Credit Card Issues - Old Technology Bites Back

The shopping cart software that I use on AudioMysteries.com is now over 5 years old. When I decided to start the site it made sense to buy this particular product which I had customized to work for audio book rentals. Five years later this decision has come back to bite me big time.

A couple of months ago I got an email from the president of my software supplier talking about the great future of the company. I did a quick check and realized that they had gone belly-up and had been acquired by another company. I went shopping for a new ecommerce platform. I was able to pick something very good, much better than what I currently have and totally hosted in one location. So far so good.

I tested the new platform, got a new domain name that will be used when I make the transition, and loaded some inventory. Now I would be faced with moving my entire inventory to the new site - over 800 products as well as building a new business model. That's daunting. But I devised a plan to do it over the next five weeks.

All of this was fine - except my existing software provider threw another wrench in the process. Late this week I got another email - never a good sign - from the new company letting me know that they would be unable to process credit cards for my site starting March 1, 2009. A scant 72 hours from when the email was sent. This meant 1) finding a new credit card processor and 2) integrating their service into an existing site 5 years old.

Old technology definitely bites back. After a frantic 48 hours I found a processor, applied, was accepted and some changes were made. However I have no idea if this is going to work. So tomorrow I might be "out of business".

I think I will have to have a conversation with my new ecommerce provider very soon.