How to set up SSLCommerz for your online shop

SSLCommerz lets your website take money. A buyer pays with bKash, Nagad, a card, or net banking, and the money reaches your bank account. It is the payment gateway most online shops in Bangladesh use.

Without it you are taking payments by hand. Someone sends money to your personal bKash and you check the screenshot. That works for ten orders a week. It does not work for a hundred, and buyers who do not know you will not do it at all.

What you need before you apply

Get these ready first. An application with a missing paper sits and waits.

• Trade licence. From your city corporation or union parishad. It has to be current, not expired.
• TIN certificate. Your tax number, from the NBR website. Free and same day.
• Bank account in the business name. A current account. This is the account your money lands in.
• National ID of the owner, both sides.
• Your website, working. Not a Facebook page. A real site with your products on it.
• Four pages on that website. About us, contact with a real address and phone, refund and return policy, and terms. They check these.

If you are a company rather than a sole business, you also need your incorporation certificate from RJSC, your memorandum, and a board resolution saying who can sign.

The steps

1. Go to the SSLCommerz website and open a merchant account. You will get a sandbox account at once, which is a practice one that takes fake payments.
2. Fill in the merchant form. Business name, address, what you sell, and how much you expect to sell in a month.
3. Upload your papers. Clear photos or scans. A blurry trade licence is the most common reason for a delay.
4. Connect the sandbox to your website and make a test payment. Your developer does this part. On WooCommerce it is a plugin. On a custom site it is an integration.
5. Send the sandbox test result with your application.
6. They review it. Sometimes they call to check your address or ask a question about what you sell.
7. Once approved you get your live keys. Your developer swaps the sandbox keys for the live ones, and you make one small real payment to check it end to end.

How long it takes

Estimate: seven to fifteen working days from a complete application to live keys. It goes faster if your papers are clean and your website is finished. It goes slower if they have to come back to you twice.

Do not plan a launch around a date they have not given you.

What it costs

Estimate, and check the current numbers with them before you sign:

• Setup fee: usually a one time fee in the range of a few thousand taka, and it is sometimes waived.
• Per transaction: around 2 to 3 percent for cards and mobile wallets, sometimes higher for international cards.
• Settlement: the money reaches your bank a few days after the sale, not the same day.

That last one catches people out. If you buy stock with the money from yesterday's sales, plan for the gap.

Why applications get turned down

• No refund policy on the site. This is the most common one and the easiest to fix.
• The contact page has no real address. A phone number on its own is not enough.
• The website is not finished. Empty product pages and lorem ipsum text mean the site is not ready.
• What you sell is on their restricted list. Anything medical, anything that needs a special licence, and anything they consider high risk.
• The name on the bank account does not match the trade licence. These have to be the same business.
• Expired trade licence. Renew it first.

What to do this week

• [ ] Check your trade licence has not expired
• [ ] Get your TIN if you do not have one
• [ ] Open a current account in the business name
• [ ] Write your refund policy and your terms, and put them on the site
• [ ] Put a real address on your contact page

This guide is what we have seen work. It is not legal advice, and SSLCommerz can change what they ask for. Check their own site before you apply.