Having an e-commerce merchant account allows your business to accept credit and debit cards online. They are set up with a bank or merchant service provider. Account types vary and set-up time and approval can vary from being instant to as long as 1-2 weeks.
Merchant services and payment gateways are often combined so the terminology for both can become entwined and sometimes confusing for most people. Basically, the payment gateway acts as the relay between the merchant account and your website to process the card transactions. The payment gateway encrypts the data being processed and also works to eliminate fraudulent transactions. Most of the solutions have fraud detection built in and then make a charge on the transactions made.
