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The Advantages of Using PayPal As Your Shopping Cart

By Kathy Dobson in Featured

Any e-commerce application needs a good shopping cart to handle any purchases and payments for subscriptions. Of course you want the best shopping cart you can get for your blogs or websites, but there are so many options online, all promising you the world, that it can get confusing. Still wondering what a shopping cart is on website?

There are several points to consider, but the simplest description that all of us will recognize is the shopping cart in grocery stores. While that one has squeaky wheels and gets pushed up and down the aisle, the shopping cart on your website is a set of scripts that track what your customers buy so they can pay for the entire selection with one click.

All the shopping cart does is keep track of any items you have placed in it for purchase. Without a shopping cart your customers would have to pay individually for everything they want to buy. After your customers press the “Buy” button on your site, their transaction is transferred to a payment processor to collect the money owed, send it where it belongs and enables the download if required.

It’s not quite that simple, but it is a quick explanation of what happens behind the “Buy” button. There are several processes that are sending and receiving the request for payment on a mouse click that ends with the download instructions for your customer. It gets confusing when you start searching for a shopping cart for your own sites. A simple search will probably send you several hundred choices, all claiming to be the premier shopping cart for your needs.

An excellent choice would be PayPal’s shopping cart. For several reasons, using PayPal’s shopping cart will streamline your customer’s payment processes by letting you accept credit and debit cards and direct bank account payments. Some benefits for your customers include purchasing more than one item at a time and paying for them with a single click of the “Buy” button. It’s good customer service. You don’t want to irritate customers ready to spend money with you.

Other PayPal benefits for your customer include the ability to browse your entire collection of products and check out a list of what they bought before they click on your “Buy” button, which gives them the opportunity to modify the list. Ease of installation which does not require knowledge of CGI scripting is one big advantage of PayPal’s shopping cart. Opening an account is free of up-front costs and you are charged the same fees charged when you get other PayPal payments.

To find the fee schedule, check out the bottom of any page, even the log in page, for a link to “Pricing” or “Fees.” Some of the technical benefits of using PayPal’s shopping cart include being able to set shipping rates, if necessary, and tax rates. You can let your customers make donations to charities of their choice. You can easily convert your “Buy Now” buttons into “Add To Cart” buttons to make multiple purchases seamless to your customer.

Their free 410-page PDF, “Website Payments Standard Integration Guide,” has all the in-depth information you might need about using “Buy Now” buttons included. You can find a comprehensive list of services on PayPal when you click the tab, “Merchant Services.” If you click on the tab, “Products and Services,” you will find a link to the ebook. For your business records, PayPal will keep detailed transaction records on their website for your use when you need them.

You will also find details needed to integrate PayPal with your site, including how to pre-populate your customer’s sign-up forms. It might be a good idea to download their free PDF User Agreement for your records. You can find a link to the document at the bottom of almost every page on the service. Look for “Legal Agreements” and click that link. PayPal is easy to use with whatever application you need. It has been time tested for a longtime as eBay’s payment processor.

Besides being highly recognizable as something that a lot of people use already and have a comfort zone with, another undocumented benefit of using PayPal’s shopping cart is your own peace of mind in knowing that your business income is in good hands.

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Kathy Dobson is a free spirited business owner and entrepreneur dedicated to helping others achieve financial and personal freedom through Internet marketing with an emphasis on membership sites.

Internet Shopping Cart: Make More Money With Reports and Bundles

By Michael A Jones in Featured

Most internet shopping cart software packages come with a host of features. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the potential of your shopping cart. This article examines how to use reports and bundle offers so you don’t run the risk of leaving money on the table with each customer who engages the shopping cart process.

First off, let’s see how internet shopping cart reports can save you money and make you money.

Here are three examples:

Filter Sales By Customer

If your shopping cart software allows you to filter the database according to client, you will be able to see where most of your sales are coming from.

You need to extract from the report the volume of sales for each client so you can target this group of customers with special discounts for bulk orders or something similiar.

Filter Sales By Date

Use this feature to see if there are specific times in the year when sales volume dramatically increases. You may have a general idea and know which month(s) are the peak sales months.

However, by using a Sales By Date feature you can pinpoint specific times in the year you may not be aware of where sales volume is higher than normal, especially if those times are spread over just one or two weeks. Increase advertising dollars and promotions accordingly at those times and bring in even more sales.

Filter Sales By Credit Card

Do you know which credit cards most of your customers are using? Probably Visa or Mastercard. What about other credit cards such as Discover, American Express, Diner’s Club, Delta? What are your merchant account charges for those other cards?

By checking on Sales By Credit Card you will see whether it is economically viable to continue offering those cards as an option relative to the number of sales you get. If it’s not, drop the uneconomical ones and save money.

Surely this underscores the importance of getting internet shopping cart software that provides a robust reporting feature.

Now we will turn our attention to another way you can increase sales and make more money from your internet shopping cart. It involves bundle offers.

An internet shopping cart setup can learn much from the bricks and mortar world. The Happy Meal by McDonalds is an example. Travel agents do it with their package deals. What are we talking about?

Bundle offers or the upsell – an amazingly simple way to increase sales value and revenue yet so under-developed in many internet shopping carts.

Once a customer has already committed themselves to buying you simply add on related items and increase the value.

If for example you are selling exercise equipment, exercise clothing, or body care products could be put together with the original purchase at a discount price to make a Bundle Offer.

Good internet shopping cart software packages should have this feature included with simple setup instructions. Once the client gets to the page that reviews the contents of the shopping cart, the Bundle Offer can appear. The client can then add the bonus items with just one mouse click.

Push Without Being Pushy

Carefully choose the wording when describing the Bundle Offer to avoid coming over too pushy which may turn clients off. Don’t just make a slashed price offer. Be sure to emphasise the benefits to the user as well.

For example, “Enjoy a refreshing, invigorating shower after your workout with our exercise equipment, with the all natural, herbal shower gel (brand name). For an additional $x you can have a pack of 5 sent with your order.”

When choosing an internet shopping cart, make sure you have this facility so you don’t leave money on the table.

The beauty of this is that bundle offers don’t really require much extra effort yet they can produce substantial sales over the months. The customer is already in the buy mode, having committed to the first purchase. The second purchase is much easier!

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See an actual demonstration of an online shopping cart optimized for good sales by visiting Michael’s site here: http://www.net-vault.com/online-shopping-cart

Your Shopping Cart Setup: How To Grease the Tube

By Michael A Jones in Featured

How is your online shopping cart setup? Does it make the transition from interest to closing the sale slippery so the prospect just slides along and automatically hits the Pay button? Or are there catches along the way which frustrate the client so they end up abandoning the shopping cart?

It is obvious that ‘greasing the tube’ so the client effortlessly glides through the ordering and payment procedure can make a huge difference to your profits. If you just reduced shopping cart abandonment by 10-20%, what would that do for your business?

When thinking about your shopping cart setup, it’s always helpful to compare your online shopping process with your own personal offline shopping experience. When you select items in a shop and make your way to the Pay Desk, what things irritate you or would irritate you? Have you ever selected a number of items and then had to look around for the Pay Desk. If it is hidden in some corner and you go round for 10 minutes trying to find it you know how you feel by the time you get there.

What if the cashier delayed your check out by trying to offer you other items, even trying a hard sell approach? Some may not mind, but I suggest that the vast majority would prefer to just take their items straight to the check out, pay for them, and leave the store to get on to other business.

Is a potential customer’s mindset any different online? Not really. Most people see what they want, and then just want to pay for it, and move on.

With the offline shopping experience in mind, here is a list of key points to bear in mind when considering your online shopping cart setup:

1. If you have “Add to Cart” buttons by each product, be sure to include a “Check Out” button beside it so the customer can easily go and pay for whatever they have selected quickly.

2. Let the customer check out easily with trying to push extra products on them. This is not to say you can’t try an upsell arrangement, but it has to be done gently and discreetly. One main domain registrar I use, mainly their prices are low, does irritate me with the number of options and extra bells and whistles they try to thrust on you before you can check out. At times I have a problem finding the checkout button because the page is so loaded with offers. I find that annoying and frustrating. Perhaps you do to.

On the other hand, Amazon have mastered the art of discreet upselling. Along the bottom of the screen once you have made your selection they gently tell you that other customers who were interested in ‘this’, were also interested in ‘that’. When I buy on Amazon, I don’t get the pressured feeling I do on the domain registrar site. The whole upsell process is carefully and discreetly woven into the shopping cart setup.

3. Make it easy for your customers to change their order. Your shopping cart should provide the option to delete or change the quantity of any item at any time with a convenient button in the cart.

4. Reassure, reassure, and reassure the customer that their ordering information is secure. Briefly explain the security measures you have in place or put badges and certificates alongside that indicate the whole procedure is going through a secure connection.

5. Minimize the number of steps to the final Pay button and make the buttons clear. Don’t confuse the issue with gawdy graphics and unnecessary steps. It’s a good idea to count how many times the user has to hit the enter key or mouse button from the time they add an item to the cart, to the click on the Pay button which actually processes the transaction. Your aim should be to eliminate any unnecessary steps. So within 2 to 4 clicks, the whole thing is finished and the payment is in your account.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a day at a water park with the family and taken a ride down the water chute, you know once you take that first step over the edge, there is no going back! You are on your way. Likewise with your shopping cart setup. Be sure to grease the tube by making the payment process, clean, simple, and as effortless as possible.

Scrutinize every step, familiarize yourself with all your shopping cart setup features, and utilize them fully. Rather than throwing money at more advertising, why not re-examine your shopping cart setup and add to your profits considerably.

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For a free walk-through tutorial highlighting ways to customize your shopping cart for maximum sales, see how Michael A Jones has setup the shopping cart on his body care site: http://www.net-vault.com/online-shopping-cart

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

By Dan Janal in Featured

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…

1. 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.
2. Can it import your existing client database?
3. Can it import your existing list of products and services?
4. Will it categorize your products and services so you can find items quickly?
5. Will it calculate shipping charges by different carriers, like USPS and overnight courier services?
6. Can it bill clients automatically each month if you sell recurring services like coaching, or products, like supplements?
7. Will it work easily with credit card processing companies?
8. Do they offer free product suppor
9. Could it offer A/B split testing of different ads, so you can test with ads are more effective?
10. Does it have an affiliate manager module to track orders made by your partners?
11. 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?
12. Are the prices reasonable?
13. Can you choose from a variety of services so you get the level of service you need?
14. Does it have features included, like affiliate program tracking and auto-responders?
15. Can it work with your website to do product upsells?
16. Does it offer coupons and discounts for consumers?
17. 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.
18. Has the cart been in business for more than five years?
19. Does the cart have testimonials from satisfied people in your industry?
20. Will it print an invoice?
21. 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?
22. Will it create a database of clients, prospects and newsletter subscribers?
23. Will it send out newsletters in HTML and TEXT?
24. Can it track undeliverable emails?
25. Does it integrate with QuickBooks so you can do bookkeeping faster?
26. Can you search by client name or client email address to find records?
27. Can you create reports to see the records of each person who bought a specific product?
28. Can you send messages to people who bought specific products?
29. Can you send personalized messages that include a person’s name, company, city and product purchased?
30. Can you become an affiliate of the shopping cart and recommend it to your clients?
31. 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

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

By Dan Janal in Featured

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

1. 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.?

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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?

6. 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

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

By Dan Janal in Featured

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

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