What do I need to set up or secure a website, to accept online payments?

[OrganizedFellow]

I landed a new client a couple days ago. They operate a little boutique at the local mall. They sell little nicknacks, decorations, etc. nothing big, heavy, nor expensive. But they say they would be able to sell in bulk quantity in the future.

So I want to have their website ready and capable for that likelihood in the future if they should need it.

What do I need to set up or secure a website, to accept online payments?

[Joss]

To start with, payments should always be handled by a payment provider like Pay Pal or worldpay or sage or one of that lot. You should NEVER be keeping payment information on the server with the website.

Next, there is an argument that ALL new websites should have certificated now - Google has said they would prefer such sites in results to give users more confidence, which makes sense.

All hosting providers supply certificates with many of them doing free offers. It is just a question of following the wizards through when you set up the account, to be honest. 

[pwired]

Paypal is clearly on the side of the buyers for their own popularity.

I stopped with paypal because of too many buyers changing their address after placing an order.

The goods never arrived and paypal refunds their money, even in case where I could prove the change

in address after the order was placed. Paypal don't care about the sellers.

They even stopped replying on my emails.

Since then I only work with direct bank transfers. Funny that with bank transfers buyers don't seem

to change their address after placing an order. I use an extension that automatically sends an email

to the buyer each time the state of his order changes, until the order is closed: 1. in process,

2. payment received 3. prepared for shipping 4. send 5. arrived 6. closed. Works perfectly

with an online tracking system. All automated emails also include the clients sales history.

I am not telling you not to use paypal, use it by all means and see how it works for you.

[woop]

Stripe seems like an interesting alternative to PayPal. Pete worked on a module some time ago: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4363-stripe-arrives-to-continental-europe/

[OrganizedFellow]

Next, there is an argument that ALL new websites should have certificated now - Google has said they would prefer such sites in results to give users more confidence, which makes sense.

All hosting providers supply certificates with many of them doing free offers. It is just a question of following the wizards through when you set up the account, to be honest. 

Yeah, makes solid sense when you put it that way.

For just a few bucks more, I think it's a good idea to renew the SSL certificate along with the domain.

Paypal is clearly on the side of the buyers for their own popularity.

I stopped with paypal because of too many buyers changing their address after placing an order.

The goods never arrived and paypal refunds their money, even in case where I could prove the change

in address after the order was placed. Paypal don't care about the sellers.

They even stopped replying on my emails.

Since then I only work with direct bank transfers. Funny that with bank transfers buyers don't seem

to change their address after placing an order. I use an extension that automatically sends an email

to the buyer each time the state of his order changes, until the order is closed: 1. in process,

2. payment received 3. prepared for shipping 4. send 5. arrived 6. closed. Works perfectly

with an online tracking system. All automated emails also include the clients sales history.

I am not telling you not to use paypal, use it by all means and see how it works for you.

Sounds like a terrible time you had with PayPal.

Stripe seems like an interesting alternative to PayPal. Pete worked on a module some time ago: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4363-stripe-arrives-to-continental-europe/

Looks like I/we will be going with Stripe.

He is incredibly NON technical, so will probably leave all the decision making up to me.