multiple ecommerce checkouts on a single merchant account
Friday, July 23rd, 2010Can I use a single merchant account if I have more than one ecommerce site? By regulation, you must have a different merchant account for each domain name. The domain name, not the company name, must appear on consumer credit card statements. This is a field entered on the merchant application. The main purpose is to reduce consumer confusion and thus reduce chargebacks.
What if you have single page checkouts on the same domain name?
For example, the merchant may sell something with a one page checkout. One page is mydomain.com/product1. Another is mydomain.com/product2. They do not link to a single shopping cart checkout for some internal reason. You could possibly use one merchant account for both web pages, provided it’s the same company and shares the same federal tax ID. In some cases the merchant may want to set up a separate terminal identification (TID) to assist in the reconciliation process. Each TID would have it’s own totals, but all the data appears on one merchant statement, under one merchant account. To set up TID’s, contact your merchant processor.
Non-profit organizations sometimes have this with fundraising on their web sites. The non-profit has multiple events and donor options each with a simple one page checkout specific to that event or donation. Provided the rules are met above, you can probably use one merchant account. Always check with your processor for confirmation of your situation.
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