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It was in the 1960s that Canadian educator, philosopher and scholar Marshall McLuchan said that the world was becoming a global village. McLuchan also predicted the Internet almost 30 years before it was invented.

The Internet has turned the world from a global village into more of a global shopping mall. Back in 2006 Jupiter Research, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet on business, reported that 78% of almost 20 million small businesses used the Internet for trading. They also stated at the time that this figure would rise to 82% by 2011. And it looks as if they were right. More and more people are buying and selling online.

The vast majority of payments done via the Internet are with credit or debit cards. There is, however, a slight snag to this. To accept payment by credit or debit card you need to have a special internet merchant account. This is a type of bank account that permits a business to conduct credit card transactions. It also serves as a three-way agreement between the seller, the purchaser and the merchant bank.

Opening a merchant bank account can be a nightmare. It can often be a long, laborious process that can take months. In many countries, for example, you need to have a registered business before you can open a merchant bank account. The bank will require a great deal of documentation before they will even consider opening a merchant account. If you do have a registered business or company they will want financial statements dating back to at least a few months. Starting an online business becomes very challenging, because if you don't have a good selling history you will not be able to get a merchant account to accept credit cards.

And more often than not, you will go through this entire process only to be declined; especially if you are selling digital products online. There are numerous reasons as to why your application may be declined. You may not have all the necessary documentation required. You may not have a credit history or you may have a bad credit history. Your product might look too risky' for the bank to consider processing they are afraid that a product might have huge refund and chargeback rates. Bank rules for accepting or rejecting application vary from country to country. One thing remains the same in most countries, however, and that is that these rules are numerous and complex.

The good news, however, is that there is an alternative. You can use special companies to sell your digital products online they will sell your product online, accept credit card payments and you will get your money easily. One of such companies is Click2Sell (www.click2sell.eu). It is a service that collects credit card and PayPal payments on your behalf without you having to open a merchant bank account. Best of all is that they do not charge a set-up or monthly fees. You pay a flat fee of between and based on the sale price the item you are selling.

When you use such companies, you don't have to go to the bank to open up a merchant account, wait a lot of time to see if you were approved, nor buy special equipment needed to process payments online. This is a great way to start business online and accept payments.