Is Your Shopping Cart Safe?

There are a lot of technical things that go along with Merchant Providers and the security of a shopping cart, but as you know we try to lay this out simply for you.  You would like to think that when you’re dealing with a large company, everything is taken care of and both you and your customers are safe and out of risk.  Well, this isn’t always the case.

What does it take to offer a completely secure and safe shopping cart?
 There are regulations put on by the Payment Card Industry (Better known as PCI) that each business needs to be in compliance with.  To be in compliance, there are a number of fees to pay, hoops to jump though, and standards that are always changing.  Here are just a couple of quick ways to determine a safe shopping cart.  During the checkout period in your shopping cart (when your clients put in thier credit cards) the domain name should read:  https:// meaning 128 bit encrypted and secure.  Secondly, you cannot store credit cards online.  Just because you have bought a prebuilt shopping cart, don’t assume you and your customers are safe!  Are you?
*While there are companies in our industry that follow all the regulations put on by the Payment Card Industry (PCI); if you are using their shopping cart, you may not be following the regulations and be at risk of being charged thousands of dollars by the credit card industry!  Services that allow online storage of credit cards without YOU personally being in PCI compliance, puts you at risk.

Is PhotoBiz Safe and Secure?
If you have a PhotoBiz Shopping Cart, you ARE completely safe and secure.  Not only do we comply with all of the PCI regulations, but your shopping cart makes you in compliance as well.  We DO NOT store any credit cards online and we are keeping up to date with any new regulations that come up.  The shopping cart that you are using may be safe now, but these regulations change constantly.  Is your shopping cart provider Cloud Computing which will allow them to update your shopping cart to abide by this changing industry?

All Work on Us!
If you have read our previous article on Cloud Computing, you know that we are cloud computing here at PhotoBiz which allows us to update your shopping cart with these ever changing regulations by the Payment Card Industry.  There are many PCI Regulations to follow and SSL certificates to obtain.  When setting up a shopping cart on your own, you will need to do all of this yourself.  Also, in an ever evolving industry these regulations put on by PCI can be costly to keep up with yearly.  Many Merchants out there are simply NOT PCI Compliant which will in turn make your shopping cart not PCI compliant and unsafe.  By setting up your shopping cart with us, we take on the burden of the biggest struggle in offering a safe and secure website.  This makes your business safe and worry free.

The right Merchant can save you Lots O’ Money!
Generally, when setting up a Merchant account, you will really want to read the fine print.  There are often many hidden fees that can be quite costly to your overall profit margin.  Here at PhotoBiz, we have been able to gain an Alliance with a major merchant provider that offers all PhotoBiz clients an extra special deal!  Normally, when you set up a merchant account, there are a number of fees to pay.  An Application Fee, Set-up Fee, Monthly Fee, and a Statement Fee are just a few.  With Itransact, you pay none of those fees and only have to pay a small transaction fee and charge.  Take a look!

                                             Itransact (PhotoBiz Preferred Vendor)                                    
Fees                                      Plan “A”                                       Plan “B”                   Industry Standard
Set up Fee                              $49                                                $0                                   $50-$100
Application Fee                      $0                                                  $0                                   $200-$300
Monthly Fee                            $0                                                  $0                                   $20-$40
Transaction Rate                  2.19%                                           2.89%                              2.15%-5%
Transaction Charge              $.19                                               $.20                                $.20-$.50
Statement Fees                     $9.95                                             $0                                   $5-$20
*Keep a look out for our future articles that focus on Itransact more thoroughly!