Most of you know that I do website consulting through my company, and one of the great things about our process is that once we go through a project with a client, we are able to take the lessons learned from that project and apply them to the next one. In this case, we had built a sunglasses website about a year ago and now a close associate of mine is interested in developing a new sunglasses website, selling designer sunglasses online in a catalog format.

From our first project, we learned about all of the details needed for effective sales online, including what works (and what doesn’t work), what types of information to display, what kinds of policies need to be posted, and how the site needs to be updated. I highly recommend OSCommerce as your solution if you’re attempting to get your product-based inventory for sale online.

From a consumer standpoint, and as someone who does the majority of her shopping online, I want to emphasize you how important it is to shop around and find your products online if at all possible. For example, we found a cell phone battery in a brick-and-mortar store on sale for $85 but we found the equivalent online for $15 plus shipping! That’s a $60 markup… you definitely save money when you do just a little bit of research: if you’re not planning on actually purchasing online, then at least you’ll know a little more about the physical product you’re planning on buying. Recently I’ve also purchased cloth diapers from a supplier in Portland, cat meds from a supplier in Australia (!), and a baby sling from the wholesaler… all items that take more work to find here near my rural home.

My own sunglasses are for anonymity, style, and to shade myself from the rays, but they’re also there for fun and as an easy accessory. My husband always has his when we go out (we live in a very sunny place) and I have the pair that stays in the car for emergencies as well as a pair of prescription sunglasses: very practical and useful. Here’s us at the Colosseum (notice the gladiator!)

If you’re going to be purchasing online, make sure to get really good prices on the real deal. If you’re looking for womens sunglasses, check out Sunglass Warehouse, which offers a great selection of styles, shapes, and colors at unbeatable prices.

Today’s post has to do with Amazon Associates, an easy and quick way for you to offer products from the Amazon.com website by providing a mini-store or list of products as an affiliate.

Billing itself as “The web’s most popular and successful Affiliate Program,” this program allows you to set up a free username and password, which then gives you formatted links. When your web visitors click through these formatted links and make a purchase, you earn up to 15% on products purchased.

You have access to traffic and earnings reports and ways to integrate the affiliate program into your content: this is great if you offer things like product reviews, book reviews, or if you focus on a particular niche and do articles or recommendations on products within that niche.

http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join

This resource on Developing Your Website: Tools for Women goes through the following ideas in a series of posts.

1) Introduction
2) Parts of a Website (domain names, hosting, mailing lists)
3) Content Management
4) Free and Open Source solutions
5) Design and user interface
6) Payment processing
7) Networking (online and offline)
8) Generating revenue online: Google Adsense, affiliate programs, members-only content and other ways to make money
9) Reviewing your Data by using Reporting
10) Updating your site with Timely Content

Prior Links:
Parts 1 and 2
Parts 3, 4, and 5

Today’s post is focused on Part 6: Payment Processing

Part 6: Payment Processing

Your customers are more likely to buy if it is easy for them to purchase from you. If you require checks, you will most likely have to deal with cash flow issues where someone is behind in paying for services rendered or products delivered. My best recommendation is to set up a way to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. If you are doing this through a merchant account at your bank, your bank will have specific guidelines that they give you.

However, for most business owners starting up, Paypal.com will work just fine.

Some other options from CNN 5 separate alternatives include:
Digital River www.digitalriver.com
2Checkout www.2checkout.com
AlertPay www.alertpay.com
TrialPay www.trialpay.com
E-junkie e-junkie.com

With a free PayPal account, you are able to accept all major credit cards. You are charged 2.9% per transaction, but there is no setup or monthly fee. So for any sale of $100, you will receive$97.10.

To set up an account, you must provide a legitimate e-mail and contact information. I recommend setting up a business account if you are committed to your business success (rather than a personal account, which has more limitations). There will be a process where PayPal confirms that you may check the e-mail.

When tying your PayPal account to your bank account, PayPal will deposit two small amounts into your bank account and require you to enter those two amounts, to confirm that you are the owner of the bank account.

At that point, you may withdraw any received funds from your PayPal account as an electronic deposit or as a check.

You always receive a e-notification of payment if you have been paid via your PayPal account. Your buyer will also receive an e-notification receipt.

There are some additional items such as the ability to customize the colors on the payment page, the ability to have multiple “profiles” (for example, if you sell items through multiple businesses but they all funnel through one main account), and the ability to create packing and shipping slips or to invoice online.

Important Note
Most processors will charge a small fee either monthly and off each transaction. For example, $20 a month for the convenience + $0.25 (a quarter) per transaction. Some processors will charge you only when you make a sale.

FRAUD ALERT: Due to high “phishing” e-mails, where someone tries to get your login and password information through a “security alert” e-mail or “update your account info” e-mail, you should always open a new browser and type in the URL of the site you are visiting.

NEVER CLICK on a LINK in an E-MAIL. You may always go straight to a new browser, open up a fresh window, and login directly. Do not follow someone else’s e-mail link to go to any site that requires financial information.

Questions to Answer:
How is your current banking set up? You will want to open a different share off your existing account to track self-employment income: so you might have one personal checking account and one business-related checking account. If you are incorporating, you will set up a business banking account to accept cash or checks directly to the business.

Who will manage receipts, invoicing, and writing checks?

What types of payment will you accept: cash, checks, or credit cards? Wire transfers? Direct deposit?