Shopping carts act as the front end for e-commerce. Payment gateway services, such as Verisign or Authorizenet, drive the backend of the online store. The handoff between these two components takes place via a secure connection to ensure that customer data remains safe.
A payment gateway service channels payment requests throughout relevant financial networks, including the merchant account with your bank. The result of each payment request is exchanged between a website's shopping cart software and the gateway service to determine appropriate actions.
For example, if payment is accepted, an order confirmation is provided and the order is fulfilled. If payment is rejected, the customer is asked to resolve the error, provide an alternative method of payment, or place the order by another method.
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An alternative to using these gateway services for accepting payment is to use an express pay service on your site. In fact, you may want to offer it in addition to using the gateway services, letting the buyer decide which to use. It may prevent lost sales.
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Unfortunately, some customers never present their shopping carts for payment, resulting in abandoned shopping carts.