Hi All, I was wondering if anybody can help me out? I'm looking to start selling diet products including patches in the UK in a similar way to http://thepinkpatch.co.uk/ . I'd like to be able to use recurring billing and as yet I do not have a merchant account. Can anybody recommend a good provider to use? I would ideally like to integrate it into my site and make it as easy as possible for consumers to sign up. I had a look at OptimalPayments and it seems they can do this and also arrange a merchant account with an overseas bank. Has anybody had any experience with them or could you recommend somebody else? Many Thanks in advance, Lucy
you can start from selling your products from ClickBank, you will get some Affiliates to promote your product too... later u can switch to 1shopping Cart...
I had a look at clickbank and it seems to be only for digital products. I'd actually like to sell a tangible product and also would like some control over the landing page / sign up pages so I can tweak them to improve their conversion rate. 1shoppingcart seems to be for US only. Any other ideas?
You might be better off with a merchant account -- it projects a more "professional" image if you are processing your own payments, rather than through a third party. The trick is finding a merchant account where the fees suit your budget -- for instance, I'm guessing that (to start with), you'd probably be better off paying a slightly higher % charge in return for a lower monthly fee. Start with your own bank, who will at least know you, but have a good search on the internet and see if you can get them to price-match. I have several URLs for "cheap" merchant accounts, but they are all US-based, which is no good to either you or me.
Sounds like the best route to go is a merchant bank account. You're right in that I would prefer to pay a slightly higher percentage for now rather than large monthly fees. I've spoken to the merchant services part of 2 high street banks and they won't let you sell slimming products with recurring billing with them. Apparently it's too "high risk" (I would say "high risk" is buying loads of bad sub prime debt, but anyway I digress!) Can anybody recommend a merchant account that would support slimming products that allows me to do UK transactions? Many Thanks again, Lucy
Touché! I guess the risk is from people who can't be bothered to cancel properly with you, and just dispute the payment with their credit card company. The way to mitigate this risk and reduce your chargebacks -- both for you and for your merchant account provider -- is to have as liberal a cancellation/returns policy as you feel your business can stand. Maybe something like "If you decide to cancel, just e-mail me and send back the latest consignment unopened using reply-paid postage." Of course, I'm sure I'm just teaching granny to suck eggs here...
Hey Lucyanderson, I know of one I refered to a big company and they are every happy with it, if you need I can do the integration for you as well. PM me if you are interested. However learn that a lot merchant account like optimalpayment are not truly based in UK!