In many ways the world of online shopping is not that different from shopping at the mall or your local strip shopping center. Most of the time when we leave home to shop we know what we want, we have a pretty idea of what we're prepared to spend for it and we also know where we'll likely find what we're looking for.

Where the paths diverge wildly is in the payment process. Let's look at getting something at the mall. Paying at the real world is easy.

There's always cash, assuming you have enough in your wallet at any given moment. If cash is not a viable option, you can always pull out your checkbook and pay that way. And if you didn't bring your checkbook, or are out of checks, there is always the trusty credit card nestled in your wallet.

In the online world things are not so varied.

First, you can be Donald Trump of Oprah Winfrey and you still aren't going to be able to pay for your online purchase using cold, hard cash. It physically just can't be done and I'll bet that laptops don't make change.

You can pay for your online purchase with a check. Indeed, back in the salad days of online retailing it was not at all uncommon to fill out your order form on the computer, print it, attach your check and mail it. That was what passed for shopping via the Internet back in the day.

And you can still do that, but it slows the transaction down to a crawl while the merchant waits for the check to arrive, verifies the funds and then ships the merchandise. Unless....you....like....really....slow....service, well, this is not really a workable option either.

This leaves us with paying by credit card. The entire credit card transaction - from the time you enter your information to the time you are verified as good to go - takes about 15 seconds. And once that approval is bestowed your order is placed with most vendors shipping the item within 24 hours.

This as compared with paying by check where your first 24 hours, at least, are spent with your funds still in the mail system.

Given all this is it any surprise that more than 80 percent of all online purchases are made using a credit card? With that number expected to grow every year for the foreseeable future?

Just as we have gotten spoiled by certain stores always having what we want in stock, credit card online processing has spoiled us for any other method. Indeed, there is not a faster way to transact purchases over the Internet than by credit card.

So if you are one of those ‘net businesses that have not embraced credit card merchant services, now might be an ideal time to rethink that posture. You have nothing to lose, but much to gain as more online shoppers will be showing up on your site, credit card cocked and ready for action.

Jim Osterman is a Web content developer with CardAccept.com , a leading Internet merchant account provider that offers state-of-the-art credit card processing.

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