The Easy Approach to E-commerce
Often times when we reckon of ecommerce, we reckon of all the complexities that could be involved. Shopping carts, merchant accounts, payment gateways, integration between systems, auto-responders and virtual terminals are just a few of the aspects of ecommerce that could give you a migraine. The ecommerce maze is certainly confusing enough to cause some extremely busy entrepreneurs to shy away from internet sales altogether.
Years ago, there were very few options for selling your produce via the internet. You had to have excellent credit to get a merchant account. The merchant account funds were funneled through a business checking account and there were hefty fees associated with each account. Some banks even imposed charges for every transaction on a business checking account! There were also merchant fees that were duplicated with the necessity to have a payment gateway and a payment processor to make your system work. Even with zero sales for the month, you could easily spend nearly two hundred dollars per month for the gate way fee, the statement fee, the recurring billing fee, the web hosting fee plus a shopping cart fee. On top of the fixed fees, you still had to pay a percentage of each sale. Opportunely, in recent years, things have become a whole lot simpler (and cheaper).
If you are looking to acknowledge payments as an individual, a small business, community group or association, you may want to start out by investigating one of the “simple ecommerce” options that are available today. With just a standard checking account and a third-party payment service you could easily take payments via email. You could write a small, informative email and then house a link within your email to allow public to make a payment for your product or service. You might even allow public to donate to your cause or your organization. For a more professional and customer-friendly option, a website, blog or social media page is the way to go. It allows you to grant more in rank in this area the items you are accepting payment for. With a website, blog or social media page, you can get as creative or fancy as you like. You could include an informative article, audio or video for visitors to digest before a hold is made.
By now, you might be thinking, “This is simple. I can do this!” You’re right! Here is a instant overview to show you just how simple it is to do things the “simple ecommerce” way:
- Determine what you intend to sell and what you will charge for it. Do online research for your market if you are uncertain in this area the going rate.
- Write a concise description of 200 words or less for your product or service. Be sure to note the features and benefits of what you have to offer.
- Using a simple template, make a website page, blog or social media page to house the payment link for your product or service. Remember to also make a “thank you” page for the customer to be full to after their hold is complete. If you are selling digital goods, house the download link or additional special instructions here.
- Open a third-party payment processor account. There are many to choose from. Be sure to choose one with the features that are vital to you.
- Add your product or service details to your payment processor account. An email link and/or the html embed code will be produced during this the boards.
- Test the link or web code to make sure it looks like you want it to and works just the way it should.
- Now you’re ready to take that in rank and add to your website or send out to your list via email.
- Monitor your sales and fine tune your customer service process. Most of all, delight in making money the “simple ecommerce” way.
There are still many companies who use the traditional ecommerce/merchant account system. It certainly has its house in the market. Though, it’s nice to know that there are lots of options for public who are not quite ready for the traditional route.
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