Ecommerce Hosting For Your Online Business When you plan to start an online business, you will need to find a reliable web host that meets your requirements. Searching for a reliable and cheap web host is not an easy task. But if you know what you are looking for, it makes your task simpler. You ... Ecommerce Keywords Used Buy Our Site For Nursery Sales Did you ever wonder what keywords are used for a google site other than you own? Well here is my list for keywords on an add I ran for Arborvitae that we sell. aaborvitae ** 0.05 ** http://www.seedlingsrus.com/Arborvitae.html aarborvitae ** 0.05 ** ... Eyes on your eCommerce Website Copyright 2005 Richard KeirIn a recent article I talked about Google AdSense placement based on eye-tracking research. However, research by The Poynter Institute, Eyetools and the Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media has a lot to say about more than ...
Accepting Payments Online: An ECommerce Web Site Overview
You can accept online payments from an ECommerce Web site in two general ways:
1)Through your own online merchant account and/or 2)Through a third party online payment processor.
Accepting Payments Online through your own Internet Merchant Account
Accepting payments online via a merchant account puts you in control and limits your reliability on outside payment acceptance services. This approach can also seem like a jigsaw puzzle. Besides an Internet merchant account, you will need shopping cart software, a store or site host, a processor, and a secure payment gateway.
You may fit these pieces together in several different ways. On one end of the spectrum, you can choose the provider for each piece individually. On the other end, you may choose a turnkey solution, where a single provider has completed the puzzle for you.
There is no single best solution. Your choice will depend on your particular needs and experience. Among other considerations, you should factor in your own comfort with the technologies, customer convenience, providers' service levels, available technical support, reliability, costs, and time commitment involved.
Fees
There are a myriad of potential costs and fees involved in accepting payments online, making it difficult to compare different options.
Potentially, you could be charged fees by each provider involved in helping you accept payments online - application fees, set-up fees, yearly memberships, monthly statement charges, monthly minimums, gateway access fees, statement fees, fixed transaction fees, variable transaction discount rates (processing fee for each transaction), and cancellation penalties are all common.
Often, it is easy to misinterpret the fees you will owe. Rarely are all costs revealed in one place. If you are reading about a merchant account, for example, the quoted costs may not include gateway access, hosting, and/or shopping cart. Because you may be comparing "apples to oranges", options that at first appear low-cost can - upon implementation - turn out to be pricey. Similarly, expensive-sounding solutions may actually be reasonably priced.
Accepting Payments Online through a Third Party Online Payment Processor
If you are not ready to set up your own online merchant account and/or you want to offer additional online payment options, you can turn to a variety of third party online payment processors.
Third party online payment processors provide a way to accept payments online without the extra cost and obligation of a merchant account. To compensate, transaction fees and/or discount rates are significantly higher than for merchant accounts.
Each program is a little different and no single third party payment processor is right for all situations. Clickbank, for example, helps you sell digital products online. At last check, CCNow processes payment for tangible items only.
Deciding What's Best for You
Whether you accept payments online through an Internet merchant account, through a third party payment processor, or both, read all agreements carefully before committing. Do not hesitate to ask the providers questions if information is unclear or incomplete.
There is more information about accepting payments online - including explanations of merchant account fees, finding the right ecommerce providers, and third party payment processor overview - on the ecommerce information site Take-Payments- Online.com, http://www.Take-Payments-Online.com .
Put together the "puzzle pieces" for accepting payments online and your ecommerce Web sales will flourish!
About the Author Bobette Kyle is publisher of the ecommerce information site http://www.Take-Payments-Online.com . She is also proprietor of The WebSiteMarketingPlan.com Network, subject-specific Web sites designed to help you find the right information for writing and implementing your marketing plan. Visit here: http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com
E-Commerce: Hot Products, Online Marketing Trends ECommerce-Guide, United States - Nov 21, 2008 By Michelle Megna This week in e-commerce news, we highlight Shop.org's recent study that shows what your competitors say they are doing to market their ...
BX.COM Completes $25 Million Acquisition Strategy MarketWatch - Nov 20, 2008 COM Incorporated, the 15 year eCommerce software veteran, is announcing its $25 million acquisition strategy. "It took us the better part of this year to ...
Sabrix Inc. will boost the sales of e-commerce companies Ecommerce Journal, MA - Nov 20, 2008 Sabrix Inc., a leader in transaction tax management for companies of all sizes offered its Sabrix Managed Tax Service (MTS) for multiple leading E-commerce...
1 Choice 4 Your Store Announces Strategic Partnership with ... PR Web (press release), WA - 7 hours ago Offerings Available through ControlScan Provide Thousands of 1 Choice 4 Your StoreMerchants With Easy-to-Use Ecommerce Security and PCI Compliance Solutions ...
