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Upgrading Your Online Shopping Cart – 31 Benefits Your Next Shopping Cart Should Offer

07 2008 Friday

By Dan Janal in Ecommerce

Are you thinking about upgrading your shopping cart so you can take advantage of today’s improved online shopping carts?

You might have started your adventures in e-commerce with a bare-bones system. But if you’re like most people, you’ve probably outgrown these simple carts.

If that’s the case, you need to consider these options:

31 Things to Look For When Choosing Your Next Online Shopping Cart…

Is the cart secure? Make sure the cart has verified security standards and is hacker safe. Those orders could be a major source of fraud that could run you out of business if you aren’t careful.
Can it import your existing client database?
Can it import your existing list of products and services?
Will it categorize your products and services so you can find items quickly?
Will it calculate shipping charges by different carriers, like USPS and overnight courier services?
Can it bill clients automatically each month if you sell recurring services like coaching, or products, like supplements?
Will it work easily with credit card processing companies?
Do they offer free product suppor
Could it offer A/B split testing of different ads, so you can test with ads are more effective?
Does it have an affiliate manager module to track orders made by your partners?
Can it send out automated messages so you can follow up with clients using automated messages and sales scripts that can save you time and make you money?
Are the prices reasonable?
Can you choose from a variety of services so you get the level of service you need?
Does it have features included, like affiliate program tracking and auto-responders?
Can it work with your website to do product upsells?
Does it offer coupons and discounts for consumers?
If you operate several companies, will they all work with one cart, or do you need additional carts? Good systems will let you take orders from different companies you own.
Has the cart been in business for more than five years?
Does the cart have testimonials from satisfied people in your industry?
Will it print an invoice?
Can I make the sales pages look like my website so it has the same colors, logos and layout so customers feel comfortable and has a positive experience?
Will it create a database of clients, prospects and newsletter subscribers?
Will it send out newsletters in HTML and TEXT?
Can it track undeliverable emails?
Does it integrate with QuickBooks so you can do bookkeeping faster?
Can you search by client name or client email address to find records?
Can you create reports to see the records of each person who bought a specific product?
Can you send messages to people who bought specific products?
Can you send personalized messages that include a person’s name, company, city and product purchased?
Can you become an affiliate of the shopping cart and recommend it to your clients?
Can it offer a security code to defeat spammers?

Modern shopping carts, like MyEasyOnlineStore.com have all these features and more. Don’t buy a cart that doesn’t have these services, as you will surely need them.

Serial Internet business entrepreneur, Dan Janal has built multiple six-figure income businesses using MyEasyOnlineStore.com. Now, for the first time ever, he’s revealing the hidden truth behind automating your business, making more money online & enjoying the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. Get his free special report, “How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart” now at: http://www.prleads.com/meos

5 Essential Secrets To Ebay Auction Selling Success

07 2008 Tuesday

By Michael Tasker in Ecommerce

As Ebay grows with 70,000 new customers everyday adding to the 277,000,000 registered users, the opportunity to sell a product to this growing market becomes ever more attractive. But this is not any market. Ebay is a specialised market, full of hungry targeted buyers seeking out products in over 50,000 categories.

Yet to make serious money selling on Ebay takes learning, skill and belief that is required to operate any business. To be an Ebay auction selling success, you can’t just submit a product for sale and hope that bids will automatically appear. There are proven methods to ensure that your Ebay auction will be more successful than the competition. There are certain techniques that you need to adopted to ensure Ebay is a lucrative money making opportunity for you, not just a trickle of money but enough for you to then consider becoming a fulltime Ebay seller and joining the Ebay auction elite.

The 5 essential secrets to Ebay auction selling success are:

1 Do Not Have An Auction Reserve Price - Ebay is removing this option from some of its sites which is a sign that you should follow suit. Ask yourself this. Why would you bid for a product that has a reserve price stuck on it? You would be bidding in the dark not knowing if the auction would actually result in a sale or not. Maybe the Ebay seller is just testing the market. You don’t know so make sure you don’t put a reserve price on your Ebay auctione as this will deter prospective bidders.

2 Keep The Starting Price Low - Why? It attracts interest, which attracts bids often at a much quicker pace which then builds momentum which can lead to an Ebay auction frenzy. Now would you like to experience that? Depending on the product, a starting price of .99 c has been proved to attract bidders very quickly. Even if the product is of high value, a low starting price can result in a flood of bids each pushing the bid price up. And remember, an Ebay auction of a product requires bids to be success. If a potential bidder sees that the item already has bids they will probably be more likely to bid themselves.

3 The Important Ebay About Me Page - You should see this as the opportunity to sell yourself, gain credibility so any potential bidder will feel secure and can trust you. Ask yourself, would you bid on an Ebay auction where the seller had no profile, no details, you knew nothing about them? You probably would not and move on to someone you can trust. You need to include details about you and your business, how long have you been registered on Ebay, where you are situated, specialisations etc.

4 Ebay Feedback - As Ebay is impersonal, any details that will give the potential bidder comfort should be made available. It is prudent if you leave feedback for the winning bidder as soon as the item has been paid for. This shows that you are on the ball and wanting to here the winning bidders comments whether they are positive or negative. Negative feedback need not be damaging. Ensure that you act on it fast and even if there is negative comment on your feedback, potential Ebay auction bidders will see that this is far outweighed by all the positive comments.

5 Ebay Shipping - You shipping costs must not be another income stream for you. Overpricing is against Ebay policy and you will be found out. Ensure if you are charging shipping that the cost is clearly stated within the item listing. Would you like to win a bid only then to find out that there is a large shipping charge which appears excessive? Avoid these two issues.

In order for you to distinguish and separate yourself from the vast majority of Ebay auction sellers and power yourself into the Ebay elite, these secrets are essential for your success. And once you achieve a reputation as an Ebay auction elite, the potential to make very large sums of money selling on Ebay will be freely available to you.

Michael Tasker operates a successful information marketing business and continues to expand to various websites plus direct marketing channels as well. A lucrative money maker is Ebay and now available is a A-Z guide on how to become part of the 2% Ebay elite. The audio and transcript guide shows you everything that the elite use to generate huge amounts of money selling on Ebay. http://www.goodbyemoneyworries.com/ebaysign

How to Sell More Books Online with a Professional Online Shopping Cart

07 2008 Friday

By Dan Janal in Ecommerce

I was absolutely shocked when I checked out a new client’s website. He is an author who wants to sell more books.But he doesn’t have an online shopping cart!

He expects people to call his 800 number and give him their credit card number over the phone.

He also asks people to send checks to his post office box.

While both calls to action might seen normal, they are so 1980!

In today’s world, people expect to pay online. And you as an author should have an online shopping cart in place to take their money.

Here Are 7 Reasons to Use a Professional Online Shopping Cart & Stop Taking Orders by Phone

People live in dozens of different time zones. Do you want to answer the phone at 2 a.m. your time because someone in England is having her first cup of coffee and wants to order your book?

People shop on weekends. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be out in my kayak on a weekend than sitting by the phone waiting for a book order.

Telephone tag. Let’s say you just appeared on a talk radio show and people are calling to order your book. They will get a busy signal since you can talk to only one person at a time. You’ll find that you have to call back a dozen people. If this happens, you run the risk of playing telephone tag - and possibly never connecting with them.

Expensive phone charges. When you return phone calls, you risk paying long-distance rates including international phone calling rates. Your cost of taking the order just jumped through the roof.

Too much time, not enough money. When you take orders over the phone, you have to be nice. There’s nothing wrong with being nice, but you have to engage people in a conversation: How’s the weather? Where are you calling from? How long have you been interested in this topic? If you don’t ask questions like this, people will think you are rude and might not want to buy your book! This all takes time. Is your time worth money? Well if you take 10 minutes to call someone and accept the order, you could be out $20 if you charge $120 an hour for consulting services. Now, if you have to make a lot of book order sales calls, you can be out hundreds of dollars.

When you only take order over the phone, you have to sell the person, not just take the order. Many authors are not comfortable selling on the phone. Or they are bad at asking for the order. You could blow the sale.

Too many mistakes. It is all too easy to misspell the person’s name, mailing address or credit card number. I call this unintentional dyslexia. You think you typed in “54″ and you said “54″ to the client, but you really wrote “45.”

If you had an online shopping cart, like MyEasyOnlineStore.com which is used by many authors including myself, you’d solve all these problems!

5 Reasons to Get a Professional Online Shopping Cart Now

Online shopping carts take orders 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without you being present.

It can handle multiple orders simultaneously. So if you get flooded with orders, your buyers won’t get a busy signal on the phone. Instead, they’ll get a confirmation note from the shopping cart that the order has gone through.

You can spend your time make money and creating new products, or providing services to your clients. You won’t spend time verifying orders.

No mistakes. People will type in their information correctly. If the credit card info is wrong, or if information is missing, the shopping cart will alert the buyer immediately.

Online shopping carts protect you from fraud. If the card isn’t valid, the shopping cart won’t let the order go through. On the other hand, if you get a bad check in the mail and you deposit it, your bank will charge you a fee. If you already mailed the product, then you will have lost the price of your product as well as the postage - and your time.

Add an online shopping cart to your website today and you will `sell more products and services while protecting your time and energy. And, it’s very easy to get started. Just go to www.prleads.com/meos for a special report on how to choose a shopping cart. You’ll even find information on how to get started today!

About the Author:

Author and Serial Internet business entrepreneur, Dan Janal has built multiple six-figure income businesses using MyEasyOnlineStore.com. Now, for the first time ever, he’s revealing the hidden truth behind automating your business, making more money online & enjoying the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. Get his free special report, “How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart” now at: http://www.prleads.com/meos

10 Ideas to Increase Your eBay Response

07 2008 Monday

By Clint Herman in Ecommerce

So now you have a potential eBay buyer checking out your auction. They’re obviously interested in the item you are selling, or they wouldn’t be checking out your auction. Let’s say they’re on the fence about whether to buy or not. So how can you nudge them and get them to bid or buy? Well, check out the tips below.

Increase your picture quality: It’s been said over and over - a picture is worth a thousand words. If your picture is not good quality then it probably won’t matter what you wrote in your description Maybe you missed something important that a good quality picture would convey. If you have bad lighting or a background that drowns out your item then it will be worth little to nothing to those checking out your auction. Make sure people can see what you’re selling and consider using multiple pictures to show different angles and aspects of your item.

10 Tips to Help You Successfully Sell on eBay

07 2008 Thursday

By Clint Herman in Ecommerce

Below you will find 10 simple tips to follow that are good for anyone who wants to sell successfully on eBay.

Tip # 1: Identify your eBay market. Come up with a list of items you are interested in and then take a look at eBay to see what’s selling and what’s not. The market research data you collect will be very useful to you later on. Analyze the market and you’ll start to see those items that always seem to sell for a good price.

Tip # 2: Check out your competition. Before investing money, take a look at what the other sellers in your category are up to. Dig in to get an idea about what their strategies are. Make a special note on anything their auctions are missing, because addressing these flaws in your own auctions is a powerful way to move in and beat them at their own game.

Tip # 3: Find a product: If you’re looking to sell the same item over and over again then get hold of a supplier for what it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are. Also, shop around to get the best deal. Every penny counts. If the eBay prices you’ve seen are higher than the supplier’s then you just might have a winner.

Tip 4: Start small: Don’t start out by throwing tons of money at your idea. Start slowly and see what works and what doesn’t; learn as you go. Remember that it doesn’t cost a lot to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work! Thinking outside the box is a good way to become successful.

Tip 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies on eBay until you find something that works. Then just keep doing that very same thing over and over again. The chances are that you’ve just found a good niche or a good way to sell.

Tip 6: Create your business plan: A business plan, even on eBay, is a good thing to have. It doesn’t need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline your market opportunity, your strategy, the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. A business plan is more for you than it is for anyone else. If you treat your selling on eBay as a business and not like a hobby then this will push you toward success.

Tip 7: Invest and expand: Now is the time to pump money into your eBay business. Get your hands on more product and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal for the number of sales you want each week and increase it over time as you meet your goals.

Tip 8: Make it official: Once you’ve made some money from your eBay sales, you should seriously consider registering yourself as an “official” business. It’s not that expensive or hard to do and registering will go a long way toward credibility. A lawyer is the best person to help you through the process, but you can also get information online or in forums.

Tip 9: Automate: There are a lot of tasks you will find yourself doing over and over, like writing the same emails or auction item descriptions. This is the time to move some of this manual work over to automated software. You can also consider outsourcing these tasks to other people. You can automate a TON of your eBay business tasks.

Tip 10: Never give up: Even when times get bad and you think things won’t work out, don’t stop trying. Push forward until you succeed. If you keep working at it you’ll almost always find you will make a real breakthrough. Countless people give up on their eBay business right before they get their breakthrough. Don’t be one of them.

Clint Herman is a successful eBay seller with over 6 years experience in the industry. He also loves helping people start selling on eBay. He is the author of “How to Get Started Selling on eBay,” which is a beginner’s guide to selling on eBay designed for people who are new to selling on eBay. The guide is available at http://www.beginnersauctionguide.com

How the Right Shopping Cart Will Increase Productivity & Stop Your Online Business from Stalling

06 2008 Monday

By Dan Janal in Ecommerce

Is your online business or home-based business stalling because you are drowning in administration details?You’re not the only one!
Many small businesses are one step away from phenomenal success, if only they could increase their productivity AND reduce repetitive tasks and paperwork.

After all, any time spent dealing with writing down orders or sending out emails one-by-one is time that you can’t spend selling to your prospects.

I’ve found that having a full-features shopping cart, like MyEasyOnlineStore.com can save me as much as two hours a day!

Here’s How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart That Will Increase Productivity & Save Time and Money Guaranteed

Make sure your online shopping cart has an easy-to-follow ordering system. For example, people can order my products and services directly from the shopping cart. They don’t have to call me on the phone to take down the details. Don’t get me wrong, I love taking orders, but it is time consuming and it takes me away from other tasks. And if a prospect calls when I’m on the phone, or away from my desk, then they get an answering machine and we begin that long task of phone tag. If you have an easy way for people to order online, you can take orders at any time of the day or night. Who staffs theirs phones at 2 a.m.?

A good shopping cart will automate such functions as sending receipts. Don’t you hate it when clients ask for a receipt? You can’t blame them. They need a receipt for their taxes and their accountants. But making a receipt by hand will take you at least 5-10 minutes even if you have a template and a system in place. Everything takes time! But a good shopping cart will automatically send a receipt to the new client - and to you, so you have one for your files.

If you send personalize messages to new clients, such as greetings, or training materials, you can automate this process with a good shopping cart. Thanks to the wonders of mail-merge, each message can print the person’s first name. If you want to get fancy, you can even automate other variables such as city, state and product purchased. It’s a great time saver and people will think your messages are truly personal.

A good shopping cart can create sales reports by any variable you can think of, such as total sales, daily sales, weekly sales, sales in a given period, as well as sales by product. You don’t have to depend on your part-time bookkeeper to create these reports for you any longer! You can get reports when you need them, not when the part-timer shows up for work.

A good shopping cart does NOT just take orders. It can send newsletters and other types of information you’d like to broadcast - such as invitations to teleseminars or special events. A good shopping cart can manage most client communications, so you save time and money by dealing with one vendor instead of two or three. Plus you will be working off of one database and not have to update two other databases hosted by a company that sends out newsletters or autoresponders. Why duplicate your efforts?

Make sure your shopping cart offers clients control of some aspect of their accounts. For example, if a client doesn’t want to get your newsletter any longer, they can unsubscribe by themselves without having to contact you by email. This way you don’t have to do the work yourself. Good shopping carts have information on how to unsubscribe contained in each message for your convenience.

If you use a good shopping cart, you can save yourself time and money if you know the hidden truth behind automating your business online. Luckily, I’m giving you the keys to the Mint with a free special report about how to select a shopping cart located only at www.prleads.com/meos.

About the Author:
Serial Internet business entrepreneur, Dan Janal has built multiple six-figure income businesses using MyEasyOnlineStore.com. Now, for the first time ever, he’s revealing the hidden truth behind automating your business, making more money online &enjoying the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. Get his free special report, “How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart” now at: http://www.prleads.com/meos

Summer time slow down?

06 2008 Thursday

By Jennifer Horowitz in Ecommerce

A lot of people think summer is slow and not the time to focus on their websites.

So many people are out of town, some businesses slow down. Not to mention we all have concerns about the economy right now.

I want to propose a different perspective.

1. People are sticking closer to home because of high gas prices. You’ve all heard the term “Staycation” thrown around by the media. If you watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart you heard John Hodgeman (the PC guy from the commercials) create his own new word for the “stick closer to home because gas is way too expensive” phenomenon: “Holistays”.

No matter what you call it, people are sticking closer to home. People are shopping online even more.

It’s a great time to offer a shipping special. With the cost of shipping going up, again due to the cost of gas, a shipping special is much appreciated right now.

You can tap into this situation by playing it up. Just as The Daily Show created a segment that was funny and garnered a lot of attention; you can find a way to make the current situation work in your favor.

2. If things are a little slow, it is actually the perfect time to devote some of your time to your website.

It is suggested that you review your website and refresh it at least once a year. Just a handful of suggestions for you:

Now is a good time to check the links and pages within your site and make sure everything is in working order. Get rid of those pesky 404 errors from broken links.
You could also come up with a summer special.
Jazz up the site.
Add some testimonials.
Look at your web stats and see if you can increase conversions.

3. Now is when you absolutely must start focusing on your upcoming holiday campaigns.

No one wants to think about the fall and then winter and the holiday season, while enjoying the sun and probably some time off. However as we all know, time passes quickly and I hate to be the one to say it, but holiday season will be upon us before we even know it.

Start planning your campaigns
Write your ad copy
Design your graphics

4. Top rankings don’t happen over night. It takes time for the engines to rank your site for your top keywords. It is not too soon to start your optimization in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season.

On the flip side; if summer is your busy time, you don’t want to ignore optimization now. When the busy time settles down a bit, you want optimization in place to help bring in traffic to boost what would normally be a slower time for you in the fall.

No matter which way you look at it, and no matter when your busy time is, the truth is putting off optimization is never a good idea. If you don’t need free targeted traffic from the search engines, then this won’t apply to you. I don’t really know of any website that isn’t looking to increase traffic and get more sales though.

So take a look at getting your site optimized and prepare for the upcoming change in seasons. You aren’t going to be happy if the holiday season approaches and you aren’t positioned to benefit from it.

For those reasons and more now is actually the perfect time to focus on your website’s growth and improvement.

Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

EBay Warning: Dropshipping? PayPal Is Holding Your Money!

06 2008 Thursday

By Melody Wigdahl in Ecommerce

EBay has been the ideal home based business for years. Most of us started with the ‘clean out the garage’ model, and over time graduated to dropshipping, and in many cases, it has turned into a pretty significant fulltime income.

Over the last several weeks, several VERY disturbing changes have taken place at EBay as EBay seems intent on wiping out the very business base that built the behemoth, to focus on the corporate clientele that have taken a much larger position on EBay over the past couple of years, using EBay to sell off their excess inventory directly, rather than selling to the large discount chains as was the previous habit.

Here’s an overview of some of the most significant - and damaging - changes that affect you and I, the folks that have built home businesses around EBay….

1) The EBay Feedback system now only allows Sellers to leave POSITIVE for Buyers. On the other hand, Buyers can leave any kind of feedback they want for Sellers. This means that if you have a problem with a Buyer (gee - that never happens, right?) you are pretty much out of luck! So, if the Buyer feels that he should have received his widget in 3 working days - even though you clearly state that it takes no less than 10 working days for the widget to ship - he can give you a negative! And you are pretty much powerless since there is no arbitration system in place.

2) Neutral Feedback? HAH!! Guess what? They no longer exist! All of your neutral comments have now been converted to NEGATIVE feedback ratings. Top PowerSellers have lost their PowerSeller status and the perks that went along with it - including the extra discounts that were often factored into their pricing. Although the PowerSellers were given a period of time to ‘correct’ the situation - the bottom line is that Buyers are not terribly responsive to such requests - and this means that a huge percentage of PowerSellers…aren’t. An interesting side note here is that one PowerSeller that was hit by these changes…..is also one of the speakers at this week’s EBay Live Conference in Chicago……should be a very interesting speech…….

3) The Final Straw…….dropshipping is huge on EBay. My hubby has been very successful dropshipping on EBay - both through EBay partners such as Doba and others, as well as resources of his own, through his 25 years in the wholesale gift industry. Today he received an email from PayPal stating that any orders that were ‘known to be dropshipping” would result in a 21 day hold on the funds from the customer! The only way around this is to send PayPal the tracking notice when the product ships and supposedly they will ‘release’ your funds.

Personally - I have dealt with PayPal in the past over disputes - and the response times are horrible. Basically, this means that if you have been earning a living dropshipping - you will now have to be financially solvent enough to cover all of your sales out of your own pocket, rather than paying for the product with the funds from PayPal. This pretty much will kill the entire dropshipping business model for most people on EBay.

4) No digital products - Ebooks were a HUGE seller on EBay and it was a great business model! Automated download, a real ’set it and forget it’ business model if handled correctly. But apparently it was not handled correctly by many and now ebooks and other digital items must be sold in DVD format and physically shipped. exactly why it was such a great business - you didn’t have to ship anything!

At one point, we had 4 stores on EBay and thousands of products, but we have been ‘branching out’ and are looking at other products, such as the EBay Affiliate program, niche store scripts etc.

After this latest round of changes, and the notice today from PayPal, we will be pulling 99% of our products off EBay.

As a home business - it no longer works for us.

Over the next few days we will be posting reviews of the various store models as we take them for a test drive - we will bring the pros and cons of every system!!

Melody Wigdahl is a serial entrepreneur, lifelong geek and founder of Work At Home Ideas For Women, and The WomensNet Network, Home Of The Amber Grants For Women Entrepreneurs , a networking and resource site for women entrepreneurs. Melody has been working from home for more than 2 decades - web based since 1996 - and loves to share ideas and stories with other entrepreneurs!

Why PayPal’s Online Shopping Cart Sucks & Will Cost You Sales?

06 2008 Tuesday

By Dan Janal in Ecommerce

If you’re using PayPal’s online shopping cart to sell products and services on the Internet, you might be leaving money on the table.

That’s because PayPal is only a basic shopping cart that offers basic services. But they aren’t a complete solution to boosting your sales.

Five Things That PayPal Won’t Do That Professional Online Shopping Carts Will Do:

1. Recurring billing.

If you want to sell products or services on a recurring basis, PayPal will not help. PayPal cannot process recurring orders. So, if you are selling a coaching program and billing clients each month, PayPal can’t help. If you are selling vitamins or supplements on a monthly basis, PayPal can’t help. If you are selling anything on a recurring, subscription model, PayPal can’t help. You’d have to enter each order each month by hand. This takes valuable time away from activities that can make you more money.

That’s why I use MyEasyOnlineStore.com. This professional online shopping cart automatically processes recurring orders each month. So I don’t have enter information each time. It’s done for you each month, correctly!

2. Testing your ads.

PayPal will let you display one page to get your prospects to order a product. That’s okay.

But wouldn’t it be better if you could test another message to see if that new message would get a better response? Marketers call this an A/B split test.

If you have the right professional online shopping cart, you can test different messages, . By constantly testing, you can get better results and make more money!

3. Offering flexible payment options.

PayPal lets you make one offer at one price. That’s fine. But what happens when you offer a high-priced item and people balk at the price? Wouldn’t it be great to offer them a payment plan so they can pay in 2 or 3 installments?

4. Sending out customer service messages.

PayPal will send a message letting buyers know the sale was completed. That’s nice, but wouldn’t it better if you could send a message that offered additional information so people feel bonded to you? Wouldn’t it be great if you could send a series of emails that offered additional products for sale?

Professional online shopping carts like MyEasyOnlineStore.com include a marketing and auto-responder system that allows you to repeatedly contact prospects and clients but PayPal does not.

5. Offering additional products for sale.

Wouldn’t it be great if your shopping cart could show additional pages that offered additional products for sale? If you can offer more products for sale, more clients will buy more products so you will make more money. PayPal won’t do this! That’s why you need a professional online shopping cart..

If you invest in a professional shopping cart, you can make more sales, more easily than just by using PayPal alone. Best yet, MyEasyOnlineStore.com (my preferred online shopping cart choice) works with existing PayPal accounts so you can get the best of both worlds!

Author: Serial Internet business entrepreneur, Dan Janal has built multiple six-figure income businesses using MyEasyOnlineStore.com. Now, for the first time ever, he’s revealing the hidden truth behind automating your business, making more money online & enjoying the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. Get his free special report, “How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart” now at: http://www.prleads.com/meos

The Next Evolution of Social Media

02 2008 Friday

By Jennifer Osborne in Ecommerce

If you aim to establish your site as a serious ecommerce player, here are 3 things you need to do:

Create and put up a privacy policy.
Process orders on a secure server.
Get 3rd party verification to increase credibility. Each is easy to do - but many ecommerce newbies underestimate their importance.

These 3 elements are important because they help build trust at the most critical point of the visit -at the point where the visitor is about to complete a checkout and convert into a customer.

1. Create and put up a privacy policy

If you don’t have a good online privacy policy, it’s time to get to work! Clear and easy to read privacy policies are essential in building customer trust. They essentially tell the customers what you will do with their information. A good privacy policy will therefore calm any customer fears in that area.

A lot of visitors read the privacy policy in detail before they decide to submit any of their information.

If you want to be considered a credible online business, an excellent privacy policy is a definite must. Some of the interesting findings of the a survey of internet users and trust by Stanford University include:

Americans appear to place greater trust in sites that provide valid content and respect privacy than their European counterparts. Americans gave much higher credibility rankings to websites that offered privacy statements, sent emails to confirm transactions, indicated the source of site content or provided credentials for its authors.
Women attached greater credibility to websites with privacy policies, email confirmations of transactions and contact phone numbers than men. Notice the emphasis on privacy policy? Web users are getting more and more concerned with privacy and many will refrain from buying anything from a website unless a privacy policy is stated. If you don’t have one, here’s how to create one in 20 minutes. Just visit the Direct Marketing Association’s website and fill in the form to have a privacy policy customized for you. Privacy policies should be clearly stated and conspicuously posted. We recommend that you link to one in your footer. You might also want to test the effect of linking to your privacy policy at the bottom of your sign up form such as in the example below.

2. Allow secure ordering

We used to run a site that offered customers only one way to order - PayPal. PayPal has a trusted name and allows credit card and echeck transactions. Morever, millions of Americans have PayPal accounts. So is PayPal enough? As an experiment we offered credit card processing on our own secure server in addition to PayPal. We were astonished by a whopping 20% increase in sales!

The conclusion: If you’re just starting out and offer only Paypal as a quick and easy payment system - get a merchant service and a secure server ASAP.

A merchant service is an online credit card processing facility. You can sign up for a merchant service through a variety of different companies. The largest is Authorize.net, But you can’t approach them directly, you’ll need to go through a reseller of their service.

We use e-online data. They are a reputable Authorize.net reseller and we’ve been very satisfied with them.

Once you get a merchant service, you need to set up a shopping cart software that can process credit cards and is compatible with your merchant service. (Most shopping cart software programs that are sold or open source are compatible with Authorize.net.

To protect your customer’s sensitive credit card information you need to run your shopping cart software on a secure server.

A secure server is recognizable by the fact that domain names running on it start with https rather than http. To set up a secure server, you need to buy a secure server certificate and install it on your server. Don’t let

the technicalities of this bother you. Your web hosting company should be able to do this for you. You can purchase a low cost secure server certificate from Free SSL.

A secure server requires a little bit more of an explanation. A secure server runs on a technology called SSL. Basically SSL is a protocol that encrypts any communication between a server and a client. The communication is therefore not readable for anyone outside this relationship. It’s secure.

Use 3rd-Party Verification

A very effective way of convincing your visitors of your credibility and top-end security policy is by having outside independent entities vouch for you. You can show this on your website through seals of approval from these organizations.

Outside reinforcement will convince your visitors that you have put in an effort to earn their trust. Research into approval seals shows that online business that do use this method of reinforcement have higher conversion rates, lower shopping cart abandonment and a higher amount of loyal customers.

Well-established providers of approval seals include: