How to Select a Payment Processor

Asynchronous batch transmissions work like a CB or walkie-talkie: One party transmits, then stops to wait while receiving a transmission back from the other party. Meanwhile, bisynchronous communications are like phone calls: Both parties can transmit at the same time.

A top-notch payment processor won’t impose a transmission window (a scheduled time) on your transmissions, and also will have methods in place to look for transmissions of duplicate batches or transmissions of duplicate data (order numbers with the same amounts) within a batch. A top-notch processor also will have options for fraud-detection modules that can supplement procedures you already have in place. (For more information on this issue and the topic of credit-card chargebacks, see Catalog Success, November 2001, www.catalogsuccess.com).