More and more businesses are moving at least some of their sales online – which means more and more web developers are needing to become familiar with the online payments process, says Peter Harvey of PayGate.

“If you’re building an e-commerce site for a client, they will probably look to you as the developer for advice on which shopping cart and which payment gateway to choose,” says Harvey. “This is not an area where many web developers feel particularly comfortable – they are coders and designers, not financial consultants – so it helps to have a checklist of questions that the client should ask.”

Businesses that process credit card transactions are under increasing pressure to comply with global Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards – and if our experience at PayGate is anything to go by, the journey is likely to be a painful one. Anybody considering it should prepare themselves for at least two years of intense effort.

If you do business online, it’s much easier to make a sale if you take credit cards – but, says Peter Harvey of payment services provider PayGate, e-commerce businesses need to ensure they have the security basics right.