How payments work on an eCommerce website

If you want the ability to take payments online - whether as a donation to your charity, or as payment for a product/service you’re providing, you’ll need an eCommerce site.

There are two ways of taking payments on a website - and they’re very different:

  • You don't incorporate eCommerce functionality into your site - you just link your site to another site that  provides payment services - for example PayPal or WorldPay. The advantage is that you don’t have to pay for building the functionality to take payments online. But the disadvantage for your users is that they’ll leave your site to process their payment (which can be confusing), and they may have to set up an account with that payment provider, adding another step into the payment process.
  • You build your site to take payments online - in other words, build an eCommerce which allows a direct payment from the customer into your bank account. This article outlines what you’ll need to set up to make this happen:

An online merchant account (this is different to your offline merchant account). The bank that you choose (and it doesn't have tp be your main business bank) will give you an online Merchant ID when you sign up to their online payment service. They will charge you for every transaction they process (usually a different rate for credit and debit card transactions).

A Payment Service Provider (for example, we recommend Sage Pay - the new name for Protx). These guys are the people who actually make the payment happen, and keep your customers’ card details secure. You’ll need to set up an account with a PSP, using your Merchant ID, and you’ll also pay them a fee.

You’ll also need to buy a security certificate, to show that your website is secure.

The credit card details of the transaction are not actually stored within your website - they are handled by the PSP. That means you don’t have to worry about hackers getting the details from you - you don’t have them!


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