Canadian eCommerce

[frostyx]

Greetings all, long time reader, first time poster.

I have been running various websites for about 5 years now and I am starting to develop things for myself (finally).

I have some eCommerce experience but it was all for other clients that were in the United States. Now that I am looking to move my sites from Paypal to a merchant account system I am at a loss.

Can anyone point me at a Canuck friendly merchant service?

Thanks!

[weslinda]

Beanstream is the only one I am aware of and they work much like many of the US merchant providers. Site is just www.beanstream.com.

[frostyx]

I guess it is to cold up here for the merchants :)

Thanks a lot for this link, I will contact them today.

[sub_kovert]

www.worldpay.com is a good gateway.....at least it is here in the UK. I suggest looking at at least 3 before deciding, transaction percentages and ongoing fees can vary.

[frostyx]

I actually have a bit of experience with worldpay and they are a great company.

I had to use a programmer to integrate the API though. We used a CGI system to process the transactions with them invisibly so customers wouldn't have to leave our website. Is there a better way to do that?

Thanks.

[myaircraft]

Hi There,

Try authorized.net

We advise the same to our e-commerce clients.

[frostyx]

It looks like authorized.net is a reseller for http://www.authorize.net/?

Do you have experience with setting up a Canadian account with them?

[weslinda]

Hello,

Authorize.net is a US only merchant provider. They do not in any way shape or form work with Canadian companies.

I have direct experience with this because of a Canadian client.

Beanstream is the main merchant provider in Canada and they actually are the backbone for many of the merchant services offered through the major banks in Canada as well.

[frostyx]

Thanks for the info weslinda, I was wondering if you can point me at a Canadian bank that is merchant account savy? The few that I have talked to don't really seem all that keen on merchant accounts...

[weslinda]

Well, I haven't worked with any specific Canadian banks, from what I could see, Canada appears to be a few years behind the US when it comes to E-Commerce setup and understanding.

I found that working with Beanstream was very easy and they handled everything you need to get up and running. The only issue you may run into is if the shopping cart you are selecting doesn't have a plugin built for them. Then you'll need to get a custom plugin written. However, if your client hasn't selected a commerce system, Beanstream can provide you with a list of compatible carts.

[frostyx]

Fantastic info, thanks so much.

[weslinda]

We're all here to simply share our experiences. Hope the information helps and gets you off the ground quickly and easily.

[mootinator]

Originally Posted by weslinda

Well, I haven't worked with any specific Canadian banks, from what I could see, Canada appears to be a few years behind the US when it comes to E-Commerce setup and understanding.

True, if you go through TD Canada Trust's e-commerce they simply set you up with a beanstream account.

The other Canadian provider is Moneris, which is apparently a joint RBC/BMO project. I've developed for both of those APIs for clients. The thing I liked about beanstream (I'm not sure if it's any different now) was that it seemed easier to set up Verified by Visa (and other security features.)

Moneris did have a developer sandbox which you didn't need to sign up for a merchant account to use at the time, which was handy...

[nategeeze]

Depending on the situation, if your customers just want to sell in canada and they are U.S. businesses they should be able to accept canada customer credit cards and fulfill to canada with most merchant accounts. If its a canadian business then yeah, one of the other responder threads applies (I believe). I've only had experience with Worldpay and not Beanstream.

[msinfo]

Another good company that you may want to consider is Merchant-Accounts.ca - U.S & Canadian Merchant Accounts. They're one of the top Canadian Merchant Provider companies.

[nategeeze]

Worldpay was at the top of my list as well

By the way, if you or your clients are serious about selling in Canada, let me put a bug in your ear.

If you had a Canadian warehouse, you could save a lot of customs and per-order shippping hassles by moving some small % of inventory to Canada in bulk.

We have some customers doing this. They move a logical % of their inventory closer to Canadian buyers:

• No per order customs
• Faster delivery times of local buyers
• Use Canadian post and not expensive international shipments
• cheaper shipping.

For more info go to Shipwire: » Canada Awaits You! Shipwire makes it easy…

Best,

Nate

[pixma85]

i believe merchantwarehouse does candian merchants also

[hostBrain]

There are 2 others that i don't believe were mentioned.
InternetSecure.com
PsiGate.com