Choosing an Ecommerce Shopping Cart by Danna Henderson

AlphaOne Technology Web Hosting & Design has found this great article by Danna Henderson to be useful. You can find this article, as well as over 800 other articles helpful to webmasters in our free webmaster resources area.

Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike a traditional brick and mortar business, your website is your only chance to impress potential customers. It needs to project a professional image to capture the trust of your visitors. The shopping cart is a particularly important part of your website because it deals with people’s personal information and credit card numbers. People are nervous about online purchases and need to be assured that they are giving their credit card numbers to a reputable company.

There are several types of ecommerce shopping carts available.
They range from merchant services, which require no programming skills, to fully integrated shopping carts that require custom programming. The three main categories of shopping carts are:

Merchant services such as eBay and 2Checkout

Hosted shopping cart services

Fully integrated shopping carts

Merchant Services

Most shopping carts require you to have your own merchant account and gateway. A merchant account is a bank account that allows a business to conduct credit card transactions and the gateway allows the transaction to be conducted over a secure connection. It’s okay if you don’t have a merchant account or gateway. Merchant service shopping carts allow you to use their merchant account, gateway and shopping cart for a higher cost.

Merchant services are beneficial for very small businesses or those that are just starting and don’t have a lot of orders.
Merchant services provide the merchant account, gateway, hosted shopping cart and will maintain your customer’s personal information. They usually require a set-up fee between 50 and 200 dollars, transaction fee between 30 and 75 cents, and 5% to 10% of each transaction. Because you are using their merchant account, your customer’s credit card statement will show the merchant services business name not yours. In some cases, customers will not recognize the charge and may dispute it.

Merchant service shopping carts have an administrative interface, which allows you to login to your account to add products, prices and shipping options. The shopping cart generates the html for the purchase buttons and you simply copy and paste the html into your web pages. When your customer clicks on the purchase button, he is taken to another website to enter the credit card information. This indicates to the customer that you are a small business. Some potential customers will abandon the shopping cart rather than enter their credit card information on a website they know nothing about.

Once your business grows to the point where you are processing over $1000 a month, it’s more cost effective to apply for your own merchant account and switch to either a hosted shopping cart (little or no programming) or a fully integrated shopping cart (programming required).

Hosted Shopping Cart

The hosted shopping cart is a great solution for a small business that is processing over $1000 a month but does not have the resources to create or customize a fully integrated shopping cart. Hosted shopping carts are similar to the merchant services because they provide an administrative interface for you to enter products, pricing and shipping options. They will generate the html for the purchase buttons, which can be copied and pasted into your html pages.

Hosted shopping carts face some of same problems as merchant service carts because your customers will be transferred to a different website to enter the credit card information. Some hosted shopping carts allow you to customize the shopping cart so that it has the same look and feel as your websites.
Customizing your shopping cart may require some programming skills, but it could also prevent customers from abandoning their shopping carts.

The main difference between the merchant services shopping cart and the hosted shopping cart is the name that appears on the customer’s credit card and pricing. Hosted shopping carts allow you to use your own merchant account and gateway, which means the customer’s credit card statement will show your business name next to the charge. This can decrease your charge backs.

If you are using your own merchant account and conducting over $1000 of transitions each month, the hosted shopping carts can be less expensive than merchant services. Your merchant account will probably charge a monthly fee between 20 and 60 dollars, transaction fee between 10 and 50 cents, and a percentage of the transaction, usually ranging between 2% to 3.5%. In addition to the merchant fees, your shopping cart service will also charge a monthly fee between 10 and 30 dollars and could charge a transaction fee. These fees sound more expensive than the merchant service option, but if you are processing over $1000 a month and growing, it’s better to pay flat monthly fees than continue to be charged 5 to 10 percent of the each transaction.

Fully Integrated Shopping Carts

The fully integrated shopping cart is a great option for any business that can afford it. The shopping cart will be dynamic and will have the same look and feel as your website. The ZIP Baby Potty Training Store is a great example of a fully integrated shopping cart. Fully integrated shopping carts like this contain features that are not found in merchant service or hosted shopping carts. For example, you can discount items, display customer reviews, assign products to multiple categories, display out of stock notifications, sort products and prices, and display shipping estimates without requiring the customer to create an account.

Integrated shopping carts require advanced programming skills and can often be used with your own merchant account or with a service that allows you to use their merchant account for a higher fee. There are many integrated shopping carts available.
Free carts require the most programming skills, but if you don’t have the programming skills necessary to customize a free shopping cart, there are many companies that specialize in customizing fully integrated shopping carts.

Your choice of a shopping cart can have a dramatic impact on your business. Your website is the first and only impression you get to make so you’ll want to make it as professional as possible. While shopping for a shopping cart system, put yourself in your target customer’s shoes and browse the Internet. Review your competitor’s websites as well as those outside your industry. Make a list of shopping carts that you find appealing and research them thoroughly before choosing one.

Copyright 2004 Danna Henderson. All Rights Reserved.



About the author:
Danna Henderson started ZIP Baby in order to provide parents with comprehensive potty training information and a large selection of potty training products. For more information visit your One Stop Potty Shop.

Are there any real opportunities left online? by Richard Grady

AlphaOne Technology Web Hosting & Design has found this great article by Richard Grady to be useful. You can find this article, as well as over 800 other articles helpful to webmasters in our free webmaster resources area.

Copyright 2005 Richard Grady I know, I know, it seems like every man and his dog are trying to start an Internet business. At every online turn, there is someone punting their new website.
With so many people trying to crack the Internet marketing game, are there any real opportunities left online?

This is a common question and one which I am asked on a regular basis but the truth is that there is still an absolute world of opportunity out there. Although it might seem like 'everyone' is trying to make it with their own online business, the fact is that only a very small fraction of the population have any idea that it is possible to earn money online and an even smaller number have any idea just how much money can be earned in this way.

By way of illustration of this point, I found myself in the situation this week of having to try and explain to someone what I did for a living. Even after having had several years of practice this task is not getting any easier! I was at a local car dealership and I got chatting to the owner and he asked me what I did as a job (a perfectly reasonable question given that he was hoping to sell me a car and clearly wanted a rough idea about how much money he thought I had to spend!). I had to pause for a second before answering because I am now used to the fact that whatever I said in reply to this question, the response would almost certainly be a blank look. The conversation went something like this:

Salesman: So what do you do for a living?

Me: ***Pause*** Erm, well, I suppose you would call me an Internet publisher or Internet marketer.

Salesman: ***Silence***

Me: I run a business on the Internet - I own a portfolio of websites.

Salesman: Ah, so you are a website designer?

Me: Well, yes, I do design websites but only for my own use, I don't design for other people.

Salesman: Oh...... but how can that earn you any money?

Me: Lots of different ways - people buy the information that I have available and other businesses advertise on my sites. I also make money by selling products that other people have developed and taking a commission.

Salesman: Mmm, I thought the only way to make money from the Internet was with porn?

Me: ***Sigh*** That's one way but it isn't what I do :-)

The conversation continued for another twenty minutes or so as I tried to explain in more detail exactly what I did. Fortunately the salesman had an Internet connection in his showroom so I was able to show him a few of my sites. Eventually I could see that he was starting to get the picture but it was clear that the concept of running a business entirely on the Internet was something completely new to him (and this is actually the case with the vast majority of people).

The reason that I am sharing this story with you is to illustrate the point that although it may seem like the whole World wants to run an Internet business, the truth is that most people have no clue that such a thing is even possible. They certainly don't realize that it is possible to earn serious money online and this fact gives you a major advantage.

I know it can seem as though the Internet consists of nothing more than eBooks about Internet marketing and websites telling you how to get traffic to your own site etc but it only appears like that to you and I because we are tuned into the Internet marketing industry and these things stand out. Try and remember the first time you ever used the Internet and I bet you didn't know what an eBook was. I had been working part-time on the Internet for three years before I discovered eBooks!!

The average person thinks of the Internet as a tool from which to gain information, not a money-earner. It will be a very long time before you can tell someone that you are an Internet marketer and expect them to understand what this means and as I have already said, this puts you in a unique and highly advantageous position. By understanding that it is possible to generate a worthwhile income online, you are one step ahead of 99% of the population.

I read a quote a few months ago which went something like this:

'The vast majority of people that will eventually become Internet millionaires do not even have a website yet'

This is a great quote and perfectly true - the Internet has already made many, many people rich (not just in monetary terms but in terms of lifestyle and freedom) but I am sure that there are far more people that will achieve the same if not better results in the years to come.

Given this fact, anyone that is one step ahead of everyone else has a much higher chance of becoming one of these success stories.

If you don't know where to start, head over to my forum for lots of helpful, free advice and friendly members that will be sure to guide you in the right direction... :-) http://www.traderonlineforum.com

About the author:
Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit:
http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html