With the advent of Internet and the Information Technology, doing business online has become an all time favorite to almost everybody today. Almost all online businesses need some transactions to happen which are also done online. In order to carry on such transactions a wide choice of media is available to people. One such popular and widely used media for online transactions is Ecommerce. Online transactions are made possible by combining the technology involved in the internet along with the methodology of Ecommerce. It is actually believed to be the most effective tool and also a potential income generating tool. Interested in learning more about Ecommerce? Continue reading...
A facility of a 24 by 7 i.e. 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, online store is offered by ecommerce. Hence it is believed to be a blessing for most of the entrepreneurs as the customer service offered by it round the clock. Also this facility of round the clock customer service helps in providing support systems to a number of clients.
Staffing solutions, which are believed to the most expensive for any business, are made easy and inexpensive by Ecommerce as the number of people needed to work for it is less. This in turn is believed to save a lot of money for investors.
The factor of higher reach to people across the world is high when it comes to Ecommerce. A wider geographical means is made possible by Ecommerce. Because of the facility of internet, the geographical and demographical reach of ecommerce is more.
Friday, February 08, 2008
3 Steps Of Ecommerce Web Site Development
When it comes to ecommerce web site development the ultimate goal of the web site is to lead customers to buy products from your site. There are three steps for affordable web design with your ecommerce web site:
Step 1: Design Your Web Site
One must at the very beginning decide on the amount that is to be spent on getting the web site designed. Only after this is done should one start to choose a Web site designing firm. Thus the affordability analysis should be also taken into consideration while making the final decision. Regardless of the price of the web site design you are paying for, it is advisable to look at all possible options before making a decision and choosing a company. Good web site design is when there will be an obvious return on investment, over a set term.
Designing an ecommerce web site is quite different than designing other types of web sites. Most stores use an online catalog type of format organized by category. You will need crystal clear pictures of each item you're selling, as well as a detailed description to tell customers everything they need to know. An ecommerce web site must not only present the merchandise effectively, it must provide a safe and easy way for customers to order.
Step 2: Set up Your Store
Your customers will browse at your web site, select some items, and then pay for them. When you set up an e-commerce shopping cart, you're providing a way for your customers to bring their purchases to the cash register. The program you choose will allow you to enter your products in the database and allow shoppers to choose products when they click on "Add to cart" or something similar.
There are elements for a installing ecommerce web site:
* Domain. Domain names are very essential aspects of any web site business. These may have been the most overlooked areas but the impact that they can bring about to any business is so immense. It is for this reason that the name you choose should be carefully studied and analyzed before they are purchased and used.
* Web hosting. After you have determined that your future web site host is a reliable, well established company, let's look at their offer's technical details and understand what they stand for. There are many factors that determine a good and reliable hosting company such as: Reliability, Bandwidth, File Storage Space, Reputation, Statistics, Control Panel, Support, Backups, Range Of Services, Cost, and more.
* Ecommerce script/ software. Store owners can set up their online stores using ecommerce script/ software with either free or paid ecommerce script/ software. For small stores, it has all the features you need for an online store. For example: OScommerce, Zen Cart, PHP Auction, Cube Cart, Open Realty, Miva Merchant, etc.
* Payment processor gateway. When customers arrive at the checkout counter, you need a way for their payments to be transferred from their credit card accounts to your bank account. The method you choose may depend on your sales volume. There are popular payment processor companies: PayPal, 2CheckOut, Authorize.net and WorldPay.
Step 3: Promote Your Web Site To Worldwide
Here are some ways you can get web traffic to your web site. A new website might get 10 - 20 vistor's daily. If your web site is good and improved frequently it will give you up to 100 - 200 vistor's daily. Some websites will have up to more 1,000 vistors daily. Then its essential you promote your product or service. Some ways have proven as the most efficient in generating traffic to your web site: Pay Per Click, Article Submission, Press Release, Link Exchange, Directories Submission, and more.
Step 1: Design Your Web Site
One must at the very beginning decide on the amount that is to be spent on getting the web site designed. Only after this is done should one start to choose a Web site designing firm. Thus the affordability analysis should be also taken into consideration while making the final decision. Regardless of the price of the web site design you are paying for, it is advisable to look at all possible options before making a decision and choosing a company. Good web site design is when there will be an obvious return on investment, over a set term.
Designing an ecommerce web site is quite different than designing other types of web sites. Most stores use an online catalog type of format organized by category. You will need crystal clear pictures of each item you're selling, as well as a detailed description to tell customers everything they need to know. An ecommerce web site must not only present the merchandise effectively, it must provide a safe and easy way for customers to order.
Step 2: Set up Your Store
Your customers will browse at your web site, select some items, and then pay for them. When you set up an e-commerce shopping cart, you're providing a way for your customers to bring their purchases to the cash register. The program you choose will allow you to enter your products in the database and allow shoppers to choose products when they click on "Add to cart" or something similar.
There are elements for a installing ecommerce web site:
* Domain. Domain names are very essential aspects of any web site business. These may have been the most overlooked areas but the impact that they can bring about to any business is so immense. It is for this reason that the name you choose should be carefully studied and analyzed before they are purchased and used.
* Web hosting. After you have determined that your future web site host is a reliable, well established company, let's look at their offer's technical details and understand what they stand for. There are many factors that determine a good and reliable hosting company such as: Reliability, Bandwidth, File Storage Space, Reputation, Statistics, Control Panel, Support, Backups, Range Of Services, Cost, and more.
* Ecommerce script/ software. Store owners can set up their online stores using ecommerce script/ software with either free or paid ecommerce script/ software. For small stores, it has all the features you need for an online store. For example: OScommerce, Zen Cart, PHP Auction, Cube Cart, Open Realty, Miva Merchant, etc.
* Payment processor gateway. When customers arrive at the checkout counter, you need a way for their payments to be transferred from their credit card accounts to your bank account. The method you choose may depend on your sales volume. There are popular payment processor companies: PayPal, 2CheckOut, Authorize.net and WorldPay.
Step 3: Promote Your Web Site To Worldwide
Here are some ways you can get web traffic to your web site. A new website might get 10 - 20 vistor's daily. If your web site is good and improved frequently it will give you up to 100 - 200 vistor's daily. Some websites will have up to more 1,000 vistors daily. Then its essential you promote your product or service. Some ways have proven as the most efficient in generating traffic to your web site: Pay Per Click, Article Submission, Press Release, Link Exchange, Directories Submission, and more.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
What a Free Dropship Wholesaler Means and How You Can Find One
Finding a reliable dropship wholesaler is half work done, when you are setting up an online reselling business. It spares you tons of efforts, time and money, bringing a regular flow of profit from virtually nothing. You never even get your hands on the products you sell, not to mention storage, packaging, shipping costs, and unsold leftovers. In other words, you are just a retailer who finds buyers for a manufacturer’s goods and benefits on the difference between the wholesale value and the final sale price.
Some resell business owners assume that free dropship wholesalers are those ones who don’t charge for shipping the goods to the buyers. If this is your idea of a free dropshipping company, then you may get disappointed – they simply don’t exist. A free dropship wholesaler is one that doesn’t charge you for utilizing its services; however, that doesn’t apply to shipping costs.
Bear in mind that not all distribution companies are free – many of them do charge an additional fee for using their services. As a result, this adds to your overall expenses, cutting from the potential profit. The fee may vary significantly and can be applied monthly, annually or per transaction, so in your search for good wholesale suppliers you also need to take this into an account.
Of course, ideally, your dropship wholesaler should be free. This can give you an opportunity to come up with lower prices than what your competitors offer and draw clientele in no time. Consequently, if your sales show a clear tendency to increase, the company may provide you with additional discounts, meaning more profit in the long run.
However, a free dropship wholesaler doesn’t always mean the best, and you have to estimate a lot of factors when choosing one. Don’t focus on money matters only – a good reputation, quality of goods and fast delivery are just as important. After all, your own reputation and the fate of your resell business largely depend on the supplier you choose.
To find a good distribution company that is also free may be really hard if you are just starting off. The Internet has plenty of resources, but to sort out which are genuine and which are just middlemen, waiting to chop off their share, can be daunting. By simply clicking on the top sites a Google search page returns you are very unlikely to find what you really need. You may have to rummage in hundreds of websites in order to find at least one dropship wholesaler that is a genuine company and not a middleman.
Online directories of suppliers may or may not be a good source. Almost all of them are paid and scam risks are plentiful. In case you don’t want to use the directories, you have no other choice but relying on somebody else’s experience.
Some resell business owners assume that free dropship wholesalers are those ones who don’t charge for shipping the goods to the buyers. If this is your idea of a free dropshipping company, then you may get disappointed – they simply don’t exist. A free dropship wholesaler is one that doesn’t charge you for utilizing its services; however, that doesn’t apply to shipping costs.
Bear in mind that not all distribution companies are free – many of them do charge an additional fee for using their services. As a result, this adds to your overall expenses, cutting from the potential profit. The fee may vary significantly and can be applied monthly, annually or per transaction, so in your search for good wholesale suppliers you also need to take this into an account.
Of course, ideally, your dropship wholesaler should be free. This can give you an opportunity to come up with lower prices than what your competitors offer and draw clientele in no time. Consequently, if your sales show a clear tendency to increase, the company may provide you with additional discounts, meaning more profit in the long run.
However, a free dropship wholesaler doesn’t always mean the best, and you have to estimate a lot of factors when choosing one. Don’t focus on money matters only – a good reputation, quality of goods and fast delivery are just as important. After all, your own reputation and the fate of your resell business largely depend on the supplier you choose.
To find a good distribution company that is also free may be really hard if you are just starting off. The Internet has plenty of resources, but to sort out which are genuine and which are just middlemen, waiting to chop off their share, can be daunting. By simply clicking on the top sites a Google search page returns you are very unlikely to find what you really need. You may have to rummage in hundreds of websites in order to find at least one dropship wholesaler that is a genuine company and not a middleman.
Online directories of suppliers may or may not be a good source. Almost all of them are paid and scam risks are plentiful. In case you don’t want to use the directories, you have no other choice but relying on somebody else’s experience.
Cashback On Your Groceries!
I think the most appealing thing for me about Cashback Websites and Cashback Shopping is the fact that you are shopping whenever, wherever and however you want. Most of my Cashback Shopping is done on my laptop whilst watching the TV, which cant be said of the old days when I used to spend a whole Saturday shopping for stuff only to come back tired and (as it is the UK) often cold and wet!
But cashback shopping is not only about buying the little pick me up's that you buy at the beginning of the month or when you feel like a splurge on a new outfit. Its also, and probably most importantly, about the mundane things that we buy, like groceries for example.
Although, the average offers on Cashback Websites are between 2-5%, which make some people believe that its not worth it, think about how it can add up and the extra incentives that you get from the retailers as well to make it a brilliant money saver.
Take Tesco's for example. If you do your weekly shop of approximately £100 a week through a Cashback Websites, then with 2% cashback on top, it is £2 a week, which then multiplied by 52 weeks a year equals £104 a year. That is also just through grocery shopping without taking into consideration that there are often higher percentages of cashback for electrical, audio items, clothing, insurance etc.
As mentioned above, there are also the incentives that the stores offer directly, such as Tesco Clubcard Points which reward you for every pound you spend, which at the end of the quarter, can then be multiplied up to 4 times to spend on days out, holidays, restaurants, pampering and the list is endless!
The example that I give above is just through one retailer and is incorporating the everyday items we have to buy. But what about the annual outgoings such as house insurance, credit cards, car insurance and travel insurance. If you consider how much money is spent on these items, for example my house insurance is £280 a year with £58.50 cashback, then once again you are getting rewarded for the crucial things that you have to do in order to protect you and your family. Cashback is even available when applying for a credit card, which really is brilliant as you are getting paid for filling out some forms!
But cashback shopping is not only about buying the little pick me up's that you buy at the beginning of the month or when you feel like a splurge on a new outfit. Its also, and probably most importantly, about the mundane things that we buy, like groceries for example.
Although, the average offers on Cashback Websites are between 2-5%, which make some people believe that its not worth it, think about how it can add up and the extra incentives that you get from the retailers as well to make it a brilliant money saver.
Take Tesco's for example. If you do your weekly shop of approximately £100 a week through a Cashback Websites, then with 2% cashback on top, it is £2 a week, which then multiplied by 52 weeks a year equals £104 a year. That is also just through grocery shopping without taking into consideration that there are often higher percentages of cashback for electrical, audio items, clothing, insurance etc.
As mentioned above, there are also the incentives that the stores offer directly, such as Tesco Clubcard Points which reward you for every pound you spend, which at the end of the quarter, can then be multiplied up to 4 times to spend on days out, holidays, restaurants, pampering and the list is endless!
The example that I give above is just through one retailer and is incorporating the everyday items we have to buy. But what about the annual outgoings such as house insurance, credit cards, car insurance and travel insurance. If you consider how much money is spent on these items, for example my house insurance is £280 a year with £58.50 cashback, then once again you are getting rewarded for the crucial things that you have to do in order to protect you and your family. Cashback is even available when applying for a credit card, which really is brilliant as you are getting paid for filling out some forms!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Find Wholesale Product Sources Made Easy
Wholesale ecommerce businesses can be a tough job especially when you are dealing with global vendors. From managing the logistics to delivering quality goods you have to do it right everytime. It is a tough job if you do not have proper applications in place and your processes are not streamlined.
The margins in a wholesale business can be high but you need to drive volumes for your business to reach the plateau. At this point a businessman starts to wonder how he can achieve this with his business and turn over inventory. E-business holds the key to this problem. If I spoke about E-business with a trader a decade and half ago I may have been considered as a far fetched technology geek who does not understand business. The scenario has reversed completely and today any business without an Internet presence is not considered seriously by many people. If you are in a business meeting always be ready for someone asking you the address of your website and your email. If you are able to respond immediately and show your website to the customer on the screen the impact you make is tremendous. If your newly created website has features of ordering and receiving payments you can consider that the customer is almost certain to give you the order. It is important that you create a website that list all your wholesale products which has all the features required for an end user to browse through different categories of goods and also place an order if he is interested. Once you have developed a user friendly website you can start marketing it by adopting the many Internet marketing techniques. There are many wholesale B2B market places where the site can be listed and you can take your business global if you have the right resources. Nowadays, distances have shrunk and advance communication and logistics have made it easier for supplier and seller enterprises to trade with the global community.
If you are seriously contemplating to make your business web-enabled the first thing that needs to be done is to build a feature rich e-commerce site. It should have a listing of all your products and services and have a basic search option to enable users to quickly find the wholesale items that they are searching. User Experience management (UXM) is a buzzword nowadays and leading portals are going all out to give a pleasant experience to visitors who visit their site. UXM can present your wholesale categories in a clean uniform manner. When your wholesale product listing website is being designed the developers should ensure that they incorporate the best ideas from leading portals such as Amazon and Ebay because these portals have changed the landscape of business in general and e-business in particular. It is always good to do a search on these sites to find what new products are selling like cameras, DVD, camping equipment etc
Remember, if your wholesale product website has great content in your product descriptions, it will help search engines find your wholesale products more readily. In addition, many wholesalers have a robust backend functionality to will ensure that the deliveries are done as per schedule and customers are satisfied with the service levels.
The margins in a wholesale business can be high but you need to drive volumes for your business to reach the plateau. At this point a businessman starts to wonder how he can achieve this with his business and turn over inventory. E-business holds the key to this problem. If I spoke about E-business with a trader a decade and half ago I may have been considered as a far fetched technology geek who does not understand business. The scenario has reversed completely and today any business without an Internet presence is not considered seriously by many people. If you are in a business meeting always be ready for someone asking you the address of your website and your email. If you are able to respond immediately and show your website to the customer on the screen the impact you make is tremendous. If your newly created website has features of ordering and receiving payments you can consider that the customer is almost certain to give you the order. It is important that you create a website that list all your wholesale products which has all the features required for an end user to browse through different categories of goods and also place an order if he is interested. Once you have developed a user friendly website you can start marketing it by adopting the many Internet marketing techniques. There are many wholesale B2B market places where the site can be listed and you can take your business global if you have the right resources. Nowadays, distances have shrunk and advance communication and logistics have made it easier for supplier and seller enterprises to trade with the global community.
If you are seriously contemplating to make your business web-enabled the first thing that needs to be done is to build a feature rich e-commerce site. It should have a listing of all your products and services and have a basic search option to enable users to quickly find the wholesale items that they are searching. User Experience management (UXM) is a buzzword nowadays and leading portals are going all out to give a pleasant experience to visitors who visit their site. UXM can present your wholesale categories in a clean uniform manner. When your wholesale product listing website is being designed the developers should ensure that they incorporate the best ideas from leading portals such as Amazon and Ebay because these portals have changed the landscape of business in general and e-business in particular. It is always good to do a search on these sites to find what new products are selling like cameras, DVD, camping equipment etc
Remember, if your wholesale product website has great content in your product descriptions, it will help search engines find your wholesale products more readily. In addition, many wholesalers have a robust backend functionality to will ensure that the deliveries are done as per schedule and customers are satisfied with the service levels.
Selling Your Intellectual Property Online - The Independent's Guide (Part One)
We live in a time of tremendous opportunity: if you have the skills to build a piece of software, write a book or devise a business strategy, then you have all the tools you need to sell it and make a living. Gone are the days when you absolutely had to form a big corporation, grub for investment money and dedicate yourself to 20 hours a week of win-or-go-home-broke.
Every day, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are making a very comfortable living doing what you do as a hobby: building software, books or strategies that they sell online. Some of them grow and become full companies, going through all the growing pains that that entails. Others, however, simply focus on what they're good at, and at living their lives without the stress and demands of building the next Microsoft.
But the actual selling bit can be a bit harder than it looks. Sure, we all know that 'anyone' can accept credit cards over the Web - heck, haven't we learned that the easiest way is simply to hook into PayPal and get money sent via email?
The answer is no. Everybody can't take credit cards, PayPal won't let you sell whatever you like to whoever you like, and it's not necessarily as easy as it looks.
As a small firm - potentially consisting of you and your spouse and a potted plant in the garage - you don't have time to be building, maintaining and updating an e-commerce engine that gives you the best shot at staying independent. And every customer who can't, or won't, buy from you owing to your e-commerce setup is another step closer to going back to the corporate workplace.
The simplest way to make e-commerce work for you - rather than the other way around - is to employ an e-commerce service provider, like Plimus, Inc. You take care of developing the products to sell; Plimus takes care of putting a robust e-commerce platform in place that makes it nearly impossible for a shopper to object to buying from you. Plimus makes sure the shopper can
* Use whatever payment method they like
* Transact business in their local language
* Get online support 24/7/365
* See that they are protected against hackers and fraudsters
* Always get the information they need to feel good about closing the deal
You simply upload copies of your product, set the price and have Plimus design the look-and-feel for your order pages. If you want to change the prices, add coupons or cross-promote products, you can do so any time of the day or night through a web-based portal. Then you add a URL to your website and you're ready to go - you can sell, with all the bells and whistles large corporations spend millions of dollars a year to build and maintain.
Every day, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are making a very comfortable living doing what you do as a hobby: building software, books or strategies that they sell online. Some of them grow and become full companies, going through all the growing pains that that entails. Others, however, simply focus on what they're good at, and at living their lives without the stress and demands of building the next Microsoft.
But the actual selling bit can be a bit harder than it looks. Sure, we all know that 'anyone' can accept credit cards over the Web - heck, haven't we learned that the easiest way is simply to hook into PayPal and get money sent via email?
The answer is no. Everybody can't take credit cards, PayPal won't let you sell whatever you like to whoever you like, and it's not necessarily as easy as it looks.
As a small firm - potentially consisting of you and your spouse and a potted plant in the garage - you don't have time to be building, maintaining and updating an e-commerce engine that gives you the best shot at staying independent. And every customer who can't, or won't, buy from you owing to your e-commerce setup is another step closer to going back to the corporate workplace.
The simplest way to make e-commerce work for you - rather than the other way around - is to employ an e-commerce service provider, like Plimus, Inc. You take care of developing the products to sell; Plimus takes care of putting a robust e-commerce platform in place that makes it nearly impossible for a shopper to object to buying from you. Plimus makes sure the shopper can
* Use whatever payment method they like
* Transact business in their local language
* Get online support 24/7/365
* See that they are protected against hackers and fraudsters
* Always get the information they need to feel good about closing the deal
You simply upload copies of your product, set the price and have Plimus design the look-and-feel for your order pages. If you want to change the prices, add coupons or cross-promote products, you can do so any time of the day or night through a web-based portal. Then you add a URL to your website and you're ready to go - you can sell, with all the bells and whistles large corporations spend millions of dollars a year to build and maintain.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
80,000 Members at My Power Mall
My Power Mall is one of the fastest growing online business opportunities on the internet today. With over 80,000 members in over 1000 countries world wide its hard for other programs to match the success that they have already seen in its only 3 years of existence.
My Power Mall offers its members millions of products from thousands of stores all at highly discounted prices all at no cost to you for membership. And the stores you buy from will even go as far as donating a percentage of all sales to charities. MPM will save you a lot of money. But they can also make you a lot of money too. Many members of My Power Mall have already quit their day jobs to pursue their online business with the help of this program.
When you sign up with My Power Mall you'll be provided with your very own website full of stores and their products. Every time somebody buys something from one of these stores you get paid a percentage of the sale. But the best thing is that you don't actually have to provide a product, ship anything out, or anything like that. They can handle everything for you. All you need to do is get people to your website. But how do you get the visitors to your online mall? Don't worry about it. After you've signed up for free you'll gain access to personal business trainers and you'll be gives plenty of resources to promote your business, from ebooks to flyers. MPM offers many ways to keep an eye on your business. From toolbars with live web site stats to in depth sales statistics, you'll know at all times exactly how your business is running.
Every time a MPM member gets a friend, family member, whoever, to sign up they get cash. And you'll then receive a percentage of any sales they make through their mall forever! But theres more. Every time one of your referrals signs someone up you'll get paid again.
So in total thats 3 different ways to make money without the stresses of a day job. Many online businesses are hard to survive off of. But thats because they only allow one stream of income. Not only does MPM have 3 ways to make money but they also save you a lot of money in the process.
My Power Mall offers its members millions of products from thousands of stores all at highly discounted prices all at no cost to you for membership. And the stores you buy from will even go as far as donating a percentage of all sales to charities. MPM will save you a lot of money. But they can also make you a lot of money too. Many members of My Power Mall have already quit their day jobs to pursue their online business with the help of this program.
When you sign up with My Power Mall you'll be provided with your very own website full of stores and their products. Every time somebody buys something from one of these stores you get paid a percentage of the sale. But the best thing is that you don't actually have to provide a product, ship anything out, or anything like that. They can handle everything for you. All you need to do is get people to your website. But how do you get the visitors to your online mall? Don't worry about it. After you've signed up for free you'll gain access to personal business trainers and you'll be gives plenty of resources to promote your business, from ebooks to flyers. MPM offers many ways to keep an eye on your business. From toolbars with live web site stats to in depth sales statistics, you'll know at all times exactly how your business is running.
Every time a MPM member gets a friend, family member, whoever, to sign up they get cash. And you'll then receive a percentage of any sales they make through their mall forever! But theres more. Every time one of your referrals signs someone up you'll get paid again.
So in total thats 3 different ways to make money without the stresses of a day job. Many online businesses are hard to survive off of. But thats because they only allow one stream of income. Not only does MPM have 3 ways to make money but they also save you a lot of money in the process.
Credit Card Processing Is A Wise E-Business Investment
If you're in business for yourself on the internet you've probably been told that to make money you have to spend money. A more accurate way to think about it would be to make money you have to invest money -- as in investing back into your Web-based business in the form of services that will increase sales and profits.
This brings us to the decision whether or not to add credit card processing service to your e-store. It would seem to be a no-brainer. Studies have shown that e-stores processing plastic see increased traffic, repeat business, sales and profits. More than 80% of all purchases made over the Web are paid for with a credit card. In the last two months of 2007, the holiday shopping period, close to $30 billion in sales were racked up by e-retailers.
Those numbers are hard to ignore. And while there are going to be some expenses involved with the ability to accept payments online, with a little research you can make a cost-effective choice that helps you maximize the investment.
Indeed, before you even get close to making a decision on a merchant account company, spend some time cruising through a half-dozen provider Web sites. Most sites will include a list of charges and fees associated with doing business with them - and you might be surprised at the differences. Compare charges for things like transaction fees, internet processing gateway fees and statement/customer services fees, among others.
Be cautious of credit card processing companies that charge an application fee, which can vary from $100-300. The major players, as a rule, do not feel the need to levy this. These are the companies whose reputation for service and support mean they don't need to boost their bottom lines with a lot of add-on fees.
Indeed, when it comes to the costs associated with merchant account services the ability to offer discounts can be attributed to one of two factors. Some companies say they're cheaper, but make the money with hidden costs and fees. Great providers are able to come in at a lower price point because their customer retention allows them to do so, and those are the companies you'll want to talk to when you're ready to accept payments online.
And speaking of costs be wary of doing business with any concern that charges for calls to the technical support department. Good service after the sale should not have a price tag, and this applies to getting help when something's not working properly and slowing the progress of your business. Plus, unfettered access to support insures that small problems are dealt with before they have a chance to grow into big ones.
Make sure the company you sign up with is also the company that will be processing the transactions. Some use third-party processors that can slow down the amount of time it takes money to be put into your account. And improved cash flow is one more advantage of allowing card processing on your Web store.
A preferred way to sleuth out the good credit card processing companies is to get references and make some calls. A satisfied customer will tell you all you need to know, and should be more believable than what a company will say about itself.
Another good indicator is what the industry says about a provider. Companies like Apple and America Online have ratings for e-commerce providers that give unbiased third-party reviews for companies that give a Web business an avenue to accept payments online.
This brings us to the decision whether or not to add credit card processing service to your e-store. It would seem to be a no-brainer. Studies have shown that e-stores processing plastic see increased traffic, repeat business, sales and profits. More than 80% of all purchases made over the Web are paid for with a credit card. In the last two months of 2007, the holiday shopping period, close to $30 billion in sales were racked up by e-retailers.
Those numbers are hard to ignore. And while there are going to be some expenses involved with the ability to accept payments online, with a little research you can make a cost-effective choice that helps you maximize the investment.
Indeed, before you even get close to making a decision on a merchant account company, spend some time cruising through a half-dozen provider Web sites. Most sites will include a list of charges and fees associated with doing business with them - and you might be surprised at the differences. Compare charges for things like transaction fees, internet processing gateway fees and statement/customer services fees, among others.
Be cautious of credit card processing companies that charge an application fee, which can vary from $100-300. The major players, as a rule, do not feel the need to levy this. These are the companies whose reputation for service and support mean they don't need to boost their bottom lines with a lot of add-on fees.
Indeed, when it comes to the costs associated with merchant account services the ability to offer discounts can be attributed to one of two factors. Some companies say they're cheaper, but make the money with hidden costs and fees. Great providers are able to come in at a lower price point because their customer retention allows them to do so, and those are the companies you'll want to talk to when you're ready to accept payments online.
And speaking of costs be wary of doing business with any concern that charges for calls to the technical support department. Good service after the sale should not have a price tag, and this applies to getting help when something's not working properly and slowing the progress of your business. Plus, unfettered access to support insures that small problems are dealt with before they have a chance to grow into big ones.
Make sure the company you sign up with is also the company that will be processing the transactions. Some use third-party processors that can slow down the amount of time it takes money to be put into your account. And improved cash flow is one more advantage of allowing card processing on your Web store.
A preferred way to sleuth out the good credit card processing companies is to get references and make some calls. A satisfied customer will tell you all you need to know, and should be more believable than what a company will say about itself.
Another good indicator is what the industry says about a provider. Companies like Apple and America Online have ratings for e-commerce providers that give unbiased third-party reviews for companies that give a Web business an avenue to accept payments online.
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