Public Perceptions re card transactions online

I would suggest that a payment provider such as Protx or SECPay can give a small website more credibility, although generally if you use a third party site for payment then your own checkout process won't be under SSL (though it can be of course). Once you can build a site that really looks the business (regardless of how large the company actually is), then you can perhaps look at the direct payment processing methods where the customer remains within the website at all times. These options do require SSL, but that also means that you can tag up your site with "trusted" logos and so on.

As a customer, I am an educated buyer so perhaps not so useful for advice in that respect, but a number of our clients use a number of methods, all of which seem to work at a similar level of customer preference;
PayPal, SecPay, Protx, in-line (for later processing on their PDQ machine), HSBC

At the end of the day, if you explain exactly what is going on at each step of the process, without making it too lengthy then the customer should be happy.

For our clients that give the customer a choice, they often add a small fee for the PayPal route due to the extortionate fees... which doesn't appear to discourage buyers which is perhaps a little surprising. Depends on your market I guess.

I'm no expert but can tell you my experiences.

We started out just using Paypal as our only payment method. This worked ok but we lost sales with people having trouble using it and I felt a little bit amature, like you say 'chatsworth estate'.

The we upgraded and we now use Protx. This works well and we still have the Paypal option which people still use every now and then. I don't believe we loose any sales to lack of trust but it's hard to tell.

When we have a bit more funds and time I do plan on having a smooth transaction and SSL cert so customers never leave our site. I'll always leave paypal as an option though (sometimes people don't have a card on them to pay)

Peter

'Matt- the flipside of the coin is that small businesses can be very busy, and the only way for them to increase their sales without it costing an arm and a leg in new staff is to get more people to buy online...

"oh no, not the phone again, why can't he just use the website?"

Just a small penny for your thoughts regarding the level of security.

I know and understand the effectiveness and security of SSL but I have bought off certain sites which have pertained to have SSL but my card has still been scammed.

For this reason as a customer, I would have no problem being redirected to a secure payment system such as Protx. Simultaneously, as a new, small business, I think that Protx offers both myself and my customers added security for a minimal level of hassle and cost.

As I said, just another opinion.

Mister B