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.

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.

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

At first glance, Godaddy can seem like an overwhelming experience.  With so many products being offered, it is very easy to get lost in the sea of information.  Fortunately, Godaddy has a new online product advisor that can help you determine which solutions or products are the best choices for you and help you get your business online in and expedient fashion.

Step One

The first step of this process is to determine if you already have a domain name or if one is required.  If you already have a domain or do not need one at this time, the process bypasses domain registration and continues on.  However, if a domain name is needed, the next step asks about the nature of the business or site requiring the new domain name – business, personal, domain services or non-profit organization, to be exact.  For the purposes of this article, let’s assume you desire a domain name registration for a business.

Step Two

After selecting the nature of the site, the Godaddy advisor asks “Which of the following is most important to you?”.  You are given the options of personal privacy (name, email, etc. being excluded from the public WHOIS database), ensuring your business information is easily accessed within the WHOIS database, keeping your domain safe from expiration or erroneous transfer, a combination of all three choices together or simply none of these.  The reasoning behind this question is to determine what level of privacy is warranted for the account and whether or not to set up automatic renewals and locked domains.

Step Three

The next question asked is if you require a web site.  This is simple enough and only requires a yes or no answer.  If you select yes, you will be presented with list that helps to determine what type of site you need to have built.  Indicating that you already have a web site built will return more questions regarding your need to do more with your existing web site.  This includes whether you’d like for Godaddy to host your web site, if you’d like to create a blog, add a shopping cart and other special indicators that will help Godaddy assemble a product list for you and your business.  A simple no to this question moves along to asking what else you would like to do on the web.  We’ll assume you’d like to have a web site created along with your new domain and have it all hosted at Godaddy.

Step Four

Answering the next question posed by the advisor takes a bit of thought – what type of web site do you want built?  You may need a site that requires little technological skills on your part, you may simply wish to use the site for information dissemination (blog, for instance) or you may need an ecommerce site.  It could be that you require a combination of different site types and in that case you can select more than one option.

Step Five

After answering the type of site question, you are finally brought to the section where you determine your new domain name.  Prior preparation is indicated here as selecting a domain name on the fly isn’t recommended.  Have a list of different names you would like to search based on your business or products.  Remember, what you choose will reflect on your business so choose wisely and carefully.

Final

Once you’ve picked the perfect domain name, you’re pretty much out of the advisor and now going into the actual purchasing area of Godaddy.  You’ll be presented with products and services that Godaddy has determined will best fit your personal or business needs.  Working with the product advisor is highly recommended for both the inexperienced web patron as well as the seasoned veteran.

Throughout the world, web hosting providers understand that nothing is quite more satisfying for an online business owner than profiting with their website.  This is why GoDaddy has decided to launch two new affordable solutions that will aid entrepreneurs in the process of enhancing their online storefront.

For those who prefer the DIY approach, GoDaddy has made notable enhancements to its extremely popular Quick Shopping Cart application.  Not to be left out are entrepreneurs who feel more comfortable having their work done by the experts.  To cater to these needs, GoDaddy has a launched a service called Web Store Design, which will be maintained by its highly touted Dream Design Team.

According to a survey conducted earlier this year by Practical eCommerce, the Quick Shopping Cart product was rated as the most popular e-commere shopping cart.  GoDaddy has now greatly improved the service by implementing a number of strategic upgrades and broadening its product displays to provide customers with more options for enhancing the presentation of their storefront sites.  Online merchants can take advantage of GoDaddy’s new page layouts, product animations, fly-out navigation and product thumbnails to highlight products and services for their customers.  The domain name giant has made all this available with the options of no set up charges and a small percentage of the transaction fee.  Either way, you don’t have to worry about paying any costly upfront monthly fees for a merchant account.

Robyn Harrison, a GoDaddy Quick Shopping cart customer and owner of CurtainTrax.com, is totally sold on the new do-it-yourself concept.  Harrison says that the product has allowed them to enter the web-based retailing market, providing a way to quickly and effectively leverage the features needed to launch a fully functioning online storefront in just a matter of days.

For those who are not interested in the DIY method, GoDaddy’s Web Store Design service   makes the perfect alternative as its Dream Team has the ability to build virtually any web-based storefront.  This solution is a unique combination of GoDaddy’s Quick Shopping Cart and Website Tonight Products melded with the expertise of the Dream Design Team.  Together, these elements provide for a turnkey solution that delivers benefits to GoDaddy customers looking to showcase and sell their own products and services online.

Solutions like the enhanced Quick Shopping Cart and Web Store Design prove that GoDaddy is not only the king of domain names, but also a company well capable of providing various solutions to help customers start and grow their web presence.  It appears as if these products are right on time because aexperts are predicting that by 2010, online sales will top $144 billion in the United States alone.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a leading provider of domain names, web hosting services, and many other products and solutions designed to help individuals and businesses establish themselves online.  Aside from .com, .net, .biz, and .mobile TLDs, the company also offers SSL certificates, podcasts packages and online image hosting.  According to Name Intelligence, Inc., Go Daddy is the largest domain name registrar in the world with more than 35 domains currently under management.

You don’t have to be all that familiar with the internet to be aware of online credit card fraud and identity theft.  Just like you, consumers grow more weary with each publicized security breach. This added consciousness results in more shoppers who are reluctant to provide their credit card details online.  Unfortunately, this reality also has a direct impact on any business with an online storefront.  Consumer confidence is declining rapidly but you can help maintain it by incorporating SSL into your site.

What is SSL?

SSL (Security Sockets Layer) is a security protocol used to enable secure communications online.  With an SSL certificate, you get the benefit of a proven method that creates an encrypted tunnel between the customer’s web browser on the client side, and your website on the server side.  Therefore, instead of traveling over the insecure internet in vulnerable plain-text, credit card numbers are encrypted and scrambled so they can’t be read by intruders.  Right now, 128-bit encryption is the standard for SSL certificates as previous versions have been rendered insecure.  The algorithm used to form this security level of security is virtually impossible to break, ensuring that the communications between you and your customers are safe.

Where to Get a Certificate

In order to get an SSL certificate, you must go through a company known as a CA or Certificate Authority.  Verisign is the most popular and trusted authority with GeoTrust and Thawte making up the next reputable options.  At the basic level, all SSL certificates provide the same type of security.  A 128-bit certificate from GeoTrust will encrypt the communications between the server and client just as one from VeriSign would.  This is good news for smaller needs as basic certificates are more affordable and provide adequate security.  You will find that the price soars when adding on additional services that you may or may not need.  Because some authorities will try to sell you whatever they can, it is important to do some investing before you go spending beyond your requirements.

Installing Your Certificate

In most cases, installing an SSL certificate is relatively easy regardless of your technical abilities.  Most hosting providers offer certificates as add-on products and generally provide guidance for installing it.  This process is usually a simple one that can be performed through an advanced control panel interface on your own.  If not, a good host will be more than happy to install the certificate for you.  Once installed, the certificate is immediately activated and starts protecting your website transactions right way.  Do yourself a favor by finding a provider that allows you to incorporate your own certificate should you choose not to purchase it from them.

Keep the Internet Criminals at Bay

There are some features your e-commerce site can do without but an SSL certificate isn’t one of them.  Consumers grow more conscious about shopping online everyday as internet fraud is at a record high.   Gather some information about the most reliable certificate authorities and choose one that can provide the best level of security for your site.   Remember this: your inventory will collect a lot of dust if no one feels safe purchasing it.