steps 1-4.

• At the end of the day the merchant may manually "settle" their terminal which will begin transaction. In most cases the processor can automatically settle the transactions at a specified settlement process is initiated the funds will be transferred from the card issuing bank a electronically deposit them into the merchant's checking account.

Which credit card machines are best to use with a retail merchant account?

Hypercom T7P Retail Terminal - The Hypercom T7P is a great terminal that is well situated for a retail processing environment. Although a great terminal, all of the features offered in the T7P can be found in the T7Plus as well as a few more. Since Taurus offers the newer and better T7Plus brand new for only $216 we would strongly suggest that anyone who is interested in the T7P take advantage of the newer T7Plus that is explained below and in more detail on the Hypercom T7 Plus retail processing terminal page.

Hypercom T7 Plus Retail Terminal - The Hypercom T7Plus is by far the most popular and widely recommended credit card terminal for use with a retail merchant account. In-depth descriptions and details about this terminal can be found on the T7Plus page linked in the title above, but the main reasons retail merchants love this terminal is that it is easy to use, it has a built-in thermal printer, it is durable, and we offer it for an unbeatable price!

Lipman Nurit 2085 Retail Terminal - The Lipman Nurit 2085 retail processing terminal is just under the Hypercom T7Plus in terms of popularity. Detailed descriptions of features and functionally can be found on the 2085's specific page that is linked in the title above, but the main reasons why retail merchants will opt for this particular terminal are its ability to hold multiple merchant accounts making it an ideal choice for a retail/mail-order business, its menu navigation system, its additional reporting features, and its built-in thermal printer.

Verifone Tranz 330/P250 Combination - Long since regarded as the workhorses of the credit card processing industry the Verifone Tranz 330 and P250 printer combination are classics. Most retail business like the 330/P250 combination because they are easy to operate and inexpensive to purchase. In fact, Taurus offers the Verifone Tranz 330 free with any merchant account and the P250 can be purchase for an additional $125. The only down-side to the combination of the 330 and P250 is that they take up a bit more counter space than a terminal that has a built-in printer like those listed above.

Internet Processing

 An Internet merchant account is a financial relationship between you and a credit card processor, so funds can be deposited into your bank account. It differs from a regular merchant account in that an Internet merchant account is approved to run web initiated transactions over the Internet, while a regular account is not approved for web transactions. Usually it involves a website with real time credit card processing. At Taurus Processing, we provide you with free setup of an Internet merchant account.

A payment gateway is a remotely hosted software application that transmits transaction data (either from your website or from a virtual terminal where you manually enter or key in transactions) to a credit card processor. Our payment gateways of choice is Authorize.Net and Network Merchants as it is pre-integrated with most shopping carts, has the most features, includes a free virtual terminal for manual entry, and is the easiest to use.

E-commerce can be divided into:

• E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall"

• The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts

• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
  e-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters)

• Business-to-business buying and selling (B2B)