Software Vendor FAQ

Avangate provides Professional eCommerce services for Leading Software Companies, ranging from security and multimedia to business and education, assisting them to successfully sell software online. The main benefits of using the Avangate services are:

Avangate saves time

• The Avangate platform incorporates a complete set of tools for your online sales
• Avangate is already tested and successfully works in many online shops.
• We invoice your clients so you don't have to.
• Receive assistance for implementing the online payment system on your site.

Avangate helps you make more money

• The Avangate Affiliate Network gives you access to a wide online distribution channel for your products
• With the Avangate Web Marketing services you can optimize your site for better sales
• Additional revenue streams from Backup CD and Download Insurance Service

Avangate is safe

• Advanced Antifraud mechanisms screen every order for your peace of mind.
• Avangate assures the guarantee requested by the bank for the payment dispute (chargeback).
• You can protect your software with the Avangate CodeBox.

• You may receive payments from all over the world in several payment methods.
• Avangate offers assistance to your buyers regarding payments by phone or email, 24x7.

The most important requirement to use the Avangate services, is to have a web site that contains at least the following information:

• The detailed description of the offered products and/or services.
• The prices, specifying if they include or not VAT or other taxes.
• The legal name of the business and the identification data.
• The policy for the possible complaints received from the buyers.

The online payment is not accepted for products/services forbidden by The Netherlands/USA or international laws. Avangate accepts products or services, such as program codes, of the information or data stored in digital format, together with their accompanying documentation, including activation and reloading electronic codes, e-traded through AVANGATE platform but excluding the gambling, lottery and bets.

For more details about the accepted products and services, please contact us. 

• Fill in the registration form;
• Our staff will verify the information and will activate your control panel
• Sign the contract;
• Add your products to the platform and set it to Go Live once is ready
• Your account is active and you can start selling through it.

Avangate will appear on the statements of account, since we're resellers for your products.

Ordering through Avangate is a 3 steps process:

• When a client decides to pay, by clicking on the buy button he is redirected to the Avangate secure server, where he can enter the payment details. The design of these access pages on the server are personalized, respecting the design elements of your site.
• Once the order is placed, it passes through the Avangate antifraud and you are notified by email or HTTP post about the purchase.
• The products are delivered by Avangate to the customer by email* .

*in case the buyer has ordered a Back-up CD, Avangate will also deliver the software on optical storage;

People choosing to buy your product through Avangate have the following benefits:

• Payments done through Avangate are fast and secure
• Avangate offers assistance to the buyers regarding payments, by phone or email, 24x7.
• The products are delivered electronically (by email) in a few minutes.
• No additional commissions are paid by the buyer.

With Avangate you can offer the following additional services:

• Back-up CD – for a small fee, the client can choose to have the software delivered on optical storage after the electronic delivery by email;
• Download Insurance service – this service lets end-users re-download the software they have purchased for two years, at anytime.
• Gift Option– the client will pay for the software and it will be delivered to another person as a gift
• MyAccount– a dashboard for the clients where they can view in detail all the orders in the Avangate system.

Avangate does not charge any supplemental fees or commissions for the sales done through the Avangate Affiliate Network.

Through the Avangate CodeBox, Avangate offers a powerful Digital Rights Management service – SoftAnchor powered by Uniloc.

Usually, the amounts charged from the clients (minus the Avangate commissions per transaction) are transferred to you monthly, through wire transfer, check or Paypal, on the 16th next month, for the current month. The payment may be done more often if a minimum volume of monthly is reached.

For each transaction you will be charged with 4.9% commission plus EUR 1.95 ($2.5) or with 8% commission with a minimum of EUR 1.95 ($2.5).

There are no monthly fees, no leases, and no gateway fees.

For more information regarding taxes and commissions, please click here, from where you can test our fee calculator.

The accepted billing currencies are EURO and USD. However, the credit/debit card currency is transparent during the ordering process: you can have a credit card issued in Canadian Dollars and be billed in USD. The exchange will be automatically done by your bank without additional costs.

Additionally, when ordering on the internet, product prices can be viewed in other currencies by selecting a different display currency: EUR (European Euros), USD (US Dollars), GBP (United Kingdom Pounds), CHF (Swiss Francs), JPY (Japanese Yens), CAD (Canadian Dollars), AUD (Australian Dollars), NOK (Norwegian Krones), SEK (Swedish Krona), DKK (Danish Krones), RON (Romanian New Lei), CZK (Czech Korunas), HUF (Hungarian Forints), TRY (New Turkish Lira), PLN (Polish Zloty).

The following are accepted for payment:

• Credit/debit card (Visa, MasterCard, DinersClub, American Express and JCB) 
• Paypal
• Bank transfer (Wire/ACH transfer)
• Fax
• Vendor 2 Vendor
• Direct debit
• Purchase order 

Yes, a virtual card will be treated as any other card issued under MasterCard or VISA logo.

Reasons for a refusal may be one of the following:

• Insufficient funds - it's necessary to have the appropriate funds on the card or to increase the current credit limit;
• The card is on the "blacklist" - the card is reported as lost or stolen, blocked by the owner and issuing bank;
• The bank that issued the card do not authorize online transactions. In this case, the card owner must contact the bank and request to activate this service.
• The bank that issued the card could not be contacted and the restrictions defined by the issuing bank do not allow online transactions or they limit the maximum value of the transaction. In this case the card owner must call the support service offered by the issuing bank at the phone numbers usually found on the back of the card.

If a customer makes a chargeback, Avangate offers the necessary assistance to solve the incident with the issuing bank free of charge.  Avangate will return the perceived commission in all cases except the case where the chargeback is done due to a customer complaint about the purchased product. 

In such cases stipulated by law, the client may return the purchased products and solicit the refund. In these situations, Avangate will assure the transaction reversal, returning the money to the customer, retaining only the commission perceived for the initial payment transaction.  All refunds are done only after prior approval from software author.

Pricing (commission per transaction). Scheme I and Scheme II offer the same features and services; the only difference is that Scheme I works best with average transactions above 70 EUR (85 USD) and Scheme II is better for cheaper products, with transactions below 70 EUR (85 USD).

Avangate can activate, by request, the recurrent billing module. You will be able to import licenses, to set the renewal periods and notifications and to customize the messages sent to your clients when a license is about to expire.

No it's not necessary to have your own ordering system. The Avangate solution includes an optional ordering system (shopping cart) which may be implemented easily on any website.

Yes. Avangate offers multiple integration options. You can use your own shopping cart or the one already integrated in the Avangate platform.

No. Before entering all the sensitive information about the payment, the buyer is automatically redirected to a secured Avangate server which uses SSL encryption for this information.

Avangate provides a complete set of services to prevent fraudulent transactions:

• Automatic screening of all orders through Fraud Detective 2.0 technology
• Supplemental human verifications with a 24x7 team of Cyber-Cops
• 3D Secure standard introduced by Visa and MasterCard
• Avangate CodeBox that includes the Uniloc powered SoftAnchor Digital Right Management solution

Avangate performs on your behalf Automated Key/ Code and Software Delivery (real time order delivery) - Key/code delivery implies sending by email to the end-user customer an alphanumeric code or a binary activation key. Avangate has developed and offers you the entire delivery mechanism for codes or binary keys, through several methods:

• Codes from static lists, added in the Avangate system and delivered one by one (stock)
• Codes from dynamic lists, generated in real time by interrogating your web server
• Codes generated by Avangate CodeBox through SoftAnchor powered by Uniloc

Yes, we do. This service enables vendors to offer end-user customers personalized burn-on-demand CDs of the software they just purchased through the Avangate eCommerce platform. Customization of the Avangate Backup CD is complete, both in terms of content and CD layout; vendors gain additional promotional and sales opportunities as each backup CD sold can include trial copies of other software programs, special offers, presentations, etc.

No set-up fees, no inventory and no minimum order volumes are required.

The average shipping time for your Back-up CD/DVD is 4 to 7 business days, but please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery due to variances in production and shipping.

Location of customer delivery address and elapsed business days from order date:

1. For customers located in USA: 7 days
2. For customers located in Europe: 9 days
3. For customers located elsewhere: 21 days

Yes, the Avangate system allows a delayed order completion for vendors who prefer to do the actual software delivery themselves. The process includes 3 steps:

• The customer places an order via the Avangate ordering interface.
• The payment is approved by the issuing bank and subsequently the amount corresponding to the order is blocked on the shopper's card.
• The vendor receives a notification regarding the order and he can deliver the product manually.

Note: Only after delivery is confirmed by the vendor the payment is cleared and the money transferred from the shopper's card to the Avangate bank account.