Do I need to open a merchant account if I want to manage online payments (internationally)?

Merchant account is an virtual account set up by third party payment. The merchant account is a concept within the payment processor. It is not an account associated with a channel which is for payment processing. The channel is provided by bank for online merchants who sell products or service over internet to receive order payment from customer. As the transaction is processed from beginning to end over the bank network system, the merchant and customer cannot trade in person, the channel is the way to realize the online transaction.

However general online business owner cannot directly apply for a merchant account which is processing channel with the bank. So that is why third party payment exists, which cooperate with bank and provide payment service for all kinds of merchants. The third party has to have the payment processing licence before even apply for merchant account with the bank. No small business will be able to gain this license and they have to spend this time and cost on this. Third party payment is an easy way for small business to open up anecommerce merchant account for receive payment online. Then the payment processor does everything else for the merchant.

The payment gateway service for domestic merchant and international merchant is different. First of all the language is different, the merchant control panel is different based on the language, and the customer service for them clearly are distinguished from one another. To be continued in next chapter.