eBay has long been known as a premier eCommerce site online, dominating the online auction world since the early 2000’s. In the past decade eBay has quickly grown form one mans; dream to an online auction empire, with tens of thousands of sellers, and millions of buyers, eBay is the largest marketplace online. In fact, there is seemingly no market that hasn’t been touched by eBay! With so many products and services, it seems as if it was only a matter of time before eBay ventured into the web hosting industry. Well not too long ago, they decided to just that -with ProStores.

What Is ProStores?

Ebay’s ProStores is a unique eCommerce solution that let’s you host your eBay store, or any kind of online venue, on your own website with a variety of ecommerce tools. Before offering the ProStores service, eBay offered online stores through stores.ebay.com, however after purchasing the website development software site Kurant.com, and the ecommerce super site shopping.com, eBay then decided to venture into the web hosting industry with it’s very own web hosting solution – ProStores.

What is Special About ProStores?

One of the most interesting aspects of eBay’s ProStores web hosting is the fact that you can host about 10,000 products on your site and uploading your product descriptions is as easy as creating an eBay auction. You can also automatically link your eBay auctions to your eBay ProStores account with ease. This makes creating online catalogs extremely simple, and you can even add special fields to your online catalogs that will help your customers find your products effectively. Your site visitors can easily browse your product selection using the included search function that is similar to a compact version of the eBay search function. The checkout process is also automated by an included shopping cart that lets you easily integrate your merchant account and checkout details. Customers that shop with you through your online ProStores account will feel completely secure as they’ll be using an SSL certificate that is posted on your site for their confidence.

What Kind of Support Is Offered by eBay ProStores?

eBay ProStores offers industry leading support for their eCommerce solutions. It is this support that has lead eBay itself into becoming the largest online auction site in the world. eBay makes using their ecommerce solution super simple by providing a host of setup help wizards that walk you through the process of using every aspect of the hosting solution. You can also instantly contact support at any time of the day using the simple icons that are located in your user control panel. The core of any successful eCommerce solution is competent and readily available support, and judging by the success of eBay ProStores, I think it is safe to say they offer excellent customer support.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a way to set up your online store rather than simply hosting auctions all the time on eBay, then you may want to consider having an eBay ProStores account. By having an account with ProStores you’ll be able to safely and easily link all of your eBay auctions with your online store automatically.

If you want to be successful in selling goods or services online then you will wan to purchase a merchant account. Merchant accounts link your customer’s funds to your bank account safely, allowing you to accept payments from all kinds of credit card and payment services such as PayPal. Without a merchant account, many customer’s will not trust your site enough to even pull out their credit card! Applying for a merchant account is a relatively simple process, and it can be done from the comfort of your own home in a matter of minutes.

You have two options concerning merchant accounts; paid or free. Obviously a paid merchant account would be optimal. However if you are unable to meet the requirements of a paid merchant account, then you may need to apply for a free merchant account instead. Before you settle for a free merchant account. There are some factors that should be considered.

Are Free Merchant Accounts Free?

Although there is no setup or approval fee associated with free merchant accounts, it is important to note that there are transaction fees, and these fees are generally higher than those associated with paid merchant accounts. Therefore, while these services are convenient for people who are unable to get a paid merchant account, in the long run they are anything but free. It should also be noted that most free merchant account providers will only offer their services to be people that sell products. Meaning you cannot sell services using a free merchant account. You may also need to adhere to certain stipulations and regulations. For example, you may be required sell a certain amount within a certain time period to keep your merchant account active.

Free Merchant Account Policies

Free merchant account providers are used to dealing with people that may have bad credit or may be considered untrustworthy by paid merchant services. Therefore it is deemed necessary to impose stricter policies to protect themselves an customers from fraudulent activity. These policies are very important because they provide basis to keep your funds in reserve for a certain period of time to prevent fraud on your behalf.

This means you will have to wait longer for your funds, and in some cases the merchant account provider may issue refunds to unsatisfied customers without your consent. This has been a problem for many honest merchants, because scam artists know that free merchant account providers are quick to issue refunds no question asked. In many cases the scam artist will receive the products and then receive the refund after they have already received the order items! This is why it is crucial to be sure you are familiar with the policies of your merchant account before hand, so you can take the necessary precautions to protect yourself from fraud.

When Should You Use a Free Merchant Account?

There are many reasons why one would consider using a free merchant account. The most obvious reason being inability to get accepted for a paid merchant account. After all, a free merchant account is better than no merchant account! Even free merchant accounts give you the ability to calculate taxes, shipping charges, and to accept credit card payments.

Choosing an eCommerce web hosting plan can be a very difficult process, especially when one considers all of the aspects that need to be taken into consideration before an informed decision can be made. Perhaps even more difficult than selecting an eCommerce hosting plan, is actually going through the process of becoming acquainted with the hosting account once you have purchased it.

With so many modules and options, it can be difficult to keep your mind on the important issues, such as business expansion and security. The latter of the aforementioned terms (security), may be the single most important factor in creating any business website.

What is an SSL Certificate?

An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate is essentially a certificate that is placed on your website that lets your visitors know that your site is in compliance with SSL protocol. SSL is a secure method of file transfer that ensures that any information sent to and from a website is encrypted and completely protected from third-party interception. Even more important than the actual security of a website, is the trust and confidence that visitors place in the security of that website. You can have the most secure website in the world, however if you’re visitors are not aware of the security measures you employ, then they are likely to assume your site is insecure.

Do I Absolutely Need an SSL Certificate?

A website without an SSL certificate will undoubtedly be seen in this light by many of its more knowledgeable visitors, and therefore will ultimately suffer in terms of sales volume. To prevent  this from happening, you’ll need to make sure you not only have all of the proper security measures in place, but that you also make this information readily available in your site’s privacy policy and on all checkout pages. If you’re running a site that does not directly process payments or other critical data that contains financial or personal information, then you will not necessarily need an SSL certificate. However, if you are operating an eCommerce sites that sells items and process payments, then an SSL certificate is absolutely crucial to the success and sustenance of your online business.

Obtaining an SSL Certificate

There are several methods that can be used to obtain an SSL certificate. In some cases, your web hosting provider will offer the SSL certificate as an included feature with a  hosting plan. In fact, many web hosting companies do offer SSL certificates along with their standard eCommerce plans. If you are planning on operating several eCommerce websites, then you’ll need to make sure you have an IP address for each of these sites. This is important to note, as many web hosting companies do not allow you to have multiple IP addresses per hosting account. In most cases you’ll need to buy a separate hosting account for each eCommerce site. Although this may be slightly time consuming, it will help you offer a secure website for your visitors.

Often times when we think of ecommerce, we think of all the complexities that could be involved. Shopping carts, merchant accounts, payment gateways, integration between systems, auto-responders and virtual terminals are just a few of the aspects of ecommerce that could give you a migraine. The ecommerce maze is certainly confusing enough to cause some extremely busy entrepreneurs to shy away from internet sales altogether.

Years ago, there were very few options for selling your wares via the internet. You had to have good credit to get a merchant account. The merchant account funds were funneled through a business checking account and there were hefty fees associated with each account. Some banks even imposed charges for every transaction on a business checking account! There were also merchant fees that were duplicated with the necessity to have a payment gateway and a payment processor to make your system work. Even with zero sales for the month, you could easily spend nearly two hundred dollars per month for the gate way fee, the statement fee, the recurring billing fee, the web hosting fee plus a shopping cart fee. On top of the fixed fees, you still had to pay a percentage of each sale. Fortunately, in recent years, things have become a whole lot simpler (and cheaper).

If you are looking to accept payments as an individual, a small business, community group or association, you may want to start out by investigating one of the “easy ecommerce” options that are available today. With just a standard checking account and a third-party payment service you could easily take payments via email. You could write a short, informative email and then place a link within your email to allow people to make a payment for your product or service. You might even allow people to donate to your cause or your organization. For a more professional and customer-friendly option, a website, blog or social media page is the way to go. It allows you to provide more information about the items you are accepting payment for. With a website, blog or social media page, you can get as creative or fancy as you like. You could include an informative article, audio or video for visitors to digest before a purchase is made.

By now, you might be thinking, “This is easy. I can do this!” You’re right! Here is a quick overview to show you just how simple it is to do things the “easy ecommerce” way:

1. Determine what you intend to sell and what you will charge for it. Do online research for your market if you are uncertain about the going rate.
2. Write a brief description of 200 words or less for your product or service. Be sure to note the features and benefits of what you have to offer.
3. Using a simple template, create a website page, blog or social media page to house the payment link for your product or service. Remember to also create a “thank you” page for the customer to be taken to after their purchase is complete. If you are selling digital goods, place the download link or other special instructions here.
4. Open a third-party payment processor account. There are many to choose from. Be sure to choose one with the features that are important to you.
5. Add your product or service details to your payment processor account. An email link and/or the html embed code will be created during this stage.
6. Test the link or web code to make sure it looks like you want it to and works just the way it should.
7. Now you’re ready to take that information and add to your website or send out to your list via email.
8. Monitor your sales and fine tune your customer service process. Most of all, enjoy making money the “easy ecommerce” way.

There are still many companies who use the traditional ecommerce/merchant account system. It definitely has its place in the market. However, it’s nice to know that there are lots of options for people who are not quite ready for the traditional route.

More and more companies are realizing the advantages of using the internet to expand their business and create new revenue streams by reaching more customers and broadening their horizons. However it’s not only the existing corporations that are benefiting from cyber sales, as small businesses and new business owners are entering the market rapidly every day. In fact, many people don’t realize that you don’t have to own your own business to start on an online business, and you really don’t need that much of a startup investment either. Average individuals start online businesses everyday from scratch, without owning a corporation, without having a lot of startup capital and without having a single customer. To reach success there are certain steps that must be taken by every potential entrepreneur.

Name your Niche and Brand your Business

Before you start your business you’ll obviously need to know what it is you’ll be selling. You have several main options in this department; you can sell your own products, you can sell other people’s products (affiliate marketing), or you can sell services. Once you have determined what field you’re going to specialize in, find a specific niche within that field. A niche is essentially a topic or genre, within a specific industry. Try to be specific as possible, as the more specific your niche is, the greater chance you have to monopolize it.

Once you have named your niche it is time to bring your idea to life by branding your business. Try to come up with a catchy name that can be used with a .com domain. This means you’ll need to search a domain registrar to find out which domains are available. Make your business name easy to remember and packed with keywords form your niche.

Find an Ecommerce Hosting Plan

Now that you have your business name and a solid game plan, you’ll need to find a hosting company that will meet your needs. Most new business owners can get by with a basic plan, but it is important to realize that you will need to understand the basic features of your ecommerce solution, such as the shopping cart. Therefore it is imperative to have access to reliable customer support at all times. Reliability, support, and features should be your top priorities when considering potential ecommerce web hosts.

Building a Website

Since your website is going to be your online business headquarters, you’ll need it to look professional as possible. Most customers will turn away from your site at the first sign of nonprofessional content. Choosing an ecommerce host that includes a site builder with it’s plan is a good start. Using online templates will also improve the appearance of your site, and outsourcing work is perhaps the easiest and most efficient way to get a professional site built in the least amount of time.

Marketing Your Business

Once you have all of the preliminary steps complete, it is time to make some money. Start submitting videos about your site to video sites such as YouTube, and take advantage of social bookmarking sites such as Digg. Once you have a little bit of no-SEO traffic coming in, then focus on search engine optimization. Exchange links with other site owners in your niche, setup sub-domains with targeted keywords, and don’t quit until you find a formula that works for you.

Ecommerce has its ups and downs just like most other things in life. Knowing the ropes will help ensure that you experience more ups than downs when it comes to your ecommerce endeavors. Let’s take a look at a few common problems experienced by those who sell products and services via the internet:

1. Customers can’t figure out how to pay— Is your checkout process confusing or complicated? Low-cost website hosting plans sometimes come with limitations that are hard for the not-so-tech-savvy entrepreneur to overcome. These limitations sometimes contribute to a poor buyer checkout process. As one frustrated buyer puts it, “I finally gave up on contributing to my favorite charity online because it’s just too hard to give them money!” If your website technology limits you, do a simple fix like placing a shopping cart icon or a “buy” link on essential pages. You could also include a text box or quick audio or video that walks a visitor through the buying process.
2. Your buying process is too long. A checkout process that seems to take forever is as disastrous as one that confuses the buyer. Visitors expect to fully complete the checkout process within one to two minutes of their start time. If your checkout process is more like an inquisition, you’re bound to have more visitors who abort the buying process than those who complete it. The person who is buying a one-time gift may not want to become a “member” or receive emails from you for the next two years. Give them the quick checkout option. If they love what you offer, they’ll be back.
3. Your shopping cart doesn’t provide enough payment options. You could be losing sales if you only allow your buyers to pay one way. Study the buying trends of your market so that you’ll know what buying terms and methods suit them best. It won’t benefit you very much to limit your payment method to American Express cards if you serve a market that primarily uses Visa and MasterCard debit cards. You’re better off providing your visitors with more than one way to complete their order.
4. Your purchase confirmation process is generic or incomplete. Your “thank you” page or confirmation email should be detailed enough that the buyer will not feel the need to call you right away. You will also want to do everything you can to eliminate the fear that they have just become a victim of fraud. It’s easy to know if you’ve made this mistake. Take a look at the number of canceled or disputed transactions you have.  Disputes from unhappy customers could jeopardize your status with your payment processor. An easy ecommerce rule to remember is “tell them what they’re buying and then tell them what they bought.” This way you can be certain that they understand what they get for the money. If you are selling a seminar or digital media, be sure to provide additional details that clearly explain what the buyer can expect or will want to do next.
5. Broken links – Nobody likes to click on a link and have it go nowhere. Worse yet is the experience of clicking on a link and being taken to the wrong place. Take a moment to test and then re-test every page or link you publish. If you communicate via email frequently, set up a test account on every major email account client so that you have a chance to see what your list sees. An email that looks great on Cox may not look so good to an AOL recipient. Knowing this in advance will allow you to choose a format that works well for all email clients.

The world of ecommerce can be fun and exciting when you know what to do. Making the time to take note of what is working for the ecommerce veterans in your industry, may be just what you need to keep your head in the game

Every online business needs a good shopping cart to facilitate all of their e-commerce transactions. Most of the time the products or services you sell will not be the deciding factor in regards to the success of your business. Rather the methods in which you market and distribute those products and services is what will ultimately determine the productivity of your business. A good shopping cart will enhance your customer’s overall experience and will prompt them to return for more convenient e-shopping at a later date. A poor shopping cart solution will only give the customer frustration and dis-satisfaction, prompting them to seek the very same products and services you offer elsewhere. When considering an e-commerce hosting service, it is best to look for the following qualities in an online shopping cart.

Up-Selling Capabilities

If you have worked in the restaurant or sales industry in the past, then you are probably familiar with the concept of up-selling. Up-selling is the practice of offering additional products or services to a customer based on their original search criteria or purchases. For example, if an individual is about to purchase an MP3 player, then an appropriate up-sell would be to recommend a set of headphones to go with the MP3 player. Many shopping carts offer this kind of feature in a n automated fashion, allowing the webmaster to create groups of related products that can be sold together. These groups of products are then used to create recommendations for the customer at checkout time. This kind of feature will not only enhance the convenience of your customer’s shopping experience, but it will also increase your sales revenue as well!

User Reviews

Most customer’s are more inclined to buy a product or service when they see that previous customer’s have been satisfied with it in the past. Customer confidence is a crucial aspect in encouraging the sales of your products, and there is no better way to establish trust than through genuine user reviews. A good shopping cart will allow your customer’s to view reviews of the product they are purchasing, thereby prompting them to complete the sale. It is also optimal to have a shopping cart that encourages new customers to leave their own reviews.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a crucial aspect in the promotion of any online business. Quality content and keyword density is the most common method of  search engine rankings, however the importance of a good shopping cart should not be overlooked. A good shopping cart will automatically create keyword rich URL’s for you products or services, thereby enhancing your site’s search engine optimization.

Coupons

Most people who shop online are looking for the best prices available. There are many sites online that are solely devoted to offering coupons for products and services. If you are selling one of these products and services then it is crucial that your site have a shopping cart with coupon capabilities. There is no telling how much business you may lose by bot allowing your customer’s to use coupons.

With the advent of the Internet, companies now have the opportunity to reach customers around the globe form the comfort of their own office. As time passes, more companies are realizing that not taking advantage of the internet is essentially limiting their full potential, costing them thousands if not millions of dollars every year. E-commerce business is very different from storefront business, as it requires very little investment. Of course with the decreased monetary investment comes an increased investment of time and brainpower. Anyone can open a website and cross their fingers waiting for it to thrive, but to be successful you will need to know what the 5 key aspects of building an e-commerce business are.

1. Finding the Niche

A niche is basically a topic or field that you will specialize in, for example “mobile phones” or “ sporting equipment.” If you already own a storefront business then you can skip this step, but if you are trying to start an e-commerce business from the ground up, this is going to be the most important decision you will need to make. The best way to stay involved with your online business is to pick a niche that you are genuinely interested in. Once you have a list of 5-10 topics you think you could focus on daily, it is time to do research. You’ll need to know how big the demand is for the product you are trying to sell. You’ll need to know how your customers will find you, will they use search engines or will they find you via local advertising?

2. Gaging the Competition

The key is to find a niche that has high demand and little competition. It is optimal to find a niche that is perfect for search engine optimization. There are many tools available that will help your research this information. Once you have found your competition, it is a good idea to learn as much about them as possible. Find out what their sites look like, what products they sell, and for what prices. This will give you something to aim towards.

3. Choosing a Web Host

Now that you have everything planned out, it is time to find a reliable web host to store your site’s information on one of their servers. The most important things to consider are adequate storage space, bandwidth and a good shopping cart function. You’ll also want to make sure the plan is backed by a money back guarantee and 24 hour customer support.

4. Build Your Website

Building a professional website is probably the most important aspect of building an e-commerce business. People trust professional looking websites more than small and simple websites.  There are many templates available online that will help you create a professional looking website from scratch with very little effort. It is also important to consider search engine optimization when building your website, as the search engines will give you a great deal of traffic if you do so. Search engine optimization is not easy however, and you may require the assistance of a professional SEO expert.

5. Marketing Your E-commerce Site

Once you have built your site and you are ready to start making sales, there is still one more step. This step is problem the most crucial of them all. You will need to market your business, for obvious reasons. Without effective marketing your website will sit there and you will make absolutely no money. To effectively market your website you will need more than just search engine optimization. You will need backlinks, blogs, social networking knowledge, video marketing and so much more. There is a plethora of knowledge found online that will help you do all of this. My suggestion to you would be to become a member of a search engine optimization forum, and take as many tips as you can form the experts there. If you want your business to thrive then you will need to do a lot of reading.

Trying to setup one’s business with merchant payment gateways can be a hassle and often more than a bit confusing.  Many businesses opt to use PayPal but the transaction fees charged by this company can be a bit prohibitive – especially for those businesses that are brand new and not conducting a lot of payment transactions.  SquareUp, a new start-up company currently in its beta stage, wants to change all that for both small businesses and individuals with a swiping device that can be easily connected to one’s mobile media device.

Twitter and Angels

Headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and backed by several angels including Khosla Ventures, the SquareUp service provides a swiping dongle device that connects to the audio outlet of a cell phone.  Currently the only device supported is the iPhone but plans are in place to integrate the dongle with the Android and Blackberry devices.  Ultimately, SquareUp intends on having the device work with just about every major mobile media device available.

How-to

To complete a financial transaction, the SquareUp user simply connects the dongle to their iPhone, swipes the customer’s credit card, requests a signature from the customer via the touchscreen, and the payment is made instantaneously.  Customers may also request receipts at their e-mail address.

As the service is being beta tested for the moment, very few details have been released.  It has been speculated that there are no long-term contracts to have to contend with and no ongoing monthly fees.  As such, it would be safe to assume there are transaction fees and, in order to compete with such services as PayPal, these fees would need to be standard or lower.

Internet Feedback

The feedback on this new service has been rather mixed.  As SquareUp has played close to the chest in as far as information being released, curious Internet users have only been able to guess on what the service will provide and what the overall cost will be.  Some have expressed concern over the security of the service.  Skimming programs are plentiful when it comes to lifting banking information off of cell phones and with the banking industry being hit hard enough lately as it is, yet another avenue for fraud may not be welcomed with open arms.

Another concern expressed by Jon Paisner, Yankee Group senior analyst, is that many potential users may not quickly adopt the service due to yet another device one needs to carry around.  Additionally, there is the concern that the audio jack in most mobile media devices is not designed for repetitive use in this manner and may be damaged with long-term use.

Overall

The overall feedback on the SquareUp service is that it may be a useful product for niche businesses – single style transactions (traveling sales), freelance work, and other means where mobile payment may be required.  Most businesses that conduct many daily transactions would not benefit from using SquareUp.  However, as stated, not a lot of information has been released by the company and the planned public release date does not occur until sometime in 2010.  The best stance to take at the moment is to keep a watchful eye on SquareUp and see what unfolds.

This is the one time during the year that online retailers need to ensure preparedness for the onslaught of holiday shoppers and it seems as though many businesses may have dropped the ball.  “Black Friday”, one of the busiest shopping days of the season, and the thirty days leading up to this day were heavy monitored by Uptrends, a remote-intelligence performance monitoring service.  The results put out by this web site monitoring company showed that many retail companies with sites online were less than prepared overall.

Companies monitored

Uptrends monitored one hundred of the more popular e-retailers throughout the month of November, up to and including “Black Friday.”  Of those companies monitored, a few came out on top with numerous page errors and long periods of down-time.

The biggest loser out of those monitored was Crutchfield Corporation, an electronics specialty retailer, with a total of sixty-one page errors and over five hours of web site down-time.  Following not too far behind was home electronics biggie, Fry’s.  This store managed to build up a total of forty-three page errors and over three and half hours of totaled down-time.

Out of all one hundred of the monitored web sites, nearly half experienced some amount of down-time.  Fifty-five were able to maintain a 100% up-time, twenty-four came in at 99.9% and twenty-one sported a 99.6% up-time.  Anything lower than 99.6% results in over three and a half hours of down-time in a thirty day period.

Of growing concern is that many of the companies monitored are considered to be household names.  The online public demographic is the same as the general public when it comes to shopping both online and off.  These shoppers expect a certain level of reliability of those in the retail business who have been around for quite some time.

Other affected web sites

It seems as though those companies monitored by Uptrend weren’t the only ones affected by the “Black Friday” holiday shopping rush.  Department store Sears’ online web site experienced multiple and total site crashes throughout the day.  Walmart, Kmart, Amazon, Target and Costco all experience significant web site slowdowns or other internet issues.

According to StorefrontBacktalk, numerous large and well-known retailers were affected in one way or another with the influx of shoppers on “Black Friday”.  Even non-retail product providers were showing as having issues.  Hallmark.com, while stating its web site issues were attributed to improvements, greeted customers with an unavailable message on this day.

Growing market

With more and more retailers joining the online retail crowd, it seems to be a growing concern over whether or not companies are putting in the time and research to improve upon overall reliability.  Day to day operations of an online retail store is not the proper litmus test for reliability.  It is days like “Black Friday” that should be the standard setters.  Perhaps the issues that cropped up on this traditional holiday shopping day should be assessed and scrutinized to better prepare e-retailers for next year’s holiday shopping menagerie.