Take Your Website to the Next Level with Shopping
Carts, Credit Cards and Affliate Programs
By Stephanie Chandler
If you are in the business of selling products and/or
services and you’re not making them available through
your website, there is a good chance you’re losing
money. The internet allows us to reach potential
customers around the globe. As a business owner, your
website provides a tremendous opportunity to build a fan
base and maximize sales.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be difficult to
set up your website to accept orders. Online shopping
cart technology and credit card processing is easier
than ever to implement. Following is a look at some of
your choices:
Paypal
If you have a limited number of products or you simply
want to test the waters, Paypal provides a quick and
easy way to add a shopping cart to your website. This
wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay is primarily a payment
processing service. Once you sign up for a free Paypal
account, you can quickly create shopping cart buttons to
insert on your website.
When a customer makes a purchase, Paypal takes the buyer
through the payment process and delivers an email
receipt when payment is complete. As the merchant, you
receive notification via email that your product has
sold, along with the buyer’s shipping information.
Like all merchant card processors, Paypal charges a fee
per transaction. Their rates are based on the amount of
transactions processed each month. For up to $3000 in
sales, Paypal currently takes a $.30 transaction fee
plus 2.9% of the transaction value. For $3000.01 -
$10,000, the rate is $.30 plus 2.5%.
Paypal used to require shoppers to register with the
payment service before it would process an order, but
this is no longer the case. Today orders processed
through Paypal are comparable to most other online
shopping experiences.
1ShoppingCart.com
If you intend to sell a large volume of products,
1ShoppingCart provides a comprehensive shopping cart
system. Depending on the level of service you choose,
you can create shopping cart buttons, offer special
discounts or sale prices on your products, create gift
certificates, automate email delivery with
auto-responders and deliver e-books securely.
The basic package starts at $29 per month and the
complete package with all of the features is $79. You
can also use 1ShoppingCart’s merchant account provider
to process credit cards or integrate the shopping cart
with a different merchant processor. Separate
transaction and monthly fees apply so be sure to check
the website for the latest fee schedule.
Payloadz.com
If you’re selling electronic downloads such as ebooks or
mp3 files, Payloadz allows you to set up shopping cart
buttons and automates the delivery of your electronic
products. The service is integrated with Paypal so
payment transactions are easily processed through your
Paypal account.
Payloadz offers two types of fee schedules. You can
choose between a standard 15% transaction fee with no
additional monthly fee, or you can pay a flat monthly
rate. The monthly rates are based on the amount of
storage space required to host your electronic files and
the total transactions processed in a thirty day period.
Visit the Payloadz website for a complete chart of the
fee structures.
Payloadz also hosts its own eBay store so you can list
your electronic products for sale on eBay. You can also
set up an affiliate program and offer commissions to
others who sell your products.
Yahoo
If you would like to create a custom online store, Yahoo
Merchant Solutions may be the answer. For under $40 per
month, Yahoo’s starter program includes web hosting, up
to 100 email accounts, and the tools to set up your
shopping cart. They also charge a 1.5% transaction fee
for each sale under this package. The standard package
costs about $100 per month plus a 1% transaction fee and
includes the ability to offer coupons, host sales and
sell gift certificates.
Yahoo stores integrate with most merchant card
processors or you can sign up for an account with their
partner, Paymentech (www.paymentech.net).
Yahoo also offers incentives for signing up such as
credits toward search engine marketing services and
discounts on services from their partners. For more
information, visit
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant.
Affiliate Marketing
Once your website shopping cart service is in full
swing, you can generate more sales by offering your own
affiliate program. These programs allow other merchants
to sell your products on a commission basis. For
example, you could set up an affiliate program for a
book you’ve written and offer other online merchants a
30% commission on each sale.
Most of the online shopping cart services allow you to
set up affiliate links for your business partners. If
you’re using Paypal or another service that doesn’t
provide the ability to set up affiliate accounts, you
can set one up through
www.clickbank.com or
www.paydotcom.com.
If you do offer an affiliate program for your products,
make it as easy as possible for your sellers. Provide
them with full product descriptions and high-quality
graphic images. Don’t forget to offer enough commission
to make their efforts worthwhile.
Expand Your Sales
With a shopping cart and an affiliate program in place,
your income opportunities are endless. You may want to
consider expanding your product line to include e-books,
special reports, teleseminars and other types of
information products. Customers who like your products
are likely to return to purchase additional products.
Soon you could be reaping the rewards of your online
product sales.
About the Author:
Stephanie Chandler is an author of several business and marketing books
including "LEAP!
101 Ways to Grow Your Business" and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur:
Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.” She is
also founder and CEO of
http://AuthorityPublishing.com, which
specializes in custom publishing and internet marketing
services, and
http://BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of
resources for entrepreneurs.
For author and speaker details, visit
http://StephanieChandler.com.
*This article can be reprinted
provided the author bio is included.
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Related Books:
ONLINE SALES ~ SHOPPING CARTS ~ MERCHANT CARD PROCESSING
~ AFFILIATES
