NETWORK WORLD JAMES E. GASKIN'S SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY 11/18/04 Today's focus: Low dollar or high service? Part 2
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Strategies for selling products online * Links related to Small Business Technology * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88347 _______________________________________________________________ Weekly Webcast Newsletter The weekly Webcast Newsletter brings you information on webcasts available on NW Fusion - your 24/7 source for the latest solutions and strategies, complete with links, resources, and the personal answers you need. Covering vital topics like security, applications, wireless, and more, our webcasts are highly focused, single-topic briefings from experts in technology. Sign up today! http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88433 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Low dollar or high service? Part 2 By James E. Gaskin Before you upgrade your Web site to sell products, practice asking this: "What other fees are involved?" Unless you make changes, fees from your Web designer stop when the design's completed. But fees from your Web host, shopping cart provider, merchant credit card account, financial gateway provider, and bank online processing center keep going and going and going... The good news is life in e-commerce land is getting increasingly easier. Today, nearly all Web hosts support common shopping cart applications, and banks better understand e-commerce merchants and have stopped lumping them in with porn merchants. Assuming you have a Web host, you need to add three components to be able to accept a customer credit card number, verify the credit, and have the money transferred in your bank account before the customer gets the product: A shopping cart application, a merchant account at your bank for credit card processing, and the gateway application linking the first two. Since you really want your money, let's start with a merchant account. Work with your bank first, because they know you and want to keep your business. If you prefer another option, Yahoo Directory offers seven pages of credit card merchant account providers. When you find three you like, check their list of approved gateways (and shopping carts approved by the gateway), because each must be configured to work with the others to make your money appear. Big hosting companies can streamline the process, but the fees still keep ticking up and up. But if you have hundreds of products and sell dozens per day or hour, you're going to have to pay for some serious automation processes. For examples, look at Yahoo Stores, Storefront.Net and new player, Volusion SuperStore (see editorial links below). Check out their feature pages, paying particular attention to marketing details. The more marketing these vendors help you do - such as e-mail auto-responders thanking customers for buying - the better. Other features include an affiliate program; multiple currency options and language support; and tight integration with all the shipping services, including e-mails to customers containing a tracking number. Since most cost extra, only add what you really need. Those of you just dipping into e-commerce have cheaper ways to sell. eBay, PayPal and Amazon MarketPlace all provide ways to sell with credit cards without getting a merchant account. Also check Yahoo Directory under Transaction Clearing. But if that's still more than you want to deal with, you can just post a PDF order form for customers to print, fill out and fax back to you, or take orders by phone. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Yahoo Stores http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant/compare.php Storefront.Net http://www.storefront.net/solutions/int/pricing.asp Volusion SuperStore http://www.nwfusion.com/nlsmallbusinesst843 Low dollar or high service?, Part 1 http://www.nwfusion.com/nlsmallbusinesst844 _______________________________________________________________ To contact: James E. Gaskin Gaskin writes books (13 so far), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area. He has been helping small and midsize businesses use technology intelligently since 1986. He can be reached at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88347 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the Small Business Technology newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/columnists/gaskin.html Breaking telework and SMB news: http://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/ _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NW FUSION PARTNERS' SITES NOW AVAILABLE Network World Fusion Partners is a collaborative effort between Network World and sponsoring Partner companies. Each microsite contains best-of-breed information as well as custom content not found anywhere else, including a custom email newsletter and special offers. 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