E-Commerce Success: When High Risk Merchants Go the Brick and Click Way

Too lazy to shop out?

I have always believed in the empowerment of human potential. Sounds deep huh! Well, a decade and a half ago, when the Internet has started to boom and online shopping carts or high risk merchant accounts were unheard of, everyone foresaw that it's the end of the human urge to leave the house, travel, and experience the world using the tactile senses. Virtual reality became a challenge. The Internet morphed into a breeding ground for experimentation in which people would be immersed into a world that was so convenient they would do nothing more than click the mouse (or anything similar to pushing a button) and have the stuff that they want. In fact, today the pioneers of VR have created games in which you would only use your brainwaves (connected to electrodes) to move objects on the screen. Not bad.

When e-commerce sites are a must

E-commerce faces the same situation today. People would normally go to the malls, window-shop, pick their goodies, fall in line at the counter, cash out from the wallet or swipe the credit card, then leave with the big ol' shopping bag in hand. Obviously, everyone still does it. But brick and mortar stores are becoming less and less attractive without an integrated e-commerce website. Whether you are an ordinary businessman selling toiletries and cosmetics or a high risk merchant selling adult products, it usually pays to put up your own website and let it expand your customers' buying experience.

Convenience, convenience, convenience

In-store pick up: Save costs, make money

The Psychology of Online Buying

So you got your merchant account. Then you got your credit card processor, a spiffy shopping cart, and a choice of your international bank. Being a high risk merchant is not easy -- NOT if you only know the bare bones of establishing the account but not maintaining it. Too vague? The logic here is simple: You can have all the infrastructure set up, but if you can't keep up with the rising waves of competition in the e-commerce industry, then you're going to sink.

Keeping yourself afloat means keeping your "online sales" on the sizzle. The last decade has seen a surge on Internet-based purchasing from various parts of the world. As a merchant, you may have taken the risk to actually set up a website and eventually sign up for a low risk or high risk merchant account. This is a big step, but it is only going to result in something really fruitful if you know the techniques in increasing your web business sales.

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A Quick Peek at Your Web Page

Bait, Hook, and Everything in Between

Look out, SMS! High Risk Merchants' Guide to New Trends in Mobile E-Commerce

What does mobility mean to you?

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Short Message Service (SMS). I hate punching on the small RAZR alphanumeric keyboard and I hate doing it a fifty-five times a day. But I have friends that do it effortlessly, and my hats are off to them. I don't mind sending text messages to my folks and colleagues as long as I'm in the mood for a little bit of sacrifice. I don't think it's atypical of me at all. It's just that I'd rather make a quick call than take forever to send a TM to the president of the socks-shoes company.

SMS: The New E-Commerce Cult?

But how convenient can a single text message be! It's cheap, it's fast, and it certainly is hip. In most underdeveloped countries, text messaging is simply an excellent way to communicate without having to spend sevenfold for a local call. And there are so many ways to pull off a TM these days. You can use Yahoo SMS, register at Chikka (hey if you haven't heard of it, come out of the cave, will ya?), or use Verizon's onsite TM service. What I like about it is that 90% of the time the TM reaches your recipient pronto. Two billion subscribers sending out their voices to people they know without having to spend for more than a dime per TM.

Now, veering off a little from the track, we can spot the E-COMMERCE sign on the turnpike. Or better yet, the M-COMMERCE. What exactly does the road sign mean? Most mobile operators have done their share of advertising to consumers with the help of mobile phones. I wouldn't say it's as hardcore as traditional media like TV, radio, newspaper, and the Internet, but I'd say that because it's a powerful and snowballing communication medium these days, it has a huge potential for marketing. Online merchants can take advantage of creating a bridge between mobile phones and the Internet to increase their sales. And a great percentage of the market remains untapped.

How Mobile Phones Can Help High Risk Merchants

Although I sympathize with mobile operators undergoing through hurdles in order to profit from mobile advertising, I would like to focus on the emerging trends that affect e-commerce in general. For one, high risk merchants can easily jump into the possibilities that one day, any kind of service or product can be advertised on the mobile phone. Whether it's through the service provider self-generated ads or WAP, that will be the question.

Another thing is that online consumers who may or may not be able to log in to the Internet using their mobile phones can easily pay their bills and purchases if this mobile phone billing phenomenon takes off. Now that's some real mojo high risk merchants should look forward to happening. Why? Because once that happens, it will be as prevalent as credit card processing online (with or without the help of merchant accounts). As long as the payment process is secure for customers, they will be able to shop on virtual stores through their mobile phones, pay through the online shopping cart through their mobile phones, and manage their credit and other banking activities through their mobile phones. They can do that wherever they are in the world. Nothing could be easier.

First Things First!

If these trends develop, the future of mobile buying, selling, and banking looks rosy. In fact, that might even convince me that SMS is not so bad (in other words, way, way excellent). I have been communicating with people I know through SMS anyways. In the future, you and I will find it so essential that we may not be able to take a morning shower without first checking if Wells Fargo had really transferred some five thousand dollars onto our checking account. Or not.

How Much Do You Know About Online Shopping Today?

Doing It The buySAFE Way
In the last online meet-up that I had attended to I had been informed by my colleagues that, well, e-commerce is drastically taking the next big step when it comes to security and purchasing power for online shoppers. See, our concern here is not merely focused on low risk or high risk merchants, but for online customers who are the bread and butter of this business. The question is always, how do customers find merchants that they can trust and what else can the new breed of e-commerce vendors can offer them?

BuySAFE: The New Authority in Merchant Security?

The next big step that I'm talking about has something to do with security in which buySAFE plays a big role. What is buySAFE? It's essentially an emerging authority when it comes to making sure the online stores you are buying your goods from are legit, reliable, and safe. I'm sure all of us would rather buy in the safest places we could if we can help it. Checking out to see if a store has buySAFE seal is a good guarantee that a merchant isn't a mere scammer or a poser. Online merchants have to undergo rigorous buySAFE Certification Process to ensure that they are doing legit and trustworthy business. The test doesn't go from there, as buySAFE also monitors merchants' performance on a regular per transaction basis.

I wouldn't have to emphasize how much relief it would cause online shoppers to go through their favorite virtual shops knowing these shops are doing good business, as long as they have passed the buySAFE test. Low risk and high risk merchants, on the other hand, would be egged to strive in raising the quality of their service, products, and general business status to attract as many customers as they can.

buySAFE has reportedly teamed up with open source (online shopping cart) software application providers and a few more security programs to raise e-commerce standards. Nothing could be more beneficial. These open source shopping carts include osCommerce and CubeCart. All online merchants have to do is download the module that buySAFE provides for free and guarantee customers of safe transaction through buySAFE's bond.

Google: Peddling in 12 Tongues

Now who says doing web business overseas is a boon only to offshore merchants? From online shopping security we hop to Google's new translation marketing gimmick that goes like this: You as an American online shopper (for example) who's spending a week's vacation in Rio de Janeiro forgot to buy your snorkeling gear but couldn't quite figure out what store in Rio you could pick out your favorite snorkeling gear brand at. All you need to do is type your search in English and click "Portuguese" so Google will translate the search results for you. Good enough? Not yet. The program comes only in 12 languages and is still in the beta stage. But watch out! As I've mentioned earlier, doing business offshore isn't just something high risk merchants banking outside of the U.S. can take advantage of. It's also something online buyers from any part of the world can now participate in, thanks to Google's shrewd online marketing programmers' cutting edge ideas. Bravo!

osCommerce for High Risk Merchants: The Good, The Bad, and The Possibilities

Just because osCommerce is the most popular merchant account software doesn't mean it's the best solution for your online business. Agree or disagree? Do you find osCommerce to be overrated? A lot of high risk merchants adopt osCommerce as their primary merchant account solution because of so many advantages. But, knowing osCommerce is open source (hence the name), there will always be loopholes before merchants can actually find it functional for their specific business' needs.

OsCOMMERCE BUGABOOS

So what are the likely monkey wrenches that might pop out once you start using osCommerce? For those having second doubts, you may be justified. Consider:

1. There are way too few templates in the osCommerce solution. If you attempt to tinker with the stylesheets, it would take a lot of time and a developer's help to be able to accomplish the best template for your needs.

2. Merchants may be vaguely aware of "attributes". In order to take full advantage of the limited attributes system, merchants will need to get a good developer to modify it. Otherwise, osCommerce's shopping cart may not be the best solution to use.

3. Even osCommerce's administration area isn't keen on password protection. However, this is remediable by simple research on the site and discussion with your developer.

4. As osCommerce is heavily dependent on the contribution of programmers worldwide, even product catalog capacity needs to be modified. osCommerce's solution won't suffice for big scale catalogs unless it has been altered to adopt new products that the server can handle.

Based from these loopholes, we can tell that a lot of osCommerce's capabilities are dependent on the software developer who is responsible for the alterations and extensions in the system. osCommerce is so powerful but without the ability to customize it to your merchant account's needs, it loses its potential to provide a cheap (or free) and efficient credit card processing solution.

THE SWEETER SIDE OF OsCOMMERCE

Now what makes osCommerce absolutely attractive for low risk and high risk merchants alike? Hands down, it beats other solutions simply because it's free! You can download the software, add-ons, and modifications grais. Also, osCommerce was being utilized by online merchants all over the world since March 2000, so it's pretty much universally trusted.

Although osCommerce's main weakness is the great necessity to modify the attributes, it is also its biggest strength. Its flexibility for customization as well as the capacity to support several languages and accept many international currencies make it the best open source merchant account software around. Security, user-friendliness, and a strong developers' community support also add up to its usability.

osCommerce's features can easily be checked out on their website. It lists down general functionality, set-up or installation, design, administration, customer, product, payment, shipping, and tax functionalities. Indeed, low risk and high risk merchants may only realize the full potential of osCommerce as shopping cart and card processing tool only when they pick out the features that would seamlessly work with their business –- then, enlist the help of developers for further customization and expansion.

What Every High Risk Merchant Should Know About Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights: An Age-Old Trouble

Legal battles are not uncommon. Throughout the history of mankind, people have fought for their intellectual property rights and won and lost and paid for damages. In fact, its history dates back to the medieval ages when Gutenberg has invented the printing press. During this time, social information is distributed exclusively by the scribes. Gutenberg has opened a world of possibility when it comes to public distribution of text.

As mass reproduction of books could not be curtailed, the British government during that time (circa 1500s) sought solace with regulating it through license. Eventually the writing and printing of books became a liability for the authors whose names were bound on books as copyright. The true reason is to control the content of material being published, not to give credit to the author. The Licensing Act became obsolete and it was replaced by the Statute of Anne, which turned the tables for the authors. Authors were then given the exclusive right to publish under their own copyrights for up to 14 years and renew it. It has become the precursor of modern intellectual property ownership that we know today.

What You Can and Cannot Do

Now, in the world of online merchants, owning intellectual property rights is considered one of the most troublesome issues. Most local merchant account providers would not admit violators of intellectual copyright to own even a low risk merchant account. The reason is obvious enough. Selling digital items may cause infringement on merchants' intellectual property. Digital items fall into high risk merchant account category as the products are intangible and are likely targets of fraud. This is the reason why intellectual property right ownership is something online merchants should never take for granted.

The good news is that as long as your products and services are registered as copyright, trademark, or patent, you can legally sue anyone who infringes on your intellectual property rights. This can be done under certain provisions, of course. However, it may not be 100% successful. As infringement of digital property cannot be avoided, many so-called "violators" may still get away with it. Consider the following:

1. You cannot sue if the other party used it for non-profit or educational purposes.

2. You cannot sue if the copyrighted item you sell doesn't fall on the level of worthiness. Some items are more "copyrightable" than the others.

3. You cannot sue if the other party merely used an excerpt to illuminate a matter (if it was text, e.g. e-book), or simply did not use the entire item for their commercial purpose.

4. You cannot sue if the copyrighted item posed a neutral effect on the market in general.

What do these all mean for the high risk merchant? Simple. You can still sell digital items, have them copyrighted, and sue if certain provisions have been violated in your intellectual property rights contract. But the key is to prevent rather than find a cure. It would be distressing to pay for lawyers if you soon find out that the website who copied your Biological Warfare e-book only took an excerpt and used it to teach junior high school students. Preventing the infringement in the end is more cost-effective than going through court sessions and paying exacting attorney fees.

Fixing Before It Breaks

Prevention will require you to go through several avenues, depending on the product or services you sell. High risk merchants should be aware that digital items have special ways to be protected. E-books have to be registered for a copyright. Instead of pushing for sales on downloadable material, it would always be better to ship them via CDs. It then becomes less likely for fraud to happen.

Brand names have to be registered for trademark rights. If you own an imaging company that sells stock photos, it would be wise to put watermark seals when you publish them on the web. When other websites use your photos by the bulk and post them without your permission, you can legally sue (as long as you have registered for the trademark rights).

Music and videos have to be registered for copyrights as well. Tangible products such as a new adult toy with unique features must be registered under a patent right. Adult products and pharmaceuticals always fall under the high risk category. Fanatic high risk merchants may even employ a commercial anti-copycatting and security software.

7 Best Tools for Providing First-Rate Customer Service

"People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone." Chuck Palahniuk could be right and wrong! In the world of e-commerce, the telephone could be the single most important tool next to your car keys. An online merchant will not exist and survive in the cutthroat world of online business without key customer service tools. First and foremost, the phone! It's true that people do not want to literally knock on the company's door to ask for technical support when they're having trouble. But they also do not want to be left hanging in the air not knowing who to contact when they need help. If you can provide this means of contact and more, your online business has crossed the line from zero profit to a treasure trove.

DIAL TOLL-FREE

Needless to say, if you can provide toll-free phone numbers for your customers to contact, it would be easier for them to gain confidence on you. The same goes for fax numbers which customers can use to send documents when they need to, such as checks and billing proofs. This is extremely important for you and your customers as it helps establish a quick, reliable way to communicate with the simplest tools.

USING VOIP AND IM

Some companies provide a way for customers to talk via voice-over internet protocol (VOIP). VOIP, for the uninitiated, connects people through the internet on a phone call basis without having to disconnect (if they are using dial-up). All they need to do is use a program similar to Skype. Most Instant Messenger programs allow VOIP calls but companies may buy an in-house program that is exclusive for their business transactions.

LIVE CHAT, ANYONE?

Although I would say live phone calls are more favorable than IM text messaging, live chat is also an excellent tool that helps customers easily reach you in real time. Most high risk merchant account owners such online casinos and adult websites offer live chat customer services to ensure that their clients get all the support they need.

AN AUTORESPONDER, DAY IN, DAY OUT

The e-mail is another great channel for customer service. If you're a Mom 'n Pop, brick and click store and have a small clientèle, providing business e-mail address to your customers is the next best thing to a phone number. You may be out on the holidays and will be back in a few days but still want customer queries coming. The best way to deal with this is to use an Autoresponder program. The Autoresponder is programmed into your server so that every time a customer sends an e-mail, a message such as "We will get back to you shortly" will be sent to her. This way the customer knows that she is taken cared of even though technically at the moment you are out sunning and drinking papaya shake in the Bahamas!

ONLINE SHOPPING CARTS

Perhaps the best way to complete the set of customer tools is to employ a highly efficient, user-friendly virtual shopping cart. A shopping cart works for low risk and high risk merchant business owners alike. The purpose of the online shopping cart is obvious enough: it allows customers to browse through your online store using their registered accounts, pick the services or products that they intend to buy, add them to the cart, and check out after they fulfilled the information it requires such as billing address, shipping method preferred, credit card details, and sender/receiver details.

FORUMS, PODCASTS & BLOGS

A company that has grown with a considerable customer base can take advantage of establishing a forum. Customers can use it to tackle problems, build rapport, or help each other in the community. This is the best way for online merchants (who may act as moderators) to know how else they can improve their products and customer service. They may also take advantage of creating product-oriented blogs. These blogs may be customized in order to be highly readable for the clients. Merchants can make use of newsletters, webcasts and podcasts to reach their customers when they release new promos and announcements.

In fact, there are a hundred and one ways to prove to your customers that they come first. Whether you are a low risk merchant affiliated to a local bank or a high risk merchant whose account is established offshore, there's no shortage to happy ways you can serve and keep your customers who are, in the end, the bread and butter of your business!