The Amazing Online Shopping Cart

So you are searching for the single most amazing online shopping cart ever? Let me tell you, I could probably give you a name of the one I prefer. However, you may take a look at it and realize that it simply would not work for you. That is why there are so many shopping carts on the market right now. Many have the same basic function of allowing people to order products. However, some are tailored to those actually mailing items. Others are tailored towards people who are offering a product for download online. There are so many differences in people’s needs that it has increased the demand for a wider variety of shopping carts. For this reason, I can not simply give you a name and you go buy it. You will have to continue to do your own research. The one thing I can do though is give you some things to look for. Below is my list.

Easy to Integrate into an Existing Website

There is nothing more frustrating than to purchase a script but find out it was nearly impossible to get installed on your website and have it look good. This is a good question to ask the developers of the ecommerce shopping cart so that you can see how easy it will be to get it installed. You might even ask for the documentation that comes with the script before you make the purchase. This way you can look it over and see how complex it is.

Very Customizable

Even though the script is easy to integrate into a design, this does not mean that the script is going to be customizable. The colors may not match at all. You will want to ensure that you can change the color, font, and widths of the shopping cart so that you can get it as close to looking like it is a custom one as possible. Generally, this is not a huge problem for anyone who is familiar with CSS and HTML. However, it is nice if they have it setup in a way that will make it even easier for you by changing just a few variables or something along those lines.

Easy to Update

When most people think of the term “shopping cart” they simply think of a way for people to order their products. However, something that goes unnoticed frequently is the ability to add new products or manage existing ones. Part of being in internet marketing is that you will want to test things out. You may want to change the wording on the description of a product, change the name a little bit, or maybe even change the picture of the product. If this is not easy to alter, then you will be spending a lot of unnecessary time making changes. Ensure that products are easy to update.

Good Customer Service from the Developers

It does not matter how savvy of a person you are with programming or websites in general, you will almost always have to ask a question or two. Unfortunately, not all shopping carts have great support from the developer side. What I always try to encourage people to do before buying anything online is to contact the company and just ask them a couple of questions. Even if you already know the answer, it is a good way to see how quick they respond and what kind of quality of response you might get. If all they do is send you to their documentation or give you a short one sentence answer, then you might decide to look elsewhere. Especially if it took you several days to receive any type of response, I would not buy from such a company. Worst yet, if you did not receive a response, do not buy from them!

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The Reality of Online Business

At this point, you should already have a ecommerce website developed. You might be getting co-workers, friends, family, and some occasional other visitors on your website. This part may scare you, but there is more to being successful online than just owning one of the millions of websites that are on the internet.

Disadvantages to Being Online

1: You must market your website

This is not like brick and mortar companies. Often times, you can build a restaurant in a local town. The word will quickly spread and people will see the sign as they drive by. Many times you might just get traffic from people who are curious as to what the business has to offer. This is not the case online.

A similar scenario would be if you were to build your business in the desolate desert where no one would see it. Instead of relying on the curiosity of people, you have to compel them to come. This is where marketing comes into play. Through marketing, you can move your business from the desert to Broadway in New York City.

2: You are in direct competition with more businesses. In a small town, you might be the only business nearby that sells motorcycles. You do not really have much competition. Everyone who wants a motorcycle will normally find their way to your store. Online, this is not the case. You are competing against the biggest companies to sell your products.

3: It is a never ending process

Just like your brick and mortar business, you will constantly be working on improving the performance of your online store. You will need to find out what works, what doesn’t work. You will have to capitalize on the market changes.

Advantages of Being Online

1: You have the ability to market your products to many more people

You might sell one or two motorcycles a day and that might be very good business for you in your brick and mortar company. Lucky for you, you now have a marketplace that is ten times larger than what you did have. Instead of selling your product to your metro area that has 100,000 people in it. You have the opportunity to get your product to the 100,000 people that are looking for your product on a daily basis.

2: Very little overhead expense

Running an online business is very inexpensive in comparison to brick and mortar companies. With brick and mortar companies you will be paying for location to store your products and do business, utility bills, you have to be there to keep the doors open. An ecommerce store will allow you to stay open 24 hours per day, even though you may not be directly at the computer. You will also find that a small web hosting fee and a mediocre marketing budget is much less expensive than what you are already paying to keep your doors open.

3: You can compete against larger businesses

Luckily for you, you do not have to have one hundred employees, a huge marketing budget, and sell overpriced products to compete with the bigger companies in your market. Instead, with a smaller budget you can do quite a bit online. You may find that you are taking business away from your other competitors if you are spending wisely. Just like you, it no longer matters that they are on a busier street in a bigger neighborhood. You are both online and you can directly compete against them and build up your business.

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Finding a Good Merchant Services Provider

Overview

When you first get into online business, it is imperative that you think ahead and be ahead of the curve. For this reason alone, you should start out by accepting credit card payments. The vast majority of people who might buy your products are likely to have a credit card. It is much more likely than them having a PayPal account.

I am certainly not saying that offering PayPal as a form of payment is a bad thing. But I read elsewhere that only about 1 in 10 people who own a credit card have a PayPal account. Even less use their PayPal account regularly. Therefore, you might be cutting your potential business by 90% just so that you can avoid paying for merchant services. You certainly do not want to cut your own throat before you ever get started.

Below are some tips for finding a good merchant services provider.

1: Know the kinds of fees you will be expected to pay

Merchant account fees can vary widely. One of the initial tactics some will use will be to encourage you to use their services with low upfront cost. Little do you know until you read the fine print that you are going to be charged a hefty percentage for each payment that is processed. When selling expensive products, they could be tapping into twenty or thirty dollars of your profits. Try to find one that has lower fees and not too expensive on their setup costs.

2: Check out the Customer Service

Before you ever sign anything or before they ever have the opportunity to charge you a dime, you should test out their customer service. You can simply do this by asking them a couple of questions about their services. Keep in mind that quickest is not always the best. A lot of companies online will now have automated systems setup to answer questions. This is not always the worst thing, but I have always felt more comfortable talking to someone directly.

You know that if it takes several days for them to get back to you that they will likely be the same way when you decide to use their service. People buying from a company they have never dealt with before are already going to be somewhat skeptical. If it takes a few days for you to get a response back from your merchant, and then another day or two to get back to your potential customers about something, this is detrimental to your business. You need them to be prompt and handle the questions professionally.

3: Price is not always the single most important aspect

When looking at a merchant service provider, there are many other factors than price to take into account. You may be shopping around for a website and it is important that it will be easy for you to setup their credit card processing system with your shopping cart. Some merchant accounts may require that you manually run the credit card as if you were an actual retail store and this is not what you want either. Instead, you want someone who has plenty of features and will make it easy on both you and your customers to go through the ordering process.

4: Find one that fits your needs

Not all merchant accounts offer the exact same features. Some work well and have modules setup for specific shopping carts. You want to be thorough and find one that will actually work with you to get everything setup properly. If you are having to twist their arm and are confused on whether it will work or not for you, I would perhaps avoid this company. They want your business, but you want them to be familiar with the types of things you need. Whether it is their ability to work with a certain shopping cart or some other specific situation, it may be best to go with merchant accounts that directly advertise that they allow for the features and capabilities that you need.

5: Read others reviews

When in doubt and trying to narrow down your decision, read what others have had to say. A lot of times, a bad reputation is a good sign that you want to steer clear of that company. Unfortunately, many people get sucked into the “too good to be true” situations. They see extra low fees and jump at it. You may be contemplating falling into the same trap. Always read reviews and if you see more negative ones than positive ones, then I would recommend looking elsewhere.

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Choosing your Shipping Provider

Once you have the idea of what products you will be selling and have everything setup to do business online, the next large step is to evaluate who you will be using for shipping. Customers will want to know this upfront and it is important to take the shipping process very serious. Poor shipping practices will mean the difference between positive reviews and negative ones. Internet buyers have little patience for terrible packaging, products arriving damaged, or products that are arriving well after the purchase was made. Below are your three primary options for shipping products.

United States Postal Service (USPS)

The Cheaper Option for Light Weight Products

The benefit to going with the United States Postal Service (USPS) is that they have extremely affordable shipping costs on products that are under about two pounds in weight. Keep in mind that when I suggested that you find a product you should keep in mind shipping expenses. Many items sold are under two pounds and therefore a good portion of the items can be sold via USPS for less expense than the other two primary carriers. The opposite is true if you start getting heavier than this. The price will start increasing dramatically if you have oddly shaped and large, heavy items to ship.

Products can not be tracked accurately and no guarantee on delivery date

The downside to using the USPS is that the tracking system is not done very well. Generally, you cannot track exactly where the items are, you simply know if they were delivered or not.

Another huge flaw is that the USPS does not guarantee a quick delivery. Especially during Christmas time, the postal service can get backed up and items can take weeks to be delivered. It is very likely that clients will be unhappy if this occurs.

FedEx

The shipping company for heavy items

If you feel as though the benefit outweighs the problem of the cost of shipping large heavy items, then you should certainly check into FedEx. On anything over three pounds it is very likely you will find them to be the cheapest of the three shipping carriers.

Good Tracking System

FedEx has really done a good job with their tracking system. I have never had a problem with their system. Your clients will see that you shipped the item, that the item is in route, where it is exactly at, and when the item should arrive.

UPS

A little excessive in price

UPS has been around for quite a while. They do offer good service but FedEx is usually the best option for heavy items, USPS is the best for lightweight items when it comes to price. UPS probably falls somewhere in the middle for items that range two to four pounds in weight.

The primary benefit here might be that you have one close to you so that it is easy to drop off items. You may be able to justify paying just a little bit more for the benefit.

UPS started the great tracking system

UPS really does pride itself in having a good shipping service. They seem to do a really good job of getting products to their delivery address on time and safely from what I have seen. Their tracking system is much like FedEx and they have been using the system for quite sometime now. You are able to see where the package is at all times and receive an accurate delivery date.

Learn how you can increase your Internet business with ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.