A payment gateway is a software that your web developer orengineer will have to incorporate into your web site.

This is software that may or may not include a shoppingcart, a system that allows visitors to your online merchant site to browsethrough your products and add them to a virtual cart, much like a shopping cartat a super mall.

The visitor will ultimately keep or remove items from thecart and pay for the remaining items through the payment gateway.

A payment gateway may or may not be linked to your merchantbank account. This depends on the type of online merchant solution you havechosen. You may have had the software created especially for your site; in thiscase the software will naturally accept all credit cards and will be linked tothe major credit card processing companies such as VISA or MasterCard.

The software will also be linked to your merchant bankaccount. Customers can use this software to pay for services and products usingcredit cards, debit cards and bank transfers.

When someone uses a card or online banking to make a paymentthe user is connected to the bank that issues the card and the money istransferred to the bank within a matter of days. Nevertheless, you may go aheadand complete the transaction by delivering the product to the customer as thepayment will definitely come through.

Online merchant solutions are a way of taking your businessto your customers instead of waiting for them to come to you. The onlinepayment systems are an added advantage as anyone will like to have convenienceat their fingertips.