Resources for Research-Only Merchants
Find the guide for your situation, browse every guide by topic, or use the checklists to prepare for a consultation.
Find the guide for your situation
Choose the situation closest to yours to see the guides written for it.
I need card processing for a research-only store
Get a written answer about your actual business, prepare an application a provider can read, and compare the proposals you receive. The provider decides eligibility and terms.
- Questions to ask about research-only processing eligibility
- Payment processing for a new research-only peptide store
- Assemble the business picture for a processing application
- Compare the processing proposals offered to your business
- What Stripe, PayPal and Square publish about research-only peptide businesses
Prism service: Card Processing
My processing account was closed, declined, or put under review
Work from the written notice, your agreement, and the dates you can verify before you answer a review or ask about a replacement.
- What to do after your processing account is closed
- After a processing application is declined
- Report what changed since the last provider review
- Ask a reserve question from the notice you have
- Plan a provider change around dates you can verify
- Reading Stripe's policy for research-only peptide businesses
Prism service: Card Processing
A provider asked about my website, or I want it reviewed first
Connect each request or concern to the exact pages, listings, and claims involved, and record what you changed.
- Responding to a processor's website request
- Preparing a response when a provider questions part of your catalog
- Mapping research-only representations across your store
- Check each research-product listing before a processing discussion
- Check your homepage claims before someone reviews them
Prism service: Website Review
My checkout is failing, slow, or missing a payment method
Compare what the buyer saw, the store order, and the payment provider's record to find the failing step before anyone changes the checkout.
- When a payment notice and the store order disagree
- When a configured payment method stops appearing at checkout
- Collect evidence when a card payment is declined
- Mobile checkout problems
- WooCommerce Checkout block or classic shortcode
- A slow checkout
Prism service: Checkout Installation & Repair
Order emails, order statuses, or fulfillment handoffs are going wrong
Follow one real order through its status, its emails, and its fulfillment handoff to find where the records stop agreeing.
- Missing WooCommerce order emails
- When pending and paid do not mean the same thing
- Missing order handoffs
- Check the confirmation after a checkout change
- What to watch after checkout goes live
Prism service: Store Operations
I am rebuilding or moving the store, or replacing my developer
Decide what the project has to change, make sure the business holds its own accounts, and agree how finished work will be accepted before it starts.
- Fix the checkout or rebuild the store?
- Moving a store: what transfers and what must be ready first
- Accounts the business must hold when a website contractor leaves
- Hiring a developer or agency for a research-only store
- Before you accept the finished store
- Separate a redesign from a processing transition
Prism service: Store Builds & Migrations
I am an agency, developer, or representative introducing a merchant
Share the merchant's real question and the store facts you can confirm. The merchant keeps its own accounts and decisions.
Browse all guides by topic
Nine topic hubs for owners. Each guide answers a different operating question and keeps the worksheet in your browser.
Processing choices
- Research-only peptide payment processing
What does Prism need to understand my research-only business and discuss possible processing options?
- Compare card and ACH requirements for the orders you take
Which payment rail fits my actual order and support workflow?
- Mapping the companies behind your store's payments
Which company supplies each part of my payments arrangement, and which one should answer my question?
Transitions and provider reviews
- What to do after your processing account is closed
My processor is closing my account. What should I do first, and how do I ask about a replacement?
- After a processing application is declined
What should I clarify and document before making another inquiry after an application is declined?
- Responding to a processor's website request
How do I connect a provider's specific website request to the changes and evidence it needs?
Costs and account terms
- Compare the processing proposals offered to your business
How do I compare the proposals actually offered to my business without focusing on only one quoted rate?
- Processing costs from the statements you already have
What am I paying across the statements and invoices I already receive?
- Tell a checkout, an order status, and a bank deposit apart
Why can a successful checkout, an order status and money in the bank show different stages?
Website representations
- Checking that your website accurately identifies your business
Do my storefront, contact information, and business records describe the same actual business?
- Website review for a research-only peptide business
What does a Prism website review examine and what can it actually establish?
- Check each research-product listing before a processing discussion
How do I check whether my actual product listings accurately describe what my business sells?
Application preparation
- Assemble the business picture for a processing application
How do I organize an application so a provider can understand the actual business?
- Organize processing statements for the request you received
Which of my existing processing records answer the specific history request in an application?
- Preparing operating history when card-processing history is limited
How do I describe genuine trading activity when I do not have the card-processing history an inquiry asks about?
Checkout reliability
- Checkout review, installation and repair for a research-only store
What should a checkout review investigate before I authorize a change?
- Mobile checkout problems
Why is our checkout difficult to complete on a phone, and what evidence should we collect?
- When a payment notice and the store order disagree
What should we gather when an actual payment notification and the store's order record do not match?
Orders and support
- Build the order timeline before a payment dispute response
Which real order events can our team organize before using the provider's dispute process?
- Delivered scan, missing shipment: reconcile the records before you decide
What actual records should our team reconcile when carrier tracking and the buyer's report disagree?
- Shipping delays
Which stage of our real order workflow explains the delay?
Projects and partners
- Hiring a developer or agency for a research-only store
How do we compare proposals, and prices, for the store or checkout work we need?
- Merchant and agency responsibilities during a checkout change
Which decisions and accounts must stay with the merchant, and who owns implementation tasks?
- Prepare the technical handoff from a website agency
What technical facts can our agency supply so a processing conversation starts accurately?
Payment controls and records
- Apple Pay and Google Pay: what has to be true before the button
What must be confirmed before a wallet button can be offered on my checkout?
- What 3D Secure changes at checkout
What does authentication change in the checkout journey and what should my provider explain?
- How to read address and security-code results
How should my team interpret verification signals without treating them as certainty?
Prepare for Your Consultation
For a Website Review
Make it possible to connect your concern to the exact content that needs attention.
- Provide your website address and links to the product pages or policies you want reviewed.
- Describe the research-only products you offer and flag any recent or planned catalog changes.
- Identify the claims, testing statements, images, or policy wording you are unsure about.
- Summarize relevant provider feedback and the question you want the review to answer.
For Card-Processing Preparation
Organize an accurate business description before discussing a provider's requirements.
- Describe your products, business model, and how customers place orders.
- Explain whether you are seeking new processing or reviewing an existing arrangement.
- Gather the provider's stated product restrictions and requested information, if available.
- List the eligibility, account terms, or documentation questions you need the provider to answer.
For an Existing Provider Request
Keep the provider's request and your response connected to the same issue.
- Share the relevant wording of the request, removing account credentials and unrelated customer information.
- Include any deadline the provider has given and identify the pages or products it referenced.
- Record what you have already changed, with links to the current content.
- Separate unanswered questions from completed updates so the next conversation can address what remains.
Keep payment card details, passwords, and sensitive customer records out of the contact form. Ask how to share any additional information needed for an agreed review.
Terms You May Encounter
A few definitions for the conversation with Prism or your processing provider.
- Acquirer
- The institution that supports a merchant's acceptance of card payments through a card network. Its requirements and agreement affect whether and how the merchant can process payments.
- Processor
- A provider that handles payment transaction services. Its role and relationship to an acquirer depend on the particular processing arrangement.
- High-Risk Merchant
- A merchant a provider considers to present elevated risk based on factors such as products, business practices, disputes, or regulatory exposure. Classification and eligibility vary by provider.
- Underwriting
- A provider's assessment of a business before approving or continuing a processing relationship. It may consider products, ownership, website content, financial information, and transaction history.
- Review Scope
- The pages, topics, information, and deliverables agreed for a review. Defined scope helps distinguish what was examined from questions that still require further work or advice.
- Card-Network Rules
- Requirements set by card networks for participation in their payment systems. Providers apply these alongside their own policies and applicable legal requirements.
These preparation notes and definitions are general information. Requirements depend on your products, business practices, jurisdiction, and provider. Legal questions need qualified advice; processing approval remains the provider's decision.
Bring Your Website and Your Questions
Send the details relevant to your situation so we can discuss the scope of the help you need.