2:45 PM Sunday Room: 1501
So you have built a website (or an iphone app or an android app) and you are ready to launch. Last thing to do before launching is making sure you have a robust mechanism to accept payments for that wonderful product/application you're selling. Unfortunately the simple task of accepting payments online is not so simple. The process doesn't just involve API interfacing and code details - though that's a significant part of it - it involves signing up for a payment system or as its known in industry parlance - getting a "Merchant Account". The choices are plenty and with each one there are pros and cons: Paypal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments are relatively simple to sign up with and generally provide a robust API however for a User to pay using one of these systems typically means they need to be an existing member or sign-up for them. On the other hand there are processors like Authorize.net which offer straight through Credit Card processing, however require you to setup a Merchant Account, which can require significant paperwork and their APIs can be time consuming to deal with. Then there is a crop of emerging payment companies which can be classified in various domains e.g. Ability to bill to phone bill, Alternate payment systems, Giftcard based ones etc. I intend to provide a summary of the landscape, discuss various options available today for ecommerce payment processing. (Disclosure/Disclaimer: I am founder of Noca - an online payments company )