Logging on to the shop, you skim down the product list. Finding what you want, you press buy, and a few minutes later you receive the postage notification.
If your application involves selling a product, you will need Payment Integration to allow the customer to purchase off you.
Whether it’s just a link to accept donations, or a full blown credit card integration service, you have to make sure that the user can easily and smoothly pay. Even in these economic times, the number of people purchasing online is skyrocketing year after year. More and more people have computers of their own, worldwide. The time has never been better to put your product online!
Happiness is a positive cash flow. (Fred Adler - Venture capitalist)
You have several considerations when you are choosing a payment provider. You have many options, from a merchant account with your bank, to choosing a payment provider such as Paypal.
Some of them are fast and easy to integrate from a technical side (so costing you less to integrate into your application), but may charge 1% more as a transaction fee.
Some might allow you unparalleled access to your customers, but require extensive (and expensive) security audits to ensure your servers are secure enough to process their information.
There is no single best solution...there are solutions for whatever your business needs. It’s up to you to decide what is wanted.
When considering a payment solution, you aren't asking for something that has never been done before. Accepting payment through your application is a standard problem, and one with many different solutions out there. It is certainly something that should be considered for any external facing application.
