Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi we`re in the process of starting a new website to sell fine china and gifts online and are looking for insight and recommendations as to:

1.  ecommerce providers you recommend we use or avoid - we`re considering sitewebbuilder.com, homestead.com, zoovy and marketworks - we`re open to suggestions!

2. credit card processor recommendations - looking for a history of security and lack of fraud

Any assistance would be immensely appreciated!

I used to work for a ecommerce company and heard some good things about zoovy.  Get some referrences from them and find out what customers are saying.  Most of these types of companies offer a package, but to get anything custom you are looking at spending some real $$, so ask what they charge because it never fails that after doing business for several months you are going to want to tweak your product page or optimize your shopping cart or send feeds to different shopping comparison sites. 

I would recommend sticking with Authorize.net for your credit card processing.  Authorize.net offers instant fraud checking and sometimes even buyer protection which is key for your shoppers. 

I would also look at getting an SSL Certificate and getting an account with HackerSafe and BBBOnline.  These certificates help your customers feel at ease while doing business with you. 

While I`m on a role, make sure that the number of steps to purchase your product is maximum 5 from clicking a product to confirming the order. This can usually be done by modifying your checkout to one page.  This helps keep customers from falling off the cart.

Also, I would highly recommend putting some analytics on your site.  This helps to tell you where your customers are going and what products they are looking for.  Once you know that you can put those products that are most popular in an easy to locate place on your website (usually the front page).  I highly recommend Omniture SiteCatalyst. It`s pricey but worth it IMO.  If you can`t spend that kind of money right now think about using Google Analytics, it`s free.

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Chris Smith
chris.smith at procertify.com

Take time to work out exactly how you want the Credit Card processing to work as this may well reduce the options with respect to credit card processing companies.

Consider the following...
Do you want to store credit card data or have the provider store the data?
Do you need to setup recurring charges? If so, how will these work, i.e. are you going to resend the card data or have the provider setup a recurring charge.

Not all providers offer all options, so make sure that the provider suits your business model before you commit to one.


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Take a look at Dydacomp http://www.dydacomp.com.  Their ecommerce platform SiteLINK is easy to use and they have a design staff that can help you with your site.  On top of that it`s completely integrated with Mail Order Manager - awesome order processing software...does everything plus exports to Quickbooks and Peachtree.  At any rate, they`re partnered with Authorize.net so they`ll help you get your payment processing together.

with respect to the advice about planning the credit card processor relationship (and all other replies as well!), thank you!  we`d love to hear more - we don`t mind keeping the records...which characteristics of the relationship tend to minimize the costs?

thanks again to all replies

dishmaven,

 I am one of the managing partners for SiteWebBuilder.com and we can assist you through the process of making a site and operating the site for success. Please contact myself and I will personally make your experience as smooth as possible.

Sign up for your free account, if you believe that this is the product for you, then please sign up. Free trial does not request contract or credit card, so there are no strings attached. Besides, you get 30 days after your trial to get your money back if it is not everything we said it will be....no questions asked.

Thanks and God bless!

For credit card processor, I`d recommend Card Services International, great customer support and service:  http://www.cardservicesales.com/

As far as a shopping cart provider, I`d go with osCommerce. You`ll have the ability to go in and add products yourself through an easy to use control panel:

http://www.oscommerce.com/

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You can go with a credit card processor, but then you will have to pay for a monthly service that you may not use as much as you feel. With SiteWebBuilder.com, you will have an easy built in shopping cart that already accepts credit cards and it still comes out cheaper than just getting a credit card processor company`s monthly subscritption.

The os Commerce is a good free tool, but not everyone is at that level of programming and it takes a long time to build a site. Plus the person has to get their own server or hosted by someone else like comcasthosting.com. By the time you get hosting and credit card service, you already spent way more time and money than to use a site that needs to coding like sitewebbuilder.com. Upload your products anytime, in minutes, without any experience needed.
Thanks.