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There are a lot of 5.08mm terminal block company online business owners who get flustered by the language associated with the merchant services business. And there are several terms that won’t make sense the first time one hears them, but by spending just a little time studying – and you thought you were done with homework – you can master the jargon of the credit card processing business, so you can make a solid decision on a provider for your e-retail operation.

Let’s start with you. While you are the owner of the business, the sake of this conversation you are the “merchant.” Granted that may make you feel like you are selling your wares in an open-air bazaar, but that’s what you are referred to into ecommerce language.

A “merchant account” is the contract between you and an acquiring bank for providing credit card processing services. The acquiring bank or the “acquirer” is the financial institution that creates and services the merchant account, receives your transactions and initiates the interchange with the credit card companies (VISA, MasterCard, American Express and/or Discover).

Speaking of credit cards, “card associations” are the payment networks that act as gateways between the acquirers and the issuers. It is here where the authorization and funding for transactions take place. The ‘issuer” is that financial institution that issues a credit card to an individual, and is also referred to as the issuing bank.

In online shopping a “shopping cart” refers to a software application that allows customers to collect their various items selected on your site for purchase. The cart maintains a total of all the items selected and usually can add in shipping and taxes during the checkout process. And since it is online it never has a wheel that wobbles or sticks.