shopping cart software

To download the full Version 5 Manual, please go to http://manual.volusion.com

Show me the money! Merchants of course need to provide methods of payment to their customers as well as collect those but will that be check, cash or charge? Just as with other portions of the software, Volusion Version 5 allows merchants the flexibility to configure and tailor their stores' payment collection options to their needs. The Volusion Payment and Security Wizard takes the guesswork out of configuring payment options to customers while the advanced settings allow customers to fine-tune their store's payment options as needed.

This chapter will explain how customers can configure payment types within Volusion as well as set up Volusion to communicate with a dedicated, electronic payment gateways and configure V5 to handle issues such as credit collection security.

Getting Started:

Volusion merchants can gain access to payment settings initially through the Volusion Payment & Security Wizard from within the Volusion Administration Page. This page is divided into three major sections which are covered in this chapter - Payment Methods, Payment Gateways and Credit Card Storage Policies. There are some more advanced settings that will be covered in this chapter as well as some tips for merchants on how to configure their stores' payment options.

Part I - Configuring Payment Methods:

This portion of the Volusion store will define which payment options merchants will accept from their customers. To access and enable these settings, do the following:

• Log into the Volusion Admin Page and click on the Settings tab.
• Click on the Payment link in the gray menu bar. This redirects to the Payment and Security Wizard.
• Under the Payment Methods heading, simply click the checkbox next to a payment method to enable that option for customers.
• Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Payment & Security Wizard to make changes active within the Volusion store.
• Note that most electronic payment gateways support all major payment methods but its recommended to contact payment gateway providers regarding which methods can be used.

Note:

Merchants wishing to accepting payment via Paypal will need to provide the email address they have registered with their Paypal account. This email address must be entered into the Payment Methods field marked, Paypal Email Address.

Part II - Setting Up a Payment Gateway:

One of the most important decisions a merchant can make is which electronic payment gateway they will use to process incoming payments to their Volusion store. Ideally, merchants will want a payment gateway that is easy to integrate with Volusion, provides many features (e.g. authorizing, capturing, crediting and voiding payments) and provides a reliable, stable platform to process customers' payments.

For US-based merchants, the answer to the choice of which payment gateway they should integrate with is simple! Volusion Merchant Services provides a full-featured, stable and affordable payment platform with Skipjack! Merchants in need of a reliable payment processor can sign up with Skipjack directly through Volusion Merchant Services. Visit the "Click here to learn more" link within the Payment Gateways section of this wizard or visit Volusion.com for more information.

For Volusion merchants based outside of the United States, there are many gateways Volusion can integrate with. Which gateways stores have access to can differ depending on the region in which a business is based. Please review the following link for more information on Volusion-supported gateways.

For further questions or concerns regarding payment gateway integration, please contact Volusion technical support.

Configuring Gateway Information:

Once a merchant has decided which payment gateway they will be using with their Volusion store, integrating that gateway is simple.

• Log into the Volusion Administration Page and click on the Settings tab.
• Click on the Payment link in the gray menu bar. This will redirect to the Volusion Payment & Security Wizard.
• Under the heading, Payment Gateways, select which country the business is based in via the drop-down menu labeled, "Merchant Gateway Country".
• Then, select which payment gateway to use within the drop-down menu labeled, "Merchant Gateway Name". Note that this menu will only display gateways associated with the country chosen in the previous drop-down.
• A dialog box will then appear that will contain fields for the required integration information for a particular gateway.
• This information is particular to each different gateway. The fields listed in this dialogue are the only fields required by Volusion to register the gateway with the store.
• This information should be available from each respective electronic gateway after having registered with the provider of choice. Please see special notes below regarding integration with specific gateways.
• Once the above settings have been configured, click Save Changes at the bottom of the wizard and Volusion V5 will now be configured for the use with the merchant's respective gateway of choice.

Example:

For a merchants with SkipJack payment gateway accounts, here are the following instructions for configuring Volusion V5 to use SkipJack :

• Log into the Volusion Admin Page, go to the Payment & Security Wizard.
• Under the Payment Gateway heading, select United States as the merchant's country.
• Select "Volusion Merchant Services [SKIPJACK]" as the gateway.
• SkipJack requires an HTML Serial Number and a Developer Serial Number to be entered within the wizard.
• Merchants can obtain this by logging into their SkipJack accounts.
• Enter the serial numbers into the Payment & Security Wizard and click the Save Changes button at the bottom. That's it!

Note:

For customers wishing to setup their Volusion accounts for use with supported gateways listed online at Volusion.com but not listed within the gateway dropdown menu, please contact Volusion technical support for further assistance.

For further information on which credit card payment gateways integrate with Volusion V5 and which features these gateways support, please see the Volusion V5 Manual Appendix: Volusion V5 Payment Gateway Integration Information.

Configuring Electronic Checks:

Some may wish to offer electronic checks or e-checks as a payment method for customers. Volusion provides e-check integration with several major payment gateway providers (note, this integration differs from the standard credit payment gateway information) including Authorize.net, Verisign Payflow Pro, USAEpay and TransFirst. Once registered with one of the aforementioned providers for e-check service, configuring the Volusion store to accept e-checks is simple:

• Log into the Volusion Admin Page and click on the Settings tab.
• Click on the Payment link in the gray menu bar.
• Within the Payment & Security page, under Payment Methods, make sure the Electronic Check payment method option is enabled.
• Under the Payment Gateways header, select the appropriate provider from the "Electronic Check Gateway Name" drop-down menu.
• Much like the credit payment gateway settings, each e-check service requires a set of information to be entered into the Volusion wizard.
• The names and text boxes for these fields will be displayed once the e-check provider is chosen from the previous drop-down menu.
• Merchants can obtain the access key information by contacting their provider or logging into their e-check service's online account. Enter the access information into the fields provided in the Volusion wizard, click Save Changes and that's it!

Note:

Due the nature of the e-check payment method, merchants using e-checks must configure their store's authorization method to "Authorize and Capture at Sale". Once an e-check payment is authorized, the payment gateway will attempt to capture payment for the e-check immediately thereafter. Setting the store authorization method to "Authorize and Capture at Sale" will prevent the payment gateway from attempting to capture funds from the e-check payment more than once.

Part III - Credit Card Storage Policies:

The following is a very important portion of Volusion's payment configuration settings. The "Credit Card Storage Policies" portion of the Payment & Security page governs how long a Volusion store retains customer credit card data from the initial order and until the data is deleted from the system.

By default, Volusion stores are configured to use the most secure credit card storage settings at the highest level of compliancy with the Payment Card Industry Security Consortium's electronic data security guidelines.

Initially, merchants must configure how their store will authorize and capture customers' credit payments. By default, Volusion V5 is configured for the most security-compliant setting however, merchants may need to make changes to the authorization/capture mode depending on their gateway or other requirements. The following explains the different authorization/capture modes that can be configured:

Credit Card Authorization/Capture Modes
Authorize at Sale, Capture at Shipping.	This is the setting most recommended by Volusion. Many payment gateways support this mode of authorization and capture. In this mode, all orders will be immediately authorized for payment once the order is created. Funds from each customer account however will not be collected until the product is processed and marked as shipped within Volusion.
Authorize and Capture at shipping	This mode authorizes and captures funds from each order the moment the order is created. This setting is not as compliant with electronic payment security or consumer law best practices. However, as is the case with gateway providers such as Paypal, this mode may be the only authorization/capture mode supported by some gateways. Please refer to Volusion's online list of supported gateways for more information.
I'll do Everything at Shipping	This mode sets all Volusion order payment to be processed by the merchant manually. This setting is only recommended for merchants who wish to manage every aspect of their store's order process or are using a 3rd party order fulfillment service which requires this type of setting.

Note:

Unchecking the box labeled, "Use most secure settings" will reveal the full set of credit data storage settings available.

Volusion allows access to configure how stores retain credit card information for credit processing purposes due to requirements of various supported payment gateways. Volusion recommends using the safest and most compliant credit card data storage settings when applicable, based on a merchant's chosen gateway. The choice of how to configure these settings is left up to the merchant's discretion. As mentioned before, please refer to Volusion's online list of supported gateways and their features to determine what is supported with each respective gateway.

The different credit card storage policies are explained as follows:

Credit Card Storage Policy Settings
Authorize	This setting deletes credit/debit card data immediately after the card has been successfully authorized for payment. For fully-supported gateways, merchants can still capture, credit, debit and void transactions once an authorization has been obtained. This is the most secure setting and the one that Volusion recommends using.
Capture	Credit/Debit card data will be deleted after authorized funds have been credited or debited. Some gateways require this setting to be enabled in order to function with Volusion. Please refer to Volusion online list of supported gateways and features for more information.
Ship	The setting keeps credit/debit card data stored within the Volusion system until the order is processed and marked as "Shipped". This setting may be required for a small number of gateways. Volusion only recommends only using this setting if absolutely necessary.
Never	This setting configures Volusion to store credit card data until the maximum number of days stored setting is reached (see below). This setting is the least secure and compliant with the PCI Security Consortium's policies. Volusion provides this feature for merchants as-is and recommends only using it if absolutely necessary.

The Field following the credit card storage settings table as outline above is marked, "Keep payment information for maximum of ___ days". Merchnats will be required to specify a number in this text box if they choose to set their credit card data storage policies to "Never". Choosing the "Never" setting will cause Volusion to store credit card data for each order from the initial date of the order for a total of the number of days specified in this text box. Again, this setting is the least compliant in terms of PCI security polices and Volusion does not recommend using it unless deemed absolutely necessary.

Under the "Keep payment information for maximum of ___ days" setting, there are additional settings available that govern Volusion credit authorization/collection modes. These settings are identical in function to the ones described in the above Credit Card Authorization/Capture Modes table. Some addition information regarding these settings is also available here.

Note on Recurring Payments and Credit Card Policies:

Merchants offering products configured for recurring payments (e.g. magazine subscriptions) will want to set their credit card storage policy option to "Never" (as in never remove data from the system) and redefine the default value of days to keep credit card data to a value that will cover the length of time they will need to bill their customers on a recurring basis (e.g. 9,999 days). This setting can be found in the Volusion Admin Page under the Settings tab by clicking on the Payment link and then disabling the "Use Most Secure Settings" option.

Merchants will need to do this as the Volusion store's default credit storage policies will purge credit card data, preventing them from being able to collect recurring payments from customers.

Part IV - Advanced Settings:

The Volusion V5 Payment & Security Wizard covers all settings merchants may need to configure in order to provide payment options to their customers as well as enable merchants to process those payments. However, there are additional, advanced settings that merchants can gain access to in order to further fine-tune their Volusion store's payment settings.

• Log into the Volusion Administration Page and click the Settings tab.
• Next, click the Payment link in the gray menu bar to access the Volusion Payment & Security Wizard.
• Click on the "Switch to Advanced Mode" tab in the top right portion of the wizard to access advanced payment method settings.

The following page contains the Volusion Payment Methods table. This table contains a list of every payment method stored within the Volusion database. From here, advanced settings for each payment method listed in the Payment & Security Wizard can be configured. Click on the blue Add button to create additional, custom payment methods if needed.

To edit a payment method, click on the method's ID number. Payment methods have the following settings:

Details
PaymentMethodID*	This is a number automatically assigned to payment IDs for identification purposes.
PaymentMethodType*	This drop-down menu defined what type of payment the method takes the form of (e.g. cash, credit card, electronic check, etc). Note that only payment types listed within the drop-down menu here can be chosen.
PaymentMethod*	This text field is the label for the payment method as it will be displayed to merchants and customers.
PaymentMethodActive*	Checking this box enables the payment method and will display it in the list of available methods to customers upon checkout. Unchecking this option will disable the payment method.
PaymentOrderBy*	This numeric value affects the order the payment method will be displayed in the list of methods to choose from upon checkout. The lower the number, the higher the method will appear in the list.
PaymentMethod_SpecialValue1	This text field is provided to hold auxiliary information that may be required by certain payment methods or processors. For example, in order to enable the Paypal payment method, merchants will be required to enter their Paypal email ID in this field.
PaymentMethod_SpecialValue2	This is an additional field, similar in function to "PaymentMethodSpecialValue1". It may be required by certain payment methods.

* These fields are required to be defined for each payment method.

Simply modify or make changes to new payment methods and then click Save Changes to apply those settings to the method.

Please note, as stated within the Volusion Payment Methods table, DO NOT DELETE PAYMENT METHODS. Some payment methods are required to be present in the Volusion database in order for the system to function properly - even if those payment methods are not utilized by the merchant. In this instance, Volusion recommends simply unchecking the payment method option within the Payment Methods table or within the Payment & Security Wizard in order to make any unused method inactive.

Special Settings and Tips:

Notes on Specific Gateway Registration:

As already mentioned, Volusion V5 provides a wide variety of payment options for merchants to utilize as well as provides integration with many payment gateways. Some payment gateways have additional requirements beyond the basic set-up and integration with Volusion's Payment & Security Wizard. These additional requirements take the form of security certificates that must be registered with Volusion's hosted server environment. These security certificates perform a task similar to SSL certificates in that the form of a secure "handshake" that provides the respective payment gateway provider indentification of the merchant processing credit information with the processor. If a merchant is utilizing the following gateways:

Linkpoint or Paypal Pro

Merchants will be required to obtain a security certificate from the gateway provider. This certificate must be registered with the Volusion store to complete the payment gateway set-up. To complete this step, do the following:

• Volusion must receive a copy of the security certificate to install it within the Volusion store.
• Merchants do not have access to install the certificate directly, they will have to contact Volusion.
• Merchants should send Volusion technical support a service ticket from their account at my.volusion.com.
• Within the ticket, include in the subject line, "Security certificate installation request - X" where X will be the payment gateway type (e.g. Paypal Pro).
• Be sure to attach the security certificate to the service ticket.
• Once Volusion technical support staff receives the service ticket, they will install the attached security certificate and send a confirmation reply through my.volusion.com.

Setting Up Google Checkout:

Volusion Version 5 has even more payment options for merchants by providing integration with Google Checkout! Google Checkout is Google's new electronic payment service similar to Paypal. Intigration is done online and is easy to configure. Note that Google Checkout is currently only available for the United States. The following details how to Volusion V5 for use with Google Checkout:

• First, merchants wishing to utilize this payment option will need to register for a Google checkout account by going to checkout.google.com and clicking the "Sign Up Now" button.
• Once signed up with an account, log into Google Checkout and under the Account Information link, retrieve the following information: merchant ID and merchant key.
• Next, log into the Volusion Admin Page and click on the Settings tab.
• Click on the Payment link in the gray menu bar, then click on the "Switch to Advanced Mode" tab at the top of the Payment & Security Wizard page.
• This will redirect to the Volusion Payment Methods page. Click on the link marked, "Click here to configure Google Checkout".
• This will redirect to the "Google Checkout: Quick Setup" page. Here, enter the Google Checkout merchant ID and merchant key into the appropriate fields and click the Save button.

There are some additional steps merchants must complete to completely configure Volusion Version 5 to communicate with Google Checkout. Now, the Google Checkout account must be configured to communicate with Volusion V5:

• Log into the Google Checkout account and click on the Settings tab.
• Within Settings, click on the Integration link.
• On the next page, check the box labeled, "Shopping cart post security".
• Next, in the field marked, "API Callback URL", enter the following:
• https://yourdomainname/net/Webservice_Google_Checkout.aspx *
• In the Callback Method field, select XML.
• Navigate to the Advanced Settings portion link from this page and ensure that none of the advanced options are selected.

* Note - merchants should replace "yourdomainname" with the actual domain of their Volusion store.

One final step is required to configure Volusion V5 to use Google Checkout. Special shipping rates must be made available for customers choosing Google Checkout as their payment method. The following will explain how to do this:

• Once merchants have configured their Volusion store with Google Checkout's merchant ID and merchant key information, they should already be on the "Google Checkout: Quick Setup" page within the Volusion Admin Page.
• At the top of this page, click the blue Add button to create a new set of shipping rules for Google Checkout.
• This redirects to the "Google Checkout: Shipping Rates" page. Here, configure the following:

Google Checkout: Shipping Rates
Name*	Provide a name for the Google Checkout shipping method(s).
Cost_Base_Rate	Values entered here will be the base amount charged for shipping on any order processed using Google Checkout.
Cost_Per_Pound	Values entered here will be the amount charged per pound for shipping on orders processed using Google Checkout. Note that shipping costs defined here add to any shipping cost provided in the "Cost_Base_Rate field".
ApplyTo_States	This field allows the choice of which US states the Google Checkout shipping method will apply to. Merchants can choose one, some or all US states to apply to. Merchants can also choose to ship to the United Kingdom.

* This field is required for each Google Checkout shipping method.

Click the Add New button to create the initial Google Checkout shipping method. Once created, merchants can choose to create additional Google Checkout payment methods simply by clicking on the blue Add button near the top of the page.

The setup process for Google Checkout is now complete. Customers placing orders will now be given an option to select Google Checkout as a payment method. A Google Checkout button will appear within the checkout process and once merchants click on this button, they will be redirected to Google Checkout to complete their order.

Notes on Using Google Checkout:

Google Checkout is more than just a payment collection method for merchants - it also processes shipping for orders. Due to this special nature of the service, Google Checkout requires its own, independent set of shipping methods within Volusion. The Google Checkout shipping methods described in the instructions above are completely independent of other shipping settings within Volusion and only those settings will be utilized by Google Checkout

Another function regarding Google Checkout worth noting is that due to the nature of this service, information sent to Google Checkout for order processing is retained within Google's system but it not reported back to Volusion. Merchants using Google Checkout will be required to process orders and collect payments made with Google Checkout within the Google Checkout site only. This information cannot be processed within Volusion.

Please note that due to the nature of Google Checkout's payment process structure, this payment option is incompatible with gift certificate purchases as well as purchasing products that are configured for automatic, recurring payments. This payment option should not be used in conjunction with these types of store products.

Summary:

Volusion Version 5 provides a wide variety of payment methods to merchants who in turn, can provide this variety of choice to their customers. Payment gateway integration for some merchants may be a difficult choice but Volusion has US-based merchants covered with Volusion Merchant Services. Payment security is also a major feature of the Volusion payment system and with the ever-present security issues regarding credit information, it is an important feature within the software that merchants need to be aware of. Once the setup processes discussed in this chapter are complete, merchants will be one step close to selling online with Volusion.

Tags: payment, payment type, pci, paypal, google checkout, merchant account