One of my clients added an extension to its existing business; they needed to have the ability to open micro e-commerce websites for specific periods of time. This was based on requests of its customers.
So they had a decision to make. They could have hired a web designer to create this for them, which would probably have cost a great deal of money. Or they could do what they eventually did; find a vendor who had the capacity to do this for them. The vendor they found was a merchant service vendor.
The merchant services vendor has the ability to allow them to create multiple micro e-commerce websites for all the necessary clients and they can be opened and closed as needed.
The biggest drawback to this solution is that they now have two separate merchant service accounts. To make it even more fun they both operate and report in widely divergent ways. One takes their cut in a monthly lump sum. The other takes it on an individual transaction basis. So the accounting for the sales has to be different between the two.
Then there are the costs. Obviously the vendor that has the e-commerce capability takes a larger haircut, but the individual stores are a benefit worth the extra price.
When I was reviewing the details, I was inquiring were there any other rate packages, thinking that if there was a way to match the existing fees from the bank’s merchant services for the in-house sales it would possibly worth considering. But alas there is not.
So the client created yet another bank account to allow smoother reconciliations by keeping the individual merchant transactions separate.
But, even with the extra work the client is able to meet the needs of their clients and can keep them happy and fully serviced to their needs level.