website shopping cart review

Saturday 21 November 2009

www.digitaldeliveryservice.info

A full review of the top ten digital delivery service providers

Choosing an Ecommerce Shopping Cart

Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike a traditional brick and mortar business, your website is your only chance to impress potential customers. It needs to project a professional image to capture the trust of your visitors. The shopping cart is a particularly important part of your website because it deals with people’s personal information and credit card numbers. People are nervous about online purchases and need to be assured that they are giving their credit card numbers to a reputable company.

There are several types of ecommerce shopping carts available. They range from merchant services, which require no programming skills, to fully integrated shopping carts that require custom programming. The three main categories of shopping carts are:

* Merchant services such as eBay and 2Checkout
* Hosted shopping cart services
* Fully integrated shopping carts

Merchant Services

Most shopping carts require you to have your own merchant account and gateway. A merchant account is a bank account that allows a business to conduct credit card transactions and the gateway allows the transaction to be conducted over a secure connection. It’s okay if you don’t have a merchant account or gateway. Merchant service shopping carts allow you to use their merchant account, gateway and shopping cart for a higher cost.

Merchant services are beneficial for very small businesses or those that are just starting and don’t have a lot of orders. Merchant services provide the merchant account, gateway, hosted shopping cart and will maintain your customer’s personal information. They usually require a set-up fee between 50 and 200 dollars, transaction fee between 30 and 75 cents, and 5% to 10% of each transaction. Because you are using their merchant account, your customer’s credit card statement will show the merchant services business name not yours. In some cases, customers will not recognize the charge and may dispute it.

Merchant service shopping carts have an administrative interface, which allows you to login to your account to add products, prices and shipping options. The shopping cart generates the html for the purchase buttons and you simply copy and paste the html into your web pages. When your customer clicks on the purchase button, he is taken to another website to enter the credit card information. This indicates to the customer that you are a small business. Some potential customers will abandon the shopping cart rather than enter their credit card information on a website they know nothing about.

Once your business grows to the point where you are processing over $1000 a month, it’s more cost effective to apply for your own merchant account and switch to either a hosted shopping cart (little or no programming) or a fully integrated shopping cart (programming required).

Hosted Shopping Cart

The hosted shopping cart is a great solution for a small business that is processing over $1000 a month but does not have the resources to create or customize a fully integrated shopping cart. Hosted shopping carts are similar to the merchant services because they provide an administrative interface for you to enter products, pricing and shipping options. They will generate the html for the purchase buttons, which can be copied and pasted into your html pages.

Hosted shopping carts face some of same problems as merchant service carts because your customers will be transferred to a different website to enter the credit card information. Some hosted shopping carts allow you to customize the shopping cart so that it has the same look and feel as your websites. Customizing your shopping cart may require some programming skills, but it could also prevent customers from abandoning their shopping carts.

The main difference between the merchant services shopping cart and the hosted shopping cart is the name that appears on the customer’s credit card and pricing. Hosted shopping carts allow you to use your own merchant account and gateway, which means the customer’s credit card statement will show your business name next to the charge. This can decrease your charge backs.

If you are using your own merchant account and conducting over $1000 of transitions each month, the hosted shopping carts can be less expensive than merchant services. Your merchant account will probably charge a monthly fee between 20 and 60 dollars, transaction fee between 10 and 50 cents, and a percentage of the transaction, usually ranging between 2% to 3.5%. In addition to the merchant fees, your shopping cart service will also charge a monthly fee between 10 and 30 dollars and could charge a transaction fee. These fees sound more expensive than the merchant service option, but if you are processing over $1000 a month and growing, it’s better to pay flat monthly fees than continue to be charged 5 to 10 percent of the each transaction.

Fully Integrated Shopping Carts

The fully integrated shopping cart is a great option for any business that can afford it. The shopping cart will be dynamic and will have the same look and feel as your website. The ZIP Baby Potty Training Store is a great example of a fully integrated shopping cart. Fully integrated shopping carts like this contain features that are not found in merchant service or hosted shopping carts. For example, you can discount items, display customer reviews, assign products to multiple categories, display out of stock notifications, sort products and prices, and display shipping estimates without requiring the customer to create an account.

Integrated shopping carts require advanced programming skills and can often be used with your own merchant account or with a service that allows you to use their merchant account for a higher fee. There are many integrated shopping carts available. Free carts require the most programming skills, but if you don’t have the programming skills necessary to customize a free shopping cart, there are many companies that specialize in customizing fully integrated shopping carts.

Your choice of a shopping cart can have a dramatic impact on your business. Your website is the first and only impression you get to make so you’ll want to make it as professional as possible. While shopping for a shopping cart system, put yourself in your target customer’s shoes and browse the Internet. Review your competitor’s websites as well as those outside your industry. Make a list of shopping carts that you find appealing and research them thoroughly before choosing one.

Copyright 2004 Danna Henderson. All Rights Reserved.

Thursday 19 November 2009

Selling Digital Products Online Can Make Your Rich!

When thinking about starting an online business, the first thing you need to consider is what type of products you will offer through your online store.
Your options are many because online you can offer just about anything you want: physical products, informational products, digital products, wholesale retail products, and other products and even services are all possibilities.

Deciding what and which type of products to sell on your website often sidelines most entrepreneurs before they ever get started. But it really doesn't have to be so hard because the choice is easy if you really think about it. The best types of products to sell on your website are digital products.

There are a number of reasons for this: They offer the highest margin of any product, you'll have no inventory to carry, and they are inexpensive and easy to produce.

They also enable you to solve a customer's number one desire - instant gratification.

'We want it, and we want it now' is the mantra of today's consumer. And by choosing to sell digital products, you immediately set yourself apart in the consumer's eyes because they know that when they need the type of product you sell, they can get it immediately.

So let's look at the three different types of digital products that should consider. The first is software.

Plain and simple, software delivered to the customer via download is the future. Companies like Microsoft are spending billions to condition the consumer so buying software and receiving it digitally is the new paradigm, as opposed to installing it from a CD.

The other advantage of selling software online as a digital product is that typically people are buying software to solve immediate need and/or problem. Antivirus software or other PC utilities software is a good example of this.

By offering software that can automate a task, fix a problem or make someone's life easier, it is better to offer it via download because the consumer can click, pay, download, and start to use the software immediately rather than having to drive computer or office supply store.

Another type of digital product to consider, and one that is hugely popular is music downloads.

Music downloads are very popular because they are cheaper than buying the CD at the store, and the buyer can sample various music much more quickly than wearing a pair of demo headphones the music store.

But the biggest reason for the popularity of downloading music online is that the consumer has the ability to purchase only one song, rather than buying an entire album to get that one song that they like. Of course the MP3 player and the iPod fueled his popularity and portable digital music has become a important part of consumers daily life.

The third type of digital product you can offer, and the best in terms of profitability are informational products like e-books and reports.

The cost to produce of most e-books and reports is zero if you write the information product yourself and as little as the few hundred dollars if you outsourced to a third party.

The reason the digital information products are often considered the best product to consider when selling online is that they fulfill the most important needs of both the business owner and the consumer.

Digital Products are:

• Easy and inexpensive to create inexpensive to create - Advantage business owner.

• Offers a much higher margin of profit - Advantage is its owner.

• Buyer pays less for the idem than they would in a physical store - Advantage consumer.

• Cost nothing to ship and deliver - Advantage business owner and consumer.

• Instantly gives the customer what they want - Advantage consumer.

Also selling digital products online typically involves less customer service and therefore lower operating costs for the merchant.

Additionally, offering digital products online also means that the business can automate its operations to a much higher degree thereby giving the business owner more free time to develop other products or interests.

At the number one advantage to selling digital products online is that almost every dime made from the e-books for example, is pure profit for the online business owner.

By now you can see that digital products are by far more logical and profitable choice than selling physical products.

In short, with the absence of printing, publishing, producing, packaging, and shipping costs, online business owners enjoy lower overhead and higher profits while consumers enjoy lower costs and instant gratification.

This win-win situation will provide you with a multitude of profits for your online business.

Don Schnure is the president and founder of Cyber Samurai Marketing Inc, a leading provider of online business and digital delivery software.htm

Friday 28 November 2008