Why YOUR E-Commerce Site MIGHT FAIL! (Tips about payment platforms & processing)

Discussion in 'eCommerce' started by EGS, Jul 29, 2010.

  1. #1
    Why YOUR E-Commerce Sites MIGHT FAIL!
    Tips about payment platforms & processing solutions.

    E-Commerce sites are infinitely difficult to promote and popularize due to the never-ending expansion of the Internet and websites, but there is some advice that you should know before you try promoting your e-commerce site so that you can handle it as it grows. As the old saying goes, you need to grow as your site grows, otherwise you won't be able to handle your own website as it begins to grow (leading to eventual bankruptcy, negligence, or declining reputation & credibility).

    First thing is first, you need to know what you want to sell, and decide whether or not what you're selling is possible to market. You also need to research the market to determine whether or not it's worth pushing your e-commerce site - things you'll need to ask your self are: a.) How competible is this market?; b.) Is there a demand or need for the product(s) that you are selling?; c.) Is it possible to make a profit off of this?; & in coordination with "c.)," is it worth trying to advertise/promote in this market, or will you lose money to high PPC rates because of the competition, creating a very high-risk & high-state e-commerce site that you most probably will fail at?

    Okay now that you've thought a little bit and obviously by reading this are continuing to go along with your e-commerce site, I want you to realize something that's very important: Choose a payment platform and payment processor that will WORK FOR YOU, not against you. This statement means a variety of things that I really want you to research before making your decision.

    You need to realize that because your e-commerce site is basically a small business, most probably only handled, managed, and maintained by you and you alone, that you can't handle both support/sales inquiries about your products as well as support & problem troubleshooting with payments and payment processing. As you grow you will be bombarded with inquiries that will become so overwhelming you will probably neglect your e-commerce site and it will fail.

    I would highly recommend that you choose to use an actual payment platform and not just a payment processor. I'd NEVER RECOMMEND using PayPal as your direct payment processor because they NEVER SUPPORT YOU AS A SELLER, are extremely difficult to work with, and you manually have to verify sales.

    Depending on what you are selling, whether it's a tangible or intangible (virtual) product, you need to research your options. Do you want a shopping cart, or are you just going to sale things individually, like services?

    Shopping Cart Solutions

    I would highly recommend using E-Junkie as a shopping cart solution if you're looking to go all out with a shopping cart solution & integrated platform. E-Junkie supports both PayPal & Google Checkout. If you're looking for a FREE solution that you can just integrate code to your web page with, than try E-Junkie's FREE FatFree Cart - it works marvelous.

    If you're using shopping carts, such as the ones listed above, then you will realize that these shopping carts are more manually created. It's not a shopping cart e-commerce platform that allows you to create a catalogue of items. The solutions proposed above are for sellers looking to sell a limited amount of items (>100) and that can use a CMS, or content management system, to list their items for sale within. This shopping cart would work great for you, and is great for the customer.

    If you really need to a shopping cart e-commerce platform that can catalogue items, then you can go with CubeCart, OSCommerce, MagentoCommerce (hearing a lot of good things), or even a CMS (content management system) with or without an e-commerce/shopping cart plug-in.

    Payment Platforms & Payment Processors

    I don't use a shopping cart on my website so I directly use payment platforms & processors. AGAIN, I WOULD HIGHLY ADVISE NOT USING PAYPAL DIRECTLY. Use a real payment processing platform that WORKS WITH YOU, NOT AGAINST YOU, and supports both you and your customers. That creates a win-win situation.

    It doesn't matter if your payment processor is bridged within your platform, content management system, or shopping cart platform - it may make things easier for you but not necessarily.

    I'm going to list a few payment processors that you can choose to use first: PayPal, Google Checkout, & primarily 2CheckOut. These are the primary payment processors.

    But don't you want a PLATFORM, not a processor, so that you can have affiliates in the future, create discount codes, manage and track sales, and so on & so forth? PayPal is limited, and is risky. Google Checkout doesn't offer much to you if you want to actually offer specials to your customers. And 2CheckOut is great because it accepts credit cards and now even PayPal, but again, these are all just payment processors that charge you a fee to process payments and do not offer you features that you will need nor will support you or your customers. With all these payment processors you're on your own and as an e-commerce site owner you have enough to worry about.

    I'm going to conclude this article with a very specific e-commerce platform & payment processor that I have found to be THE BEST of them all, that actually offers everything that you need, including seller protection (even against PayPal 99% & chargebacks 85%). I'd highly recommend that you check out & use Plimus, a UK-based company that offers support to both your customers and to you that actually cares. They take fees out because they work with you, meanwhile companies like PayPal take fees out to profit off of you and to work against you every chance they get to further profit from.

    With Plimus, you'll be able to accept virtually every payment method imagineable via secure SSL and you'll never lose a customer - in fact with so many payment methods that you'll be able to support UNDER ONE PLATFORM, you'll probably convert sales MORE FREQUENTLY! With Plimus you'll accept: PayPal, bank account wire/transfer, check/money order, major credit cards, debit cards, & MINOR credit cards (diner's club). The money is never sent to you it is sent to Plimus under your account's label, and throughout the month you stack up money, Plimus pays you the 15th of the next month for the previous month's earnings. I know there's a wait BUT IT'S WELL WORTH IT. My business took serious losses accepting PayPal directly and I should have never moved away from Plimus. Now that we're back with Plimus we went from over 50% of buyer disputes/claims with PayPal to virtually NONE, we're protected from chargebacks and PayPal disputes/claims almost 100% I can honestly say, and with Plimus because our customers can still pay by PayPal and now so many more payment methods, our income is greatly increasing.

    Whatever you decide to do, please take this article's advice seriously, and I wish you the best of success in your e-commerce site and/or e-business.
     
    EGS, Jul 29, 2010 IP
  2. kcom

    kcom Peon

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    #2
    Thanks for the extensive information on ecommerce. Great Tips to keep in mind
     
    kcom, Jul 29, 2010 IP
  3. Narrator

    Narrator Active Member

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    #3
    I disagree that people should avoid paypal. I've been using them for years with no problems.

    If you have a legitimate business that sells quality (tangible) products you wont run into problems. And if you accept paypal you will actually make more sales, since people trust paypal.
     
    Narrator, Aug 1, 2010 IP
  4. wagii

    wagii Peon

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    #4
    paypal is good. ejunkie take much fee .
     
    wagii, Aug 3, 2010 IP
  5. zooman247

    zooman247 Greenhorn

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    #5
    Good Info!
     
    zooman247, Oct 20, 2010 IP
  6. Le Dangles

    Le Dangles Member

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    #6
    I have been considering using plimus for some time now. Do they have a good selection of affiliates to market products for you? Also how easy is it to get accepted by plimus? Excellent information...but I have to agree with other people, I don't really see a problem with paypal. It is the easiest payment processor I have ever worked with and it is so simple to get them set up on your website. I wouldn't reccomend using paypal if you start doing high volumes of orders, but for beginners it is the easiest system to get set up with. Once your business grows with paypal then you can branch off into other payment processors like ejunkie and plimus!

    What kinds of products have you had the most success with when using plimus?
     
    Le Dangles, Oct 20, 2010 IP
  7. dwhelp

    dwhelp Guest

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    #7
    Plimus is good. However Paypal is very famous among all so you can not avoid it.
     
    dwhelp, Oct 20, 2010 IP