Basically offline transaction work in two ways: The first is a retail business where people come and swipe their credit cards, this is considered offline but due to technical terminology, it is not really offline because the machine is connected to a network via a high speed Ethernet port or a dial up phone line. The second method is for internet ecommerce website. What happens is that the shopping cart software securely captures and sends data by collecting the information from the user and that information is sent to the business to manually process the order. Some businesses need to do verification or provide additional services or goods before they actually approve the transaction. So the transaction is authorized but not approved until certain verification or criteria is met by the online retailer before they will approve the transaction and ship the product or render their services. For example, an online contact lenses business, when the order is placed, they need to verify your prescription before actually charging the credit card.
But suffice to say that there is not really an offline credit card processing merchant account because systems and platforms are always connected to the internet or a network. Another method that people always refer to as offline is processing checks. Now you can process checks electronically as well via the internet. Even a physical check you can convert to an e-check without having to drive to the bank to make the deposit.
A true offline transaction would be dealing with paper money (cash) or money orders, etc. But most often when we say offline we are referring to the process of a retail store using a point of sales terminal to allow for their customers to swipe via the terminal. This allows for store owners to process locally rather than using a payment gateway. This allows for the highest security encryption module to send data back and forth. Please get in touch with us as soon as you are ready to start processing. We can have you up and running in a few days from now. |
