Finding the Ideal Payment Tool for Moving Into Web-to-Print
Moving into web-to-print (W2P) can be very stressful to a printer as it takes alot more work than you would think. As a printer when converting to web to print you have to put in alot of effort and time to set up an online shopping experience for your customer. You first have to create and set up a web portal and a shopping cart then the online payment facility this is the hardest part of any web-to-print transition.
Without any knowledge of how to create such a function this could become massively challenging. Many companies such as printed.com have recently converted to web-to-print adding an online payment portal. This is because it is the most popular way of buying online and all companies see it as vital to keep up to date. There are however many providers and many things to think about when creating this portal. Help guides are also very difficult to find for this function making an easy starting point difficult to find and meaning companies cannot get a handle on the processes.

Many such complexities can include a scope from trying to be accommodating with the online payment cards industry data security standard (PCI DSS). This unfortunately is an extremely elaborate process, the processes include trying to find and be accepted for an internet merchant account. Both the PCI DSS and the merchant account are both fundamental to allow you to become and online trader. On top of this there are countless steps in order to set up your payment system.
Many of these steps can be done by employing a third party payment specialist to take some of the work of the printer’s hand. This could include companies with reputations such as Sage Pay or World Pay. These are companies who integrate into web-to-print pieces of software which are provided by companies like VPress, ROI 360 and RedTie. This is done to allow the printing company to have online payment functionality without all the added hassle and stress. This said however having to involve another company into the mix after you have appointed a web-to-print supplier could be a little awkward - juggling all of these different third party companies. However this is deemed the best way to do it if you are a novice when it comes to converting to a web-to-print solution.
Security is something else that needs to be considered and is a huge part of any online payment system. In most instances companies such as RedTie shunts the responsibility onto the experts in online payment security. This assures to customers that they are receiving the most recent and updated security techniques that are available this means offering recognised payment methods.
Therefore when the customer is ready to pay they simply need to click the pay button and from there they are taken to a payment page, this page is hosted on the payment solution suppliers secure server. This means for the printers that all the security is dealt with by the payment solution provider. They also deal with all of the costs that are associated.
Troubles arises for the printer however because often they are unsure which third party company to go with as they may not know who is best. Companies often do not know what to look for or how to compare their many options.
Question you may need to ask as a printer converting to web-to-print include:
· How long the money will take to arrive?
· How long the contract will be for?
· What are the charges?
· Whether it is possible to brand the external payment pages with the printer’s house style or a logo?
The aim of this article is to offer a helping hand to printers who feel they are struggling in this situation. This is a short guide for leading suppliers saying what they offer and why they believe they should be chosen over the rest. Several printers have also made a comment on their own personal experiences in this area for extra help on the decision making.
Online Payment Software Suppliers
Barclays Smart Pay
Barclaycards new Smart Pay system is ideal for those companies who wish to process transaction not only from the UK but for abroad too. This is because both local and international payment methods are accepted; therefore you can use your Visa, MasterCard and European bank transfers.
Data reconciliation is offered by the Smart Pay system which allows you to see how the business has been performing. This method is also compliant with payment security standards such as the PCI DSS that was mentioned earlier.
For this system simplicity is key, customers are offered a flexible and also easy to use system. Integration with W2P software is also included, where is also a support team which is always there to help customers understand how they can make the system work best for them. Assistance is also available for the web developers so that the software can be set up and linked to Smart Pay.
Now the four most important questions:
Cost
The cost for adding Barclays Smart Pay to your site is not a fixed cost as it is dependant to a company. The cost is figured out in accordance to the volume of transactions and is bespoke to each different customer.
Contract
A contract with this company is conditional and no fixed contract terms can be fixed.
Branding
This is a favourable option because printers are allowed to personalise the payment pages with their own branding including logo’s and house style colours.
Time for money to be processed
a period for payment processing can be agreed upon settlement.

Data Cash
Data cash are an outsourced company who offer outsourced hosted pages payment solutions. The functionality includes accepting multiple card types, PCI DSS compliance as well as fraud prevention tools and access to the management reporting systems.
Because Data Cash has a global presence which can enable you as a printer to open up the business to new demographic and geographical segments of the market through the ability to have credit cards, e-wallets, direct bank transfers and cash alternatives all accepted as method of payment.
This solution can also be easily incorporated into the merchant’s website because of the flexibility of integration of the payments solutions through a pop – up window, a redirect or through an ‘iframe’, or a window within the website itself. Data Cash is also someone you can trust because they have securely processed £45bn worth of transactions for over 30,000 active merchants, and this is only in the past year alone.
Cost
The cost of Data Cash is dependant to each customer and their needs, it would depend on many independent factors of the solution for example additional payment methods and transaction volumes etc.
Contract
No fixed contract can be given
Branding
All customers are welcome to customise their payment pages to fit in with their company house style and branding because Data Cash provides a blank canvas for their page solutions.
Time for money to be processed
This time for the transfer period is dependent on the merchant bank chosen.
Review
“data cash is our basic provider because it is very secure and very robust. With data cash, flat fees can be paid for a set volume amount of work going through their engine. Data Cash is effectively our online credit or debit transaction portal, it is also complete integrated – it was seamless. Data Cash only took a few days to set up, the payment side was just as quick, but it took slightly longer because the administration side of things has to be organised with regards to our accounts department. A test account was given to us; this meant we could fully test the system before we launched it. Upon receiving the money, the credit and debit cards are instantly debited – instant refunds can also be made. The process at the moment is manual but phase two of the project will see it becomes automated.”
-Nick Green, executive director at Tangent Communications
![]()
PayPal
PayPal is possibly the most well known online payment provider on the internet. It is used everywhere from Amazon to eBay. Upon choosing PayPal there are many packages that are available to you this ranges from the basic payment conduits most of which will be familiar with, most businesses choose the pro account.
Of course PayPal accepts all major credit cards and is also compliant to the regulations of PCI DSS. PayPal has proven so popular because as well as acting as a payment provider it also a merchant account, this removed the need to find one separately.
The speed PayPal can work at is also a bonus because you can get set up and companies can start to accept payments in minutes. This is because PayPal has been pre integrated into a wide range of providers in e-commerce. For you this means you do not actually need any technical skills. Most of PayPal’s business solutions do not need an approval process all you need to do is sign up and get going!
As a PayPal user you can easily have the option from changing to a business account from a personal account with only a click of a button. You can also receive payments when using a personal account.
When a business is attempting to grow their online presence they can gather help from various help guides and use PayPal’s customer service team’s support.
Cost
1.4% - 3.4% is the transaction charge + 20p dependant on sales volume.
Contract
no contracts available or minimum term
Branding
full customisation and branding is available
Time for money to be processed
2-5 working days
Review
“PayPal is capable of handling all the security and data concerns I have. We do not have any issues, and we didn’t have to get too involved with the set up either – it just works for us! We did however have a problem with the fact that PayPal has association with people’s personal transactions rather than proper business transactions, but these were changed when we opted for a PayPal pro account. The system is now the same as the other business systems on the market – perhaps and entry level version, admittedly, but with the branding available, it is just as good as the alternative methods you could use. One issue that we have with PayPal is that they take a percentage of the income in the account in case of charge backs (where a customer cancels a payment and their bank look to take back the money transferred). This money sits in the PayPal account for 60 days because they want to keep it available for In case this does happen.”
-James Earle, operations director at the Calendar printers.

Sage Pay
If you are a business, to you arguably sage pay is just as well known as PayPal. Sage Pay however has the added benefit of being a part of a much wider sage product range of accounting software. For you this means that when making an online payment it will be fed directly into existing Sage accounting software. A ‘pay it now’ function is also provided so that on electronic invoices your businesses customers can pay online straight away as soon as an invoice is sent to them.
There are many different options available as well as PCI DSS compliancy. Multiple debit and payment methods are accepted this includes both domestic and global. Partnerships have also been formed between Sage Pay and merchant banks; this is so that printers can reap the benefits of not having to search separately for a merchant account. There is also a very extensive customer service available to you as a user of Sage Pay.
Sage Pay cares about their customers which is why they offer a 24/7 customer service, this is because Sage Pay realise that many customer operations happen 24/7 so that if assistance is needed at 2am, it is given. They will not have to wait until 8am to talk to someone like many other customer service providers. Technical issues can be assisted with as well fraud merchant queries which can result in mulit-disciplinary.
Cost
The cost of the service is set in the form of a monthly fee which is £20 for up to 1,000 transactions per quarter. Volumes between 1,000 and 5,000 transactions per quarter will all carry a charge of 10p each; however those above 5,000 will carry individual charges per transaction, watch with a minimum cost of 0.1p.
Contract Conditions
no minimum term or contract
Branding
iframe options available as well as white label branding
Time for money to be processed
On average it takes 3-4 working days depending on your bank
Review
“I find the Sage Pay user interface absolutely superb, and really easy to use. There are accounts people can go in and process funds and look at their payments very easily, this makes our customer service very good. I feel that customers like to see a bit of familiarity and sage pay is well recognised and a trusted brand, so this means the customers feel more comfortable seeing it there and using it. The charging system used is also really clear and very reasonable, it is also completely scalable too - If our business where to grow then Sage Pay would find no problem in keeping up!”
- Paul Gillings, software and workflow technician at Micropress.

Secure Trading
Secure trading is much like PayPal in the way that it is offering an all in one solution – an inclusive merchant account. Secure trading is already integrated into over 50 shopping carts and is also PCI DSS compliant. Secure trading can offer an UK direct line customer service support which operated from 6.30am until 11pm.
The account management system provided is also clear and easy to use; it offers step by step guides which can be found on YouTube. To eliminate major responsibility of PCI compliancy secure trading offers three hosted options.


Help!







Flyer printing
Flyer printing
Flyer Printing
Flyer printing
Flyer printing
Flyer printing