Can you use one merchant account if you have two stores using different e-commerce platforms or do you have to have a separate merchant account.

I think some banks will do it, but strongly discourage it because the name of your store shows up on the credit card statement.

Hi!

Maybe I can shed some light on the topic. Here's the situation with multiple websites and single merchant accounts. If a company is selling shoes on one site and selling electronics on another site, you will have chargebacks. Here's why. If a customer buys shoes from a company called Tim's shoes, but on their customer statement it reads Tim's Merchandise, it will have a higher chance of getting a chargeback. It's our job as a processor to make sure that you don't get excessive chargebacks and to help you minimize your risk. Visa/MasterCard has a rule on how many chargebacks a merchant can receive. A one percent chargeback ratio has a processor concerned, a three percent chargeback rate is excessive and goes beyond the Visa/MC rules and the processor will shut that merchant down. It's our job, as your processor, to help you minimize your risk of chargebacks. One way to help you minimize that risk is to make sure what you are selling matches the descriptor line, aka your's customer's credit card statement. If however you are selling the same item but you have 2 different websites and it flows to one shopping cart and one gateway, than one merchant account is just fine.

I hope that helps,
Julie

I think additionally you will need an Internet merchant account with corresponding bank to mange two stores.