BoutiqueSuccess.com» eCommerce

Increase Holiday Sales

Boutique Success — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:48:18 +0000

A great opportunity from 3dcart – they are sharing some awesome tips tomorrow at 2:00 pm EST at their “Increase Holiday Sales” webinar! Sign up here! http://t.co/2zGjQGyI

Good News for Online Boutiques

Boutique Success — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:42:52 +0000

According to internetretailing.com, although past preferences indicated that fashion shoppers preferred to see and touch clothes for themselves before buying, the tide appears to be changing. According to a recent survey, almost half (45%) of fashion shoppers now prefer to buy their clothes and accessories online.

Cart, Contact, Home…How Friendly is Your Website

Boutique Success — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:58:39 +0000

What do walmart.com, macys.com and potterybarnkids.com all have in common? Besides being online stores, their websites all have links for cart, contact and home above the fold (above the fold refers to the portion of your website page that a visitor will see without having to scroll down). One of my biggest pet peeves as a shopper is getting to a website and not being able to see my cart, get back to the first page or easily contact the website. I ALWAYS look at the top of the page when I need one of these three links, as will the majority of your customers. There are many other factors that go into creating a user friendly website, but make sure that these three are covered and you’ll be on your way to a better shopping experience for your customers.

Does Your Site Have the Very Important “About Us” Page

Boutique Success — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:36:57 +0000

I’ll admit it – I went well over 4 years with a website before I sat down to work on my “About Us” page. Furthermore, it took me approximately a year to actually get it written and on the site. Why? Well, if you’re sitting on an unfinished “About Us” page you know how difficult it can be. It’s akin to writing that college application essay – it has to have just the right mix of information, storytelling and insight to be compelling and helpful to your audience. But, there is no denying that one of the most important pages for a site visitor, after your landing page, is your “About Us” page. Visitors who are compelled to stay on your site will often go to your “About Us” page to learn more.

There are numerous websites with all kinds of information and all kinds of looks and feels. When a website visitor decides to go to the “About Us” page, he or she is on a fact-finding mission, as well as looking for the “story” of your business. If your website merely speaks about your products and/or services, you are selling simply selling items, and ignoring that people are interested in more than just items, and are compelled by the whole experience your site can give them.

Although every visitor is different, one of the first and most elementary pieces of information that your visitors are looking for is who you are and how you came to be where you are at this point. Your “About Us” page is an excellent way to communicate to your visitors who you are and to give them the confidence to understand that you and your business possess the skills and experience that they need to be able to solve their particular problems. Your “About Us” page should answer the following questions:

Who are we?
Why should you choose us over someone else (WIIFM – What’s In It For Me)?
What do we do?
When did we start?
How do we do it?

When you are speaking about who you are, it is a good idea to include photos of you and your key staff members as well as biographical sketches for each of you. The sketches might highlight educational background and work experience, if this is integral to your business. That information is of great comfort to someone who might be on the fence regarding whether to buy your products and/or services.

When faced with the concept of why someone should choose to work with you instead of choosing someone else, you need to state a flawless case of what’s in it for them. How wonderful your products and services are and how nice everything that you offer looks is of little importance. All your readers are concerned about is what they will get out of a business relationship with you. They need to understand what you can do to help them solve their problems and why your solutions or products are unique, special and right for them.

The page should have a description of your business, which answers the “What do we do?” question. Of equal importance is to explain your business team, so that people can relate to you and your staff on a humanistic level. Including the story of your business, how you came to where you are now, particularly if you have a unique and compelling story to tell, can really forge a connection with your visitors.

The content on your “About Us” page must address all of the important points regarding your business; however, it is a great idea to throw in some tidbits that are not necessarily connected to what you are doing now but which add another dimension to your presence. Your content on that page needs to really communicate what is different about your business and should have a clear message as to why people should buy from you instead of from someone else.

Your information should give the right amount and type of information and you shouldn’t worry so much about giving too much away. If your visitors are truly interested in going further in your relationship together, they will. Always remember to include a call to action, which enables your visitors to get a hold of you, either by phone or by Email.

Your online presence is all about relationships and interactions with people. The more you interact on a personal level, the easier it will be to build relationships with your readers and eventually, they will become your customers.

Conclusion

There are many different types of visitor who check out your “About Us” page. There are first-time visitors, regular visitors, people who want to share a relationship with you and work with you and potential customers. With every type of visitor to your website, you want to be able to offer enough informative and useful information to persuade them to establish a much stronger connection with you and your business (such as becoming a fan, user, or customer).

Although not everyone who visits your website will end up visiting your “About Us” page, you need to make sure to entice those people who do click on the page. You will accomplish this by having content that is insightful, interesting and eventually makes your visitors believe that they can’t live without what you are offering.

Adapted from:

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Cohn

eCommerce – Accepting Online Payments

Boutique Success — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:57:29 +0000

Clients often ask me what their options are for accepting payments online. Amid a myriad of information it’s often hard to sort through the options and decide which payment acceptance methods make the most sense. The following article gives some tips and pointers for understanding your options.

Understanding Your E-Commerce Options
By Krista Garren

Introduction

Why should you implement E-Commerce into your website? Simply put, because the ability to market goods and services and accept online payments is a great example of a passive income model. Your online store is running, customers have found their way to your site and their purchase is completely automated – from payment processing and approval to product delivery. With prior and proper preparation, your involvement in the transaction process is limited, leaving you more time to focus on other areas of your business.

1. Accepting Credit Cards Boosts Profits

As an online merchant you should already have a good understanding of the importance of making your product easily accessible to potential customers. With so much competition on the Internet, a frustrated potential customer can exit your site without looking back if you do not offer a clear and easy method to order and deliver your products and services.

Let’s look at an example:

Assume two competitive merchants, A and B, both have websites which are geared to marketing jar candles. Merchant A offers detailed product information, appropriate product photos, great customer service and the ability to quickly and easily order his product through an online shopping cart and payment processing system with a price slightly higher than that of Merchant B.

Merchant B also offers detailed product information, appropriate product photos and excellent customer service but a lower price. You’ve decided to order from Merchant B because his price is lower. Upon trying to checkout, you then discover that Merchant B does not have a shopping cart, cannot process credit cards from his website and requires you to either email or call to place your order.

Which merchant do you believe would earn the final sale in this example?

If you said Merchant A, 99.9% of the time you’d be correct. Accepting credit cards can boost your profits immensely because it adds value and convenience to your customer’s online shopping experience. The merchant benefits because he is not consumed with taking orders via phone or email; he is diversifying his income streams by delivering goods and services online thereby freeing up time to focus on other aspects of his business. Processing payments online also reduces the total transaction time since the traditional method of waiting for checks to clear prior to shipping/delivering products and services is eliminated.

2. Online Payment Systems
Now that you’ve decided to accept credit cards ? you’ll need to select a merchant processor to handle the transactions and to deliver your money to you. Names in the processing arena come to mind such as: PayPal, 2checkout.com, ProPay, or various other Merchant processors such as Verisign who can provide you with an Internet Merchant Account.

What is the difference between PayPal and an Internet Merchant Account?

PayPal
PayPal is referred to as a 3rd party payment processor. Simply, this means that PayPal holds the Internet Merchant Account, and will process your credit card transactions using their account for a nominal fee of 2.9% + $.30 per transaction. One of the advantages to PayPal is that there are no signup fees, no setup fees, no credit checks, no monthly minimums, no monthly service fees, no contract, no gateway fees, no statement fees and their shopping cart is free. For a small business venture who is just staring out, this is an attractive cost-effective method of conducting online business. Currently there are other processors such as ProPay and 2checkout.com which are based along this same concept; however some competitors charge setup or monthly fees in addition to per transaction fees that can run as much as 5%.

There are some things to be aware of if you are going to use PayPal. In exchange for the freedoms from contract periods and monthly fees, you are consenting to process your business’ transactions through a Merchant Account that does not belong to you. Why is this important to me you ask? This becomes important when you are dealing with issues of charge backs or fraudulent transactions. Despite our best intentions as merchants to conduct business fairly and securely, at some point a fraudulent purchase may be made from your website. PayPal’s Terms of Service agreement gives them unrestricted rights to freeze and remove all funds from your PayPal and checking accounts in the event of a dispute or fraudulent transaction. Your best bet is to read the entire agreement cover to cover and be prepared to ask questions if you are uncomfortable with anything listed.

Internet Merchant Account

An Internet Merchant Account is a relationship between a retailing company and a Merchant Bank, which allows the retailer to accept credit card payments from customers via the Internet.

As a merchant, you have a direct relationship with the processing bank, the account is in your name (belongs to you), you have control over how transactions are conducted, and what steps you can take to reduce risk to your cardholders and to your business. Most processors offer fraud detection suites and companies like PreCharge can screen and identify online credit card-based transactions for your business in an effort to prevent charge backs and fraud. PreCharge will also reimburse you 100% of your charge back fees should a transaction later turn out to be fraudulent. This reduces risk for the merchant processor and gives peace of mind to you in your business dealings.

The obvious downside to an Internet Merchant Account can be the initial start-up costs and increased monthly costs as compared to 3rd party processors such as PayPal. This is in addition to a credit check and the wait for the account to be setup. That being said, more and more merchant processors are offering specials which include no setup fees, no application fees, reduced monthly fees and per transaction processing rates which are lower than PayPal, making them easier to obtain and an attractive alternate.

3. Merchant Account Reviews

An excellent source of information on merchant processors is available online at the Merchant Account Forum Here you can access information and feedback on some of the most well known merchant processors.

4. Do’s and Don’ts of accepting Payments Online

A quick list to keep in mind…

DO:

1. Assess your processing needs first:

a. Do you want to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express or perhaps just Visa and Mastercard?

b. What is your monthly budget for card processing fees?

c. Are you comfortable paying signup or annual fees?

d. Would you prefer to apply online, via mail or fax?

2. Consider a handful of merchants who meet your initial criteria:

Create an excel file to track merchant fees and assess your overall costs at zero transactions and 100 transactions.

3. Assess the merchant:

a. Are they available to answer your questions promptly?

b. What is their track record?

c. What do customers say about their service and support?

d. Are there any “hidden” fees? These may be listed in the merchant contract but not provided up-front and online for your consideration.

e. Do they require a contracted commitment…1, 2, or 3 years?

f. How do they handle charge backs and fraud?

4. Investigate Fraud Detection Services:

Request information from the merchant processor on methods which reduce fraud and charge backs. These may be in-house solutions such as Address Verification Service (AVS) or Credit Verification Value (CVV) or 3rd party solutions such as Cybersource or Precharge.

5. Call the toll-free number and speak to a customer service representative about any contract/fee concerns or questions you have. It’s better to inquire about all fees now than to find out on your next monthly bank statement!

DO NOT:

1. Forget to read the ENTIRE Merchant contract. This means cover to cover! The full details are sometimes buried in the very fine print. These contracts can be intimidating; go slow and highlight areas which may be of concern.

2. Select the first merchant you talk to. This is a highly competitive business so investigate your options before making a decision.

3. Signup with multiple merchants at once. Merchant Accounts generally require a credit check. Be picky about which companies you allow to access your personal and business information.

5. Customers who Prefer Offline Payments

The decision to allow “offline” payments is an important choice. For example, companies who deliver digital goods such as paid newsletter subscriptions and e-books, have designed their product to facilitate instant payment and delivery. The idea with e-books being is that they are instantly downloadable and readable. Not all companies are cutout for allowing offline payments. For example, if you allowed your customers to download your digital product with a promise of mailing their payment, you would be setting yourself up for the risk that the payment may never come. What recourse do you have of recovering your money? Unfortunately, not much.

Not all customers will be open to paying online. There are many who feel that it is not safe to place personal credit card information on the Internet, and no amount of security or encryption notices will convince them otherwise. Does that mean you simply cannot do business with them? Absolutely not! One of the alternatives to paying online is to allow customers to place orders and mail in a check or money order for payment.

Who then is uniquely setup to accept “offline” payments? Merchants who ship products to their customers can help their customers take advantage of this additional payment option. In these instances, search for a shopping cart which has a check or money order payment option to allow your clients to check out of your website without providing credit card information. ALWAYS wait to ship the product until the order has been confirmed, and the payment has cleared. Confirming the order and waiting to ship until the payment has cleared will help reduce risks to your business.

Closing

The main idea behind selecting a good merchant processor is to assess your needs closely. Assess your needs prior to selecting a merchant, and read the fine, fine print to be sure you completely understand your commitments as a merchant. This ensures that you are equally matched with a merchant processor and hopefully starts your business relationship off on the right foot.

About the Author

Website designer Krista Garren publishes the “Design Like an Expert” monthly ezine where you can learn EASY, fun and money saving website design strategies to build a BUSINESS BOOSTING website. To learn more, check out her ezine and sign up for her FREE how-to report at http://www.designlikeanexpert.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Krista_Garren