Guide to E-Commerce in Ireland
How you go about setting up an online store, is largely tied to your requirements and budget. This guide is intended to broadly explain several of the options open to a business owner to setting up an online store.
The 3 requirements to start accepting credit cards online are
- Internet Merchant Account
- Payment Service Provider (PSP)
- E-commerce enabled web hosting
For smaller businesses who are not expecting huge sales, or who may be just 'testing the water', it can be a good idea to look at signing up with a third-party processor.
Irish Internet Merchant Account
You will need to talk to your bank about getting an Internet Merchant Account which will allow you to accept funds from internet credit card transactions.
Related Links:
Bank of Ireland
Allied Irish Bank
Ulster Bank
Payment Service Provider
Your Payment Service Provider is responsible for providing the real-time credit card transation technology for use with your website. When a customer enters their credit card details on your site, the PSP will talk to their bank and authorise or decline the credit card. If accepted, the funds will be deposited to your account, and the transaction is complete.
Related Links:
Realex Payments
euroConex
World Pay
E-commerce enabled web hosting
It is very imporatant that your web hosting plan is capable of keeping your customer's information secure. You will have to look for hosting which either comes with a shared SSL cert or is capable of installing your own SSL cert so consumer data can be encrypted. If you project to get a lot of traffic to your website, you will also have to check that your hosting plan has enough bandwidth to handle it, and that you can buy additional bandwidth on demand.
Acid E-Commerce enabled Hostings:
Small Business Hosting
Corporate Hosting
Other Related Links:
Enterprise Ireland
eBusiness
E-Commerce Gov IE
ENN E-Commerce News
