Sep 5
For a credit card payment to be processed at any merchant site, the information provided by the customer needs to be transferred to the card issuing bank. This is done by means of electronically integrating all the components of the system using a payment gateway. Two most popular and leading payment gateway providers that are available in the market include Authorize.net and DowCommerce.
Both of these providers have many features that are common. Most importantly, both these services are compatible with every major web hosting company and shopping cart software. Both of these providers have been developed using internet-protocol platform and provide browser-based solutions. Last thing is that it is easy to integrate both of these payment gateways. However, they do differ from each other in certain aspects.
DowCommerce is considered to be the most powerful payment gateway service provider that is currently available in the market. On the contrary, Authorize.net has been in operation since 1996 and boasts of a network of more than 200,000 internet business owners. In this regard, Authorize.net is more reliable in terms of ensuring data security. One aspect that separates Authorize.net from other payment gateway service providers is that it offers a prompt and valuable technical support to customers 24×7. Customers also have access to online support documentation.
Another major difference between DowCommerce and Authorize.net is in terms of costs. One can save hundreds of dollars through a DowCommerce account. This is because a DowCommerce account costs less than $20 per month. In case of DowCommerce, the merchant doesn’t need to pay any setup costs. Even the transaction costs seem to be lower. DowCommerce charges customers with a transaction fee of 10¢ per each transaction and a discount rate of 2.14% on the purchase price.
Both Authorize.net and DowCommerce offer a variety of features to their customers. Some of these include recurring billing module, integrated shopping cart, QuickBooks integration and Multi-User Access. Anyone, who opens a DowCommerce account, can avail these features free of cost. In case of Authorize.net, customer needs to pay certain charges so as to utilize some of these features.
Both of these payment gateway service providers offer advanced fraud processing measures to prevent the occurrence of identity thefts and credit card frauds. Dow Commerce uses state-of-the-art fraud prevention technology, a service that is provided to users at a minimum monthly charge of $10. On the other hand, Authorize.net employs a variety of security features such as 128-bit SSL Encryption, Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card Code Verification (CCV) plus Fraud Detection Suite.
Jun 17
An internet payment gateway works somewhat like traditional point of sale systems, but on a virtual level. First, the credit card information has to be gathered. This is done by the customer entering their payment information into your shopping cart software or other form. The card information is then encrypted and transmitted over a secure server to the bank processing service. When the processing bank receives the information, the payment is either approved or declined. Whatever the result, the data is sent back to your website, where it is displayed to the customer. This lets the customer know their order has been processed, and that their product will be shipped out right away.
As far as your business side is concerned, you will likely receive daily reports about your transactions, and receive daily or weekly payments based on the transactions processed. This is much faster than merchant accounts, and also saves you time on order fulfillment. Instead of waiting to see if payment clears before shipping, you need only worry about shipping to customers who completed the entire check out process. Even if you don’t have their money yet, you are guaranteed to receive it if the processing bank approved the transaction.
May 14
Does having an Internet based business appeal to you? For many people, being their own boss and working from home is an attractive idea. No more going to the office, or answering to ‘the man’. If you sleep in on the occasional morning, it’s not a big deal. However, for many people thinking of the hassle of starting an ebusiness can hinder them from trying. Enter Yahoo Store. Having a Yahoo Store makes it easy for the wannabe entrepreneur to have an ecommerce business. It seems as if Yahoo has thought of everything. Not only do they provide step by step help with setting up your ecommerce business, but they also provide continual support after your business is up and running. Using a Yahoostore for your ecommerce business is an easy way to take the headache out of starting a small business, and they ensure that you don’t miss a step.
The first part of establishing yourself as an online retailer is to design your Estore. They have templates that you can use to design your store, but if you would rather leave it up to the professionals, that is okay too. For a fee, you can hire a professional web designer and developer. If you have a product that you want to sell, and you don’t mind spending a few dollars, using a Yahoo store is a pretty foolproof way to go.
For a small fee, they will guide you through the process of setting up an Ecommerce business, and the resources necessary to make it happen. There is no need for you to hire a costly web designer, because Yahoo Store provides a ready-made template. This means that your website is easy to navigate, which will translate into more customers. You are more likely to attract customers if they can easily figure out how to navigate the website. Once your business is up and running, Yahoo Store provides continuous support, and makes it easy to add on certain promotional tools. For example, Yahoo Store has a built in mailing list manager, making it easy for you to manage multiple mailing lists and ensure that your customers are sent periodical newsletters, or promotional notifications. With the coupon manager, they make it easy for you to create promotional coupons with an expiry date, and also track the coupons performance, giving you an idea of how successful your coupon has been and how many sales it has generated.
Yahoo Store seems to have thought of everything. They even provide you with tips on how to run a successful online store. They give advice on managing accounts, such as voiding orders and processing exchanges and refunds. They also have programs that help make this a lot easier. If you start your ecommerce business with YahooStore, they immediately submit your store to Yahoo search and to Google, guaranteeing that your site will show up in the search results. It is up to you to develop a marketing plan, of course, but Yahoo will take care of almost everything else.
When you use Yahoo Store for your ecommerce business, you can be assured that your customers’ transactions will be secure, as Yahoo provides secure transmission of information between the site, the credit card bank and the merchant account provider. The public knows this, and customers feel safe shopping on a Yahoo Store, knowing that their information is protected. A big part of any online retailer is the product that they sell, and your Yahoo store is no different. If you want to have a successful ecommerce business, it is imperative that you fill your customers orders and ship them in a timely fashion. Yahoo makes this easy, providing your customers with automatic email updates when their order is shipped. This is a great system, and it lets your customers know that you are working for them, even before they receive their product.
Speaking of shipping, Yahoo makes this incredibly easy also. They have a tool that allows you to enter what you charge for shipping, whether by weight, order amount, location etc, and the tool will automatically calculate the shipping charges when the customer completes their transaction. And if you have any problems, Yahoo’s website states that they provide 24-7 support. From the looks of things, what could be easier? When you use a Yahoo store, you can concentrate on selling your product and growing your business, which is what is most important. They make it easy to maintain your estore and ensure that your customers stay happy and keep buying. So if you have thought about an ecommerce business but haven’t known where to start, you may want to try Yahoo store. It is easy to start your business small and manage your products and accounts with their user friendly programs and foolproof tools.
Apr 22
Are you thinking about starting an Ecommerce business? Anyone with a drive to succeed and a little bit of know how can start a successful ecommerce business. However, its always necessary to look before you leap. So if you are interested in ecommerce, you may want to look at these tidbits of advice to help you get on the fast etrack to success.
It’s pretty hard, if not actually impossible, to run an ecommerce business without a web page, which brings us to tip number one.
- Research the demand for your product. No matter what you are going to try to sell, you will want to make sure that there is a reasonable demand for it. There is no use paying the money to start up an Ecommerce business if you are going to be unable to sell anything.
- Choose a good domain name. Most likely, the one you want is taken, as is usually the case. You can attempt to buy the name back- money is always a powerful motivator- or you can try to alter the name by adding the, or online, or even a hyphen. If this still doesn’t work, you may have to change the .com to something more obscure, like .biz for example. The drawback to this is that your potential customers may not remember that part and simply enter .com, leading them to the wrong site.
- Create a good website. This involves writing stellar sales copy that will lure potential customers. Also make it easy to use, many a sale has been lost because the potential customer got fed up of trying to navigate an amateur website. If you don’t feel comfortable with your own skill, hire someone. It may be one of the best decisions you ever made.
- Find a website host. You can find someone to host your website for a very affordable rate, but research to make sure you are getting the most for your money. After all, its your money and your business.
- Advertise yourself. You may have the best quality product at the best prices and with the best service. But if you don’t advertise it, how is the consumer to know? Spending a small amount of money on one or two well-placed and well-worded advertisements may pay off in the long run.
- Research your competitors. You will want to know what your competitor’s prices and policies are to ensure that you are pricing your product appropriately and competitively. You can spend money on your website and on advertising, but if you don’t measure up the competition, you won’t be gaining any new customers. One way to attract potential customers to your site is to provide shopping incentives. If you offer free shipping on purchases over a certain amount, consumers will spend more money at your site, and will be happy about doing so!
- Provide payment options. By providing a wide range of payment options, you are appealing to a wider market. Many people are uncomfortable displaying their financial information, and you will lose that business if you only accept credit cards. By setting or your own merchant account, or even accepting Paypal payments, for example, significantly broadens your market. Some corporations frown on Paypal because it is seen as somewhat amateur. In this case, a secure shopping cart is preferred. You will have to see what works best for your business.
- Automate your Ebusiness. There is a ton of competition on the web, and it is necessary to respond to your list of clients, and get names on your mailing list. If you want people to sign up to your mailing list, it is necessary to offer something and make it seem attractive. The last thing most people want is more spam in their inboxes. You may offer a percentage off at your website if they sign up for your mailing list. Not only does this ensure that you get their names, but they will be more likely to spend money at your site.
- Stay in touch with your customers. Once you have your customers, you want them to return. Staying in touch with your customers is as easy as creating a survey on your website where they can comment on the service and the product and suggest improvements.
- Add a personal touch. When you ship the product, you may want to consider putting in a little ‘thank you for your business’ gift with first time customers. A gift certificate is a wonderful gesture in that it ensures repeat business.
Hopefully these tips will help you think carefully about starting your own ecommerce business. It may be a bit of work at first, but with determination, it is possible to you’re your ecommerce business into a thriving corporate entity. With a bit of know how, and the proper groundwork, creating a successful ecommerce business is only a few clicks away.
Mar 2
The increasing usage of World Wide Web provides an innovative and user-friendly approach to manage and organize businesses online. It helps to expand businesses globally and encouraged transactions from one part of the world to another, creating the requirement of secure payment gateway services.
A payment gateway is defined as a secure technique of online payment which permits all the online money transactions for any business activity. Customers can make online payments for products and services very easily and conveniently. Payment gateways solutions also offer extra services including money transfer, send and receive payments by emails; telephones etc. Customers can easily purchase products from any service provider situated anywhere in the world, without hesitation. This breaking of business barrier has increased the system of online payment gateways more acceptable and one of the most effective workable system.
This method of online money transactions provides a safe and practical way to manage the risks of ecommerce transactions.
This innovative system for moment transfer is entirely based on a person’s banking details. When the transactions are done online, banking details such as information about funds limit and credit card details of the customer’s account is required. So it is mandatory to identify the customer’s authorization and his or her information for secure and successful transaction.
Nowadays, credit cards are accepted in major for payment options in a payment gateway. There is no requirement of any software and technical knowledge for its proper usage. Only customer information is encrypted to make the payments secure and protected. The major issue while making payments online is to protect the fraudulent, unwanted spam and computer viruses because they may access the information of customer over the Internet. Payment gateway solution is a technique to detect and provide secure and effective payment solutions.
It acts as an effective platform between a business’ website and its customers. The main motive behind implementing this solution is to provide efficient payment gateways to facilitate customers to enjoy their buying experience.
The author of this article is a professional writer for Software Development India, an emerging IT company offering customized solutions including Payment Gateway Solutions and Web Site Graphic Design, search engine optimization and flash development India for clients around the world.