By Richard Romando
We are living in a world of different races having different interests and ways of life. In electronic commerce, where businesses are operated via the worldwide Internet, there are a lot of varieties a merchant may bump into.
A relevant one is that nations vary in terms of their currency - U.S. dollars, Euros, pounds, Swiss francs – and also their mode of payment – checks, postal orders, credit cards, direct debit and bank transfers.
You can select from any of these payment methods depending on what you sell, your medium of selling and your target countries. Sometimes in order to broaden your audience range, you need to offer your customers several, if not all, of these modes, weighing up the choices that best fit their preferences. However, you also need to ensure that your customer won’t find converting their method of payment to cash is too difficult.
In this regard, you can think of getting a merchant account that operates internationally. This kind of merchant account can process your payment transactions anywhere in the world. Make sure that your merchant account enables you to offer and accept payments in all forms and all local currencies, clear your payments faster and more economically, and enables you to access your funds in the currency that you need.
You can also check out its add-ons like guaranteeing you the benefit of establishing new banking procedures and opening foreign offices and bank accounts if you would wish to. It should also offer other services like collection of bounced checks with a minimal or no additional charge at all.
Evaluate properly first before getting the international merchant account that will serve you in the cycle of your ecommerce business in the most supportive and convenient ways possible.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Small Online Merchants - Ten Steps to Avoid Credit Card Fraud
By Louise Collins
I'm personally involved with the operation of four different web sites that sell to consumers and frankly I'm getting really angry about internet fraud because, as a small merchant I'm the one that it hurts. When credit cards are used fraudulently it's not the banks that are on the hook - although they'd happily let you believe that they are. And consumers are not on the hook. And the suppliers are not on the hook. It's us - the poor fools in the middle - the smallest fish in the food chain.
In the last week, I had a $1000.00 fraudulent order was caught before it shipped, but missed a $250.00 order placed with a stolen card that was sadly made on a product with almost no margin in the first place - so I got to eat 90% of the cost as a raw number, never mind that the remaining 10% was supposed to go to overhead and marketing and all those other wonderful things, so all told that write off cost more than 100%. Sweet, eh?
I'm angry that as far as I can see, these scum balls use stolen credit cards that are shipped to a real address - the consumer complains when they see the bill. The credit cards charge it back to the merchant and our payment processors slap on about a twenty five buck penalty, because I guess we haven't been worked over quite enough by then. And the people who perpetuated the fraud keep getting away with it. It seems that crime does pay after all, but then, I'll bet that most of the people reading this article have already reached the same sad conclusion.
So what can a small merchant to do protect their business?
The most important thing you can do is simple. Inspect every order. Here's what to look for:
1. Compare the billing and the shipping address. Many people send out gifts to others through an online purchase so a lot of them will be legitimate, but this is still the first thing to check for.
2. Always ask for phone numbers on your order forms and ignore the gurus who'll tell you that this will increase your shopping cart abandon rate. It will, but this is important information. Compare the number you are given with the address. There are some very easy to access online charts that will show what area codes go to which states. There's one for sure at Greatdata.com. If you have a billing address in Texas and the phone number in Nevada- your "someone's-trying-to-rip-me-off" radar should now be on high alert. Make the same check on the shipping address and phone number.
3. Look for Hotmail or Gmail addresses on both the billing and shipping side.
4. Look for unorthodox names. Believe it or not, that $1,000 order was being shipped to Ladysmith Moneybags. I'm not kidding, either. Talk about literally adding insult to injury.
5. Look for an order with several of the same items.
6. If you're not sure, don't ship it immediately.
7. If the phone numbers don't match up, do a white pages search for another telephone number connected to the cardholder (their name and address might just be the only legitimate information you have) and phone them to verify the order.
8. Look for orders shipping out of the country.
9. Cultivate a good relationship with your suppliers. Most of them are smaller businesses with people who have seen a lot of rip offs before. Just be sure that they like you enough to be willing to help out, but don't count on them exclusively because if they ship - YOU PAY.
10. If something looks really dicey, you can always ask for a certified check or a money order. But a wire transfer is NOT a safe alternative; lots of scams are built around fake wire transfers. And if you think for just one second that your own bank will back you up, forget it. When, you take a bad order, no one but you will be left holding the bag at the end of the day.
The only good news is that if you do take a good look at your orders, you'll catch a lot of the bad orders, because most of them are really not all that difficult to spot.
Louise Collins is the Author of Start Up Mistakes a report created to help small store websites avoid some of the expensive mistakes that can doom a new business.
I'm personally involved with the operation of four different web sites that sell to consumers and frankly I'm getting really angry about internet fraud because, as a small merchant I'm the one that it hurts. When credit cards are used fraudulently it's not the banks that are on the hook - although they'd happily let you believe that they are. And consumers are not on the hook. And the suppliers are not on the hook. It's us - the poor fools in the middle - the smallest fish in the food chain.
In the last week, I had a $1000.00 fraudulent order was caught before it shipped, but missed a $250.00 order placed with a stolen card that was sadly made on a product with almost no margin in the first place - so I got to eat 90% of the cost as a raw number, never mind that the remaining 10% was supposed to go to overhead and marketing and all those other wonderful things, so all told that write off cost more than 100%. Sweet, eh?
I'm angry that as far as I can see, these scum balls use stolen credit cards that are shipped to a real address - the consumer complains when they see the bill. The credit cards charge it back to the merchant and our payment processors slap on about a twenty five buck penalty, because I guess we haven't been worked over quite enough by then. And the people who perpetuated the fraud keep getting away with it. It seems that crime does pay after all, but then, I'll bet that most of the people reading this article have already reached the same sad conclusion.
So what can a small merchant to do protect their business?
The most important thing you can do is simple. Inspect every order. Here's what to look for:
1. Compare the billing and the shipping address. Many people send out gifts to others through an online purchase so a lot of them will be legitimate, but this is still the first thing to check for.
2. Always ask for phone numbers on your order forms and ignore the gurus who'll tell you that this will increase your shopping cart abandon rate. It will, but this is important information. Compare the number you are given with the address. There are some very easy to access online charts that will show what area codes go to which states. There's one for sure at Greatdata.com. If you have a billing address in Texas and the phone number in Nevada- your "someone's-trying-to-rip-me-off" radar should now be on high alert. Make the same check on the shipping address and phone number.
3. Look for Hotmail or Gmail addresses on both the billing and shipping side.
4. Look for unorthodox names. Believe it or not, that $1,000 order was being shipped to Ladysmith Moneybags. I'm not kidding, either. Talk about literally adding insult to injury.
5. Look for an order with several of the same items.
6. If you're not sure, don't ship it immediately.
7. If the phone numbers don't match up, do a white pages search for another telephone number connected to the cardholder (their name and address might just be the only legitimate information you have) and phone them to verify the order.
8. Look for orders shipping out of the country.
9. Cultivate a good relationship with your suppliers. Most of them are smaller businesses with people who have seen a lot of rip offs before. Just be sure that they like you enough to be willing to help out, but don't count on them exclusively because if they ship - YOU PAY.
10. If something looks really dicey, you can always ask for a certified check or a money order. But a wire transfer is NOT a safe alternative; lots of scams are built around fake wire transfers. And if you think for just one second that your own bank will back you up, forget it. When, you take a bad order, no one but you will be left holding the bag at the end of the day.
The only good news is that if you do take a good look at your orders, you'll catch a lot of the bad orders, because most of them are really not all that difficult to spot.
Louise Collins is the Author of Start Up Mistakes a report created to help small store websites avoid some of the expensive mistakes that can doom a new business.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Yahoo Merchant Offers Easy Payment Processing
By Russell Blanc
If you've been marketing online for awhile, you know that processing payments can be a little challenging at times. If you don't have a merchant account, you may be wondering whether to get one or use a payment service. You may also be wondering if the payment service you are considering will work with your online shopping cart. And if you have an existing merchant account, you're concerned about making sure the shopping cart program you choose will work with your merchant account. All of those worries disappear with Yahoo Merchant services.
When you set up your online store with Yahoo Merchant, you have a number of options for processing payments. If you don't have a merchant account, you can easily set up an account with PayPal and use Website Payments Pro, which allows you to accept credit card payments as well as payments through the buyer's PayPal account. You can also set up a merchant account with Chase Paymentech, one of Yahoo Merchant's partners.
If you have an existing merchant account that is compatible with the FDMS Nashville payment platform, you can accept payments in your Yahoo Store and process them through your merchant account, at no additional charge. You will not pay monthly or transaction fees to Yahoo Small Business to accept payments with your existing merchant account through your Yahoo Merchant store.
You may also choose to use PayPal Express payments with your Yahoo Merchant store, and pay no monthly or annual fees. With this option, you'll only pay transaction fees on your actual sales. With Yahoo Merchant, you can also use your existing merchant account in conjunction with PayPal Express, and offer your customers the choice of paying by PayPal or credit card for more flexibility. The more options you offer, the more likely your customers are to buy from your store, and Yahoo Merchant helps you offer multiple options.
Of course, when you choose an online store provider and payment processing option, you want to insure the security of your customers' information. Yahoo Merchant offers 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to protect your customers, and fraud reduction tools like address verification and IP blocking to protect you.
When you set up your online store with Yahoo Merchant, you're partnering with Yahoo, one of the most trusted companies on the Internet, to build a complete store, with everything you need to make your online business succeed. You'll have a professional online presence, the ability to offer gift certificates and coupons, reliable support, several options for payment processing, and the security of knowing you're working with Yahoo Small Business.
Setting up an online store may be one of the most important things you do. Your online business's success is important to you, and it's important to the people behind Yahoo Merchant. When you choose to work with Yahoo Small Business, you're making the choice to work with the best web services provider on the Internet. Your online store is a commitment to your business. Yahoo wants to make that commitment with you.
Russell Blanc is an expert in the web hosting industry and Yahoo Small Business and manages an information-rich web site at http://www.Website-HostingCo.com about Yahoo Small Business and Yahoo Web Hosting exposing the features and benefits of Yahoo products.
If you've been marketing online for awhile, you know that processing payments can be a little challenging at times. If you don't have a merchant account, you may be wondering whether to get one or use a payment service. You may also be wondering if the payment service you are considering will work with your online shopping cart. And if you have an existing merchant account, you're concerned about making sure the shopping cart program you choose will work with your merchant account. All of those worries disappear with Yahoo Merchant services.
When you set up your online store with Yahoo Merchant, you have a number of options for processing payments. If you don't have a merchant account, you can easily set up an account with PayPal and use Website Payments Pro, which allows you to accept credit card payments as well as payments through the buyer's PayPal account. You can also set up a merchant account with Chase Paymentech, one of Yahoo Merchant's partners.
If you have an existing merchant account that is compatible with the FDMS Nashville payment platform, you can accept payments in your Yahoo Store and process them through your merchant account, at no additional charge. You will not pay monthly or transaction fees to Yahoo Small Business to accept payments with your existing merchant account through your Yahoo Merchant store.
You may also choose to use PayPal Express payments with your Yahoo Merchant store, and pay no monthly or annual fees. With this option, you'll only pay transaction fees on your actual sales. With Yahoo Merchant, you can also use your existing merchant account in conjunction with PayPal Express, and offer your customers the choice of paying by PayPal or credit card for more flexibility. The more options you offer, the more likely your customers are to buy from your store, and Yahoo Merchant helps you offer multiple options.
Of course, when you choose an online store provider and payment processing option, you want to insure the security of your customers' information. Yahoo Merchant offers 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to protect your customers, and fraud reduction tools like address verification and IP blocking to protect you.
When you set up your online store with Yahoo Merchant, you're partnering with Yahoo, one of the most trusted companies on the Internet, to build a complete store, with everything you need to make your online business succeed. You'll have a professional online presence, the ability to offer gift certificates and coupons, reliable support, several options for payment processing, and the security of knowing you're working with Yahoo Small Business.
Setting up an online store may be one of the most important things you do. Your online business's success is important to you, and it's important to the people behind Yahoo Merchant. When you choose to work with Yahoo Small Business, you're making the choice to work with the best web services provider on the Internet. Your online store is a commitment to your business. Yahoo wants to make that commitment with you.
Russell Blanc is an expert in the web hosting industry and Yahoo Small Business and manages an information-rich web site at http://www.Website-HostingCo.com about Yahoo Small Business and Yahoo Web Hosting exposing the features and benefits of Yahoo products.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
How to Select a Secure Payment Gateway
By Ricky Bracken
Accept All Major Credit Cards and Electronic Checks for your Online Business, Retail Store and Mobile Sales Force using a Single Payment Gateway Service
A real-time payment gateway service provides merchants with a secure method for accepting credit card and electronic check payments. A secure online point-of-sale service allows the merchant to capture customer credit card or checking account information then transmits that information over an encrypted SSL connection. Successful transactions will move the customer payment from the customer's credit card or checking account to the merchant's business bank account.
The top rated real-time payment gateway services can be used to process retail, mobile and online customer sales. As a merchant you want to select a virtual point-of-sale service that can support your business as it grows. Therefore, you want to select a payment gateway service that can support multiple sales environments (e.g. retail, online and mobile) without requiring you to open multiple gateway accounts.
Since there are a multitude of real-time payment gateways to choose from I have provided a checklist to help you select the right service for your business. Ultimately, you must select a service that meets the unique requirements of your specific business.
Merchant checklist for choosing a payment service (e.g. features must be included at no additional cost):
• Real-time sales reporting
• Virtual Terminal/Batch Uploads for processing manual transactions
• Virtual POS for processing card present transactions
• Recurring Billing capabilities for processing membership and subscription services
• Integration Method for integrating payment processing into your back office software
• Online knowledgebase
• Online Help Desk
• "Live" Technical Support
• Load-balancing for processing multiple merchant accounts using a single payment gateway account. This will become an important feature as your business grows.
• Commercial and Open Source Shopping Cart Payment Modules
• Secure Online Merchant Interface
• Address Verification (AVS)
• Retail POS software support
• CRM Payment Modules (open source and commercial software support)
• PCI Compliant service
Optionally, you should be able to select the following add-on services:
• Electronic Checks processing
• Advanced Fraud Protection Tools
• PCI Compliant Data Storage and Retention for storing customer payment data
• Mobile Payment Software (e.g. iPhone)
Always keep in mind, when you choose a payment service you are selecting a service to process your customer payments which is the lifeline of your business.
Accept All Major Credit Cards and Electronic Checks for your Online Business, Retail Store and Mobile Sales Force using a Single Payment Gateway Service
A real-time payment gateway service provides merchants with a secure method for accepting credit card and electronic check payments. A secure online point-of-sale service allows the merchant to capture customer credit card or checking account information then transmits that information over an encrypted SSL connection. Successful transactions will move the customer payment from the customer's credit card or checking account to the merchant's business bank account.
The top rated real-time payment gateway services can be used to process retail, mobile and online customer sales. As a merchant you want to select a virtual point-of-sale service that can support your business as it grows. Therefore, you want to select a payment gateway service that can support multiple sales environments (e.g. retail, online and mobile) without requiring you to open multiple gateway accounts.
Since there are a multitude of real-time payment gateways to choose from I have provided a checklist to help you select the right service for your business. Ultimately, you must select a service that meets the unique requirements of your specific business.
Merchant checklist for choosing a payment service (e.g. features must be included at no additional cost):
• Real-time sales reporting
• Virtual Terminal/Batch Uploads for processing manual transactions
• Virtual POS for processing card present transactions
• Recurring Billing capabilities for processing membership and subscription services
• Integration Method for integrating payment processing into your back office software
• Online knowledgebase
• Online Help Desk
• "Live" Technical Support
• Load-balancing for processing multiple merchant accounts using a single payment gateway account. This will become an important feature as your business grows.
• Commercial and Open Source Shopping Cart Payment Modules
• Secure Online Merchant Interface
• Address Verification (AVS)
• Retail POS software support
• CRM Payment Modules (open source and commercial software support)
• PCI Compliant service
Optionally, you should be able to select the following add-on services:
• Electronic Checks processing
• Advanced Fraud Protection Tools
• PCI Compliant Data Storage and Retention for storing customer payment data
• Mobile Payment Software (e.g. iPhone)
Always keep in mind, when you choose a payment service you are selecting a service to process your customer payments which is the lifeline of your business.
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