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[DROPSHIPPING] New merchant account for every new website?

by DatingAff
5 replies
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Hi,

I want to get into dropshipping and I have a few business ideas. I want to launch a couple dropshipping sites at once.

I also want to accept credit cards directly and will get a merchant account. The problem is, they've been asking me which type of products I'll be selling etc. Does this mean every time I want to launch a new website I have to get another merchant account and get approved for that product also?
#account #dropshipping #merchant #website
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi DatingAff,

    No, it doesn't mean that you have to have a different merchant account for each website.

    A merchant bank is responsible for your transactions to a certain extent, so they are essentially granting your credit for your business. So, they want to know what type of business you are in before they decide to take on the risk of processing your credit card transactions.

    You should check their policies and terms regarding additional websites or product lines. There will certainly be some high risk niches that they will not allow, so as long as you do not start selling prohibited products you should be okay using the same merchant account for multiple websites.

    Again see the terms and conditions of your current merchant bank to see what restrictions they have in place.
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  • Profile picture of the author DatingAff
    Thanks for your answer dburk,

    At this moment I don't have a merchant bank or account. I won't be doing any high risk items but I will be dropshipping them, and I understand that dropshipping is considered relatively high-risk in itself. I also unfortunately don't have a merchant history to back me up.

    Can you think of any good merchant account / gateway services that would accept me?
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      Don't be surprised what is considered high risk these days. While dropshipping would not be considered high risk from a merchant perspective, certain products may. For example, you can probably consider adult and tobacco products high risk, but airline tickets are also considered high risk (airlines go bankrupt a lot).

      I do have a merchant account provider I work with that has yet to not approve anyone and if you PM I can give it to you. Otherwise, do what most people do, start out with Stripe and/or PayPal.

      All my commerce sites use the same merchant account, and instead of setting up a DBA for each entity, it just goes through my main LLC and in the welcome email mention that the charge will show up XYZ LLC.

      As for starting up multiple drop shipping sites at once, let me give you some advice, don't. Build one, start driving traffic and increasing sales, automate your processes and then move to the next store. If you don't you are going to make your life difficult.

      Each niche has its own mindset, its own search terms and proper venues to drive traffic and sales and you need to figure it out for each one. Unless you plan to outsource a huge chunk of what you are doing, its a recipe for disaster. You are always having to decide between which store gets your attention for the day and when you are starting out, you don't want to do that.
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      • Profile picture of the author DatingAff
        Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

        Don't be surprised what is considered high risk these days. While dropshipping would not be considered high risk from a merchant perspective, certain products may. For example, you can probably consider adult and tobacco products high risk, but airline tickets are also considered high risk (airlines go bankrupt a lot).

        I do have a merchant account provider I work with that has yet to not approve anyone and if you PM I can give it to you. Otherwise, do what most people do, start out with Stripe and/or PayPal.

        All my commerce sites use the same merchant account, and instead of setting up a DBA for each entity, it just goes through my main LLC and in the welcome email mention that the charge will show up XYZ LLC.

        As for starting up multiple drop shipping sites at once, let me give you some advice, don't. Build one, start driving traffic and increasing sales, automate your processes and then move to the next store. If you don't you are going to make your life difficult.

        Each niche has its own mindset, its own search terms and proper venues to drive traffic and sales and you need to figure it out for each one. Unless you plan to outsource a huge chunk of what you are doing, its a recipe for disaster. You are always having to decide between which store gets your attention for the day and when you are starting out, you don't want to do that.
        Thanks a lot for the valuable advice. I'm not a stranger to the world of internet marketing and I know everything you're saying is absolutely true - but I think I have enough experience in running multiple sites that I think I can manage a couple at the same time.

        I'm definitely not going to launch them all at the same time, though. Gonna start with just one as you said, but will add a couple shortly after that.
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  • Profile picture of the author GlobalPay
    Originally Posted by DatingAff View Post

    Hi,

    I want to get into dropshipping and I have a few business ideas. I want to launch a couple dropshipping sites at once.

    I also want to accept credit cards directly and will get a merchant account. The problem is, they've been asking me which type of products I'll be selling etc. Does this mean every time I want to launch a new website I have to get another merchant account and get approved for that product also?
    When a merchant services provider asks you what are the types of products you sell they want to know the majority of products. If you are selling iPads, iPhones, Samsung devices and Tvs but occasionally sell small furniture, to them it would be electronics.

    Also, if you sell a variety of products all the time you can just say "general merchandise". The reason behind it is to find you the correct SIC code with MasterCard and Visa...
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