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Ecommerce Tutorials from Allied Wallet

Art — Tue, 17 May 2011 22:30:31 +0000

Allied Wallet recently published their first online ecommerce guide on their website. This is the first of many video tutorials to come. These manuals are targeted for those clients and users to understand the inner-workings of Allied Wallet and methods of easily accepting credit cards. The first video highlights the primary differences between their two payment systems: Business Pro and QuickPay.

The QuickPay Solution

The QuickPay solution targets the smaller to medium size business clients searching for a simple system to accept credit cards online. The QuickPay interface makes the integration of an online retailer’s website to the Allied Wallet payment system easy with only a tiny amount of programming required.

The Business Pro Solution

The Business Pro solution is geared toward larger organizations in search of a seamless checkout process. During the QuickPay checkout procedure, the client is transferred to an Allied Wallet payment page and redirected back to the online retailer’s website upon completion of the transaction. On the other hand, with the Business Pro version, the customer remains on the retailer’s website where all payment processing is performed by Allied Wallet in the background.

Instant Credit Card Processing

Furthermore, these two services allow online retailers to instantly accept a credit card from any location across the globe at any time. Also with ACH processing, online paperless checks can be processed to save on business expenses and ease implementation. Additionally, ACH processing allows for debit, credit and recurring credit payments based on a predetermined increment.

Video Tutorial Series

The upcoming video tutorial series will help users find exciting new uses of Allied Wallet’s payment gateway. The tutorial series is applicable to both the QuickPay and Business Pro versions. With so many uses and other functions, these two payment software tools will assist in many other areas of ecommerce. These videos intend to present these functions that most users are not aware of.

About Allied Wallet

As an internationally-based merchant services provider, Allied Wallet specializes in ewallet services, online payment solutions and ACH processing. The release of these new tutorials is sure to drive many more customers to the software solutions once they see the power of the payment gateway.

With so many additional features besides payment processing, QuickPay and Business Pro are two of a kind and should be reviewed by every online retailer in the industry. Based on the number of features, it appears as if this could be the solution for you. Stop by the Allied Wallet website to view the video tutorials for more information.

Adjusting Product Catalogs and Shopping Carts for Higher eCommerce Conversions

Art — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:09:33 +0000

Building and optimizing a successful business website is an ongoing challenge that can be especially difficult for novice webmasters that are not experienced with e-commerce. Ultimately, the goal of an online store owner is to create a user-friendly interface that their customers can use to shop for products or services with minimal effort and maximum convenience. Unfortunately, accomplishing this is not as easy as it would seem, as there are many factors to consider when customizing the shopping experience of your site visitors.

Perhaps the most important aspects are those related to the product catalog and the checkout process, which is facilitated by integrated shopping cart applications. While the majority of e-commerce hosting plans include product catalog creators and robust shopping cart applications that can be installed quickly and easily on your site, most people do not know how to use such tools to improve their conversion rates.

Designing an Effective Product Catalog

Product catalog creators allow you to import hundreds or even thousands of product images, descriptions, and even reviews. However, if the product pages are not properly organized and categorized, the process of finding the right product can be very difficult for your site visitors, even with the use of a site wide search engine. When you add a product to your catalog you’ll have the option of adding keyword tags, which would cause the product to appear in search results if the specific keywords were searched for by one of your customers. Thus, it is imperative to add as many relative tags as possible to your products, to ensure that they will show up in search results when customers search for specific products, or related items. It is also important to enable features such as customer reviews, which will let your previous customers leave feedback about specific items, thereby increasing sales conversions by convincing future customers.

Setting up an Effective Shopping Cart

After creating a robust product catalog that is properly tagged, organized, categorized, and is easy to navigate, it’s time to set up a shopping cart that will allow your customers to purchase multiple items simultaneously upon checkout. Some shopping cart applications will even let your customers use issued coupon codes for purchase discounts, which you can grant to repeat customers for higher conversions and residual business. Shopping carts also give you the ability to accept multiple forms of payment by integrating payment processors such as PayPal, which will accept credit card payments from your customers on behalf of your business in a secure manner. After setting up the shopping cart, you’ll want to do a couple of test runs and proceed with the checkout process yourself to see how convenient it is, and to look for any errors that may be occurring.

Expanding Your Site’s Capabilities

Many shopping carts and product catalog creators are open source applications, which means they can be amended and improved by any developer with the interest to do so. Thus, there are many third-party plug-ins and extensions that can be added to shopping carts and product catalog creators to improve the overall functionality and add new features. If you want the highest conversion rates possible, then you’ll want to experiment with such extensions in order to refine the checkout process and provide the most enjoyable shopping experience for your customers.

ShopSite Pro Shopping Cart Review

Art — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:54:20 +0000

Regardless of your level of expertise as a webmaster, you need a competent and powerful shopping cart solution for your online storefront. Although most shopping carts provide the basic features needed, there is a considerable difference between each product. One software that is gaining a lot of notoriety in the industry recently is ShopSite Pro, which is a robust shopping cart solution that includes a wealth of features that are both unique and useful. The following review outlines some f the the most attractive features and aspects of ShopSite Pro.

Design Features

ShopSite Pro is one of the few browser based shopping cart solutions that does not require you to download or install anything. Surprisingly, even though the software is not installed on the web server, it gives you extensive control over the design of the checkout process. No HTML or coding skills are needed to operate the user-friendly administrative interface that includes a tool bar complete with customizable images, fonts, colors and other design attributes. The software also automatically generates reports that give you a good idea of your progress based on sales statistics that are gathered during the checkout process. Perhaps the most attractive design aspects of ShopSite Pro are its categorization benefits, which let you easily organize your product catalog without extensive experience or internet skills.

Administrative Control Features

One of the most notable features in the administrative panel is the power edit feature, which lets you edit multiple products simultaneously using a variety of criteria. This feature is especially useful when managing large amounts of inventory. The admin panel gives you easy access to preferences like shipping options, checkout procedures, merchant processing setups, and inventory display options. Although ShopSite Pro lacks extensive control of back orders and partial shipments, it is easily one of the most robust shopping cart solutions available. As a web site administrator it is important that you ave access to all of the tools needed t keep your store operating smoothly and to maximize your sales for greater profits. ShopSite Pro gives you supreme control over all administrative functions to ensure the steady growth of your business.

Marketing and Security Features

ShopSite pro is perhaps the best option when it comes to marketing because it gives you the ability to maximize your profits through up-selling and cross-selling automatically during the customer’s checkout experience. The program also allows for affiliate program integration and setup, the generation of comprehensive sales reports, and the ability to send a bulk promotional newsletters to your customers for increased conversions. One of the new features in ShopSite Pro lets you integrate your eCommerce site with social networks for maximized profits. Using ShopSite pro you can attract customers from networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The program also incorporates the usage of SSL as well, which will give you the security needed to continue operating your online storefront without worries or risks associated with insecure web pages. If you need a secure and competent solution for your online storefront then you may want to consider the seemingly endless benefits that ShopSite Pro has to offer.

Review of Volusion – Professional eCommerce Shopping Cart Solution

Art — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 06:28:21 +0000

Volusion is a company that has been developing revolutionary eCommerce technology and solutions since their inception in 1999. Over time Volusion has managed to amass a customer base of more than one hundred thousand, which consists of small business owners and corporations alike. In fact, in 2009 alone, the amount of online transactions that were conducted using the Volusion shopping cart exceeded $2 billion!

After releasing several successful versions of their shopping cart solution, Volusion now has more than 150 employees stationed in Austin, Texas and Simi Valley, California. The following review outlines some of the key features that have made Volusion so popular during the past few years.

Customer Features

Volusion is an all-in-one shopping cart solution that provides a comprehensive payment processing solution for virtually any online business. Volusion lets your customers zoom in on products that are of interest to them by automatically generating dynamic thumbnails. It also lets you create multi-tier pricing for certain site visitors such as members of a discount club.

As a merchant that utilizes Volusion you can offer your customers coupon codes that can be used at checkout, and they can even leave product reviews about your items. You can also categorize your items into various groups that simplify your site visitor’s navigation and shopping experience. All product description fields are completely customizable, and your customers are given the option to view a ‘view all’ screen that displays all of the items currently in the shopping cart.

Administrative Features

The administrative panel of Volusion is perhaps its greatest strength, giving you complete control over the checkout process that your customers experience. One feature that is particularly interesting is the ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) feature that lets you monitor your profits in real time. You can also print documents, shipping labels and receipts from directly within the administrative panel.

Volusion also automatically generates confirmation emails that are then sent to your customers whenever a purchase is made. Having automated confirmation emails sent to your customers is a huge time saver and is incredibly convenient for the busy online business owner.

Support

Volusion also provides robust support solutions through their user-friendly web site, amongst which are the ‘Build my Store’, ‘Manage My Store’, and ‘Expand My Store’ services. Aside from these innovative and unique services, Volusion also provides 24 hour support via instant chat, or email support tickets. If you’re the ‘Do-It-Yourself’ type then you may prefer the extensive library of support documentation provided in the site’ support section, which includes helpful videos and informative articles.

If you’re not confident in Volusion’s ability to provide excellent support, or you’re just curious as to how the software looks and feels, you can take advantage of their free 14 day trial which gives you full access to the software for a full two weeks, completely risk-free.

Effective E-Commerce Ideas

Art — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:01:10 +0000

The e-commerce industry is constantly changing. In order to remain competitive it is important to be cognizant of the new ideas in this ever-changing business. Companies are inventing innovative ideas to attract new customers, retain the old and advertise their products via internet like never before. The following are five innovative ideas for the e-commerce world:

Restructure your shopping cart
Test location of stress-relieving content
Utilize Clickstream tool
Add a handwritten note to items
Offer a prize for new subscribers

One new idea is to streamline your shopping cart to make the checkout process less time-consuming for the customer. For each additional page the consumer must load to complete the checkout process is another chance for them to change their mind. Instead, combine pages and eliminate redundant steps.

Another excellent initiative is to test stress-relieving content at locations on different web pages. This content includes points of satisfaction, security icons and the return policy. It is beneficial to separate sensitive content from pages that feature transactions. This content will help visitors and users feel much more safe and comfortable with ordering a product from your site.

The Clickstraem tool identifies which sites users originate from and where they go after. It also allows you to view where your visitors come from and go after leaving your store. This is an excellent tool to learn more about the type of individual visiting your website.

Taking a step back from technology by adding handwritten thank you notes to the packing slip in your shipment adds a personalized touch. Try to add the customer’s first name to the letter. This takes little effort and really helps your customer feel appreciated and improves their feelings about the company.

Finally, by offering a raffle for a prize to new subscribers of your email letter will greatly improve signups. Since it is simple to signup for a newsletter, customers are willing to do this in exchange for the chance to win a prize.

E-commerce methods of attracting and retaining customers are constantly evolving. With new methods being created by competitors at all times, it is in your best interest to remain ahead of the curve and keep the attention of the customer. This can be done with something as simple as a handwritten note sent with shipped items or by making the customer checkout process easier with a streamlined shopping cart.

Converting Visitors to Buyers Using Standard eCommerce Features

Art — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:56:09 +0000

Many online business owner place a great deal of emphasis on the marketing and design of their website, assuming that these two efforts alone will bring them a large return on their investment. However the truth is, the functionality of the website is also a huge factor in converting visitors into sales. You have to remember that most people shop online for one reason; convenience. The convenience of shopping from home is what draws most people to the concept of online shopping. If this convenience is compromised in any way, then the customer will most definitely take their online business elsewhere. Therefore it is crucial to ensure that your website offers easy navigation and simple checkout procedures. A lot of the features that will make your website easy to use are found within your basic ecommerce web hosting solution.

Easy Access to On Demand Products

When a customer comes to your website looking for a specific product, the last thing they want to do is perform a lengthy search to find it. If it takes them longer than five minutes, then you can rest assured they will buy the product from someone else. The best way to solve this problem is to offer a search functionality in your online store. Many commerce web hosting solutions include a search function by default. Before deciding on a specific search function, you may want to investigate the features of the search tool. It would be best to us ea search function that lets customers conduct searches based on a specific set of criteria. If you’re having trouble finding out how to integrate the search function with your website, then you may want to contact customer service. Make sure the search bar is in plain site, because the last thing you want is a search bar that needs to be searched for!

Be Flexible

If you want to sell products to the largest audience possible, then you’ll want to be flexible with your payment and shipping options. Every payment method that you don’t accept is costing you money in the long term. It is extremely important to offer alternate payment methods such as PayPal or AlertPay, as many of your customers will feel a lot more secure paying you through these programs. You may also want to add a feature that gives your customers the ability to put items on layaway. In the ecommerce market this feature is known as a wishlist. Sometimes customers may not want to purchase something at the moment, but instead would like to be reminded of the item at a later date, like a friend or family member’s birthday. Find out how to install the wishlist feature offered by your web hosting company to give your customers this convenience.

Streamline the Checkout

Many shoppers are discouraged by sites that require them to perform many tasks just to buy a product. After all, they are the one’s paying for the product or service, so they shouldn’t have to do anything more than pay right? Unfortunately, man business owners sabotage a large portion of their sales by asking too much of their customers. For example, some ecommerce sites want you to fill out surveys or confirm information before you can buy something. While this will give you added information about your target audience, it can also cause you to lose a great portion of your targeted audience. Instead of requiring your guests to register before buying, why not use the information given at checkout as their registration info. Many sites combine the checkout with the registration process to make the shopping experience quicker and more convenient for the customer.

Tips for Increasing Profits in E-commerce

Art — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:29:40 +0000

Most customers will not even considering purchasing a product or service unless the shopping process is simple. You have to remember that you are trying to sell them something, not the other way around. Therefore the experience leading up to the sale has to be flawless, because customers will not hesitate to visit another website that is easier to use if they encounter any turbulence whatsoever. Thus the enjoyment of their shopping experience will be directly decided by the design of your website. If your website is easy to navigate, then you will see success.

Make Shopping Simple

Asking too much of your customers can and will discourage them from shopping with you. Sometimes something as simple as asking for too much information at checkout can drive your customers right into the your competitor’s hands. This problem not only occurs at checkout, but also in the user registration process. In fact, it may be helpful to let shoppers buy products without registering at all! The problem is, most people don’t like providing the same information twice, and most of the time the information required at checkout is the same information required during registration. Obviously this kind of situation can become a nuisance to your customers rather quickly.

Make Your Products Visible

Making your products easy to browse through and find is a great way to increase your sales. One of the ways you can increase product visibility and site functionality is by adding a search function to your site. If you do decide to add a search function, make sure it is a comprehensive one that gives the customer the ability to search based on several criteria such as price. The goal is to make any product in your online store accessible within a few short clicks.

Be Flexible

Make sure you are not limiting yourself to a few exclusive payment options. Offering payment platforms such as PayPal or AlertPay will noticeably increase your sales quickly. Another way to give your customers more options is to add a wish list option to the shopping cart. Providing a wish list function gives your customers the opportunity to return to your site at a later date and make the purchase then.

Describe Your Products Thoroughly

Many customers rightfully shy away from websites that do not do a thorough job of describing their products. An in-depth product description conveys an image of professionalism. Make sure your description of the product is very detailed and include at least one picture on the product page. You should also make sure you denote the quantity you have in stock on the product page, this way customers do not attempt to buy an out-of-stock product unknowingly.

Make the Experience Fast and Easy

Although you have an ever-expanding amount of fancy options that you can add to your website, sometimes it is best to keep the interface simple yet effective. Many times customers can become overwhelmed by flashy designs and unnecessary functions. Remember that most of your customers are shopping online for convenience.

The Essentials of E-commerce

Art — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:12:28 +0000

You may have been proficient at getting customers to buy products from your store in town, but online business is an entirely different game. Similar to the traditional business, you must literally build your store yet take a different approach towards drawing in customers and accepting payments. The essentials of e-commerce should go a long way in helping you succeed with your online business endeavors.

Building the Site

Obviously, creating your website is the first essential step. There are several tools available to help with this process from simple web building programs to dynamic programming languages. While a piece of cake for the experienced webmaster, this could present a huge challenge for someone who lacks web design skills. In this case, you should strongly consider hiring a qualified designer to build your site. A costly investment? Perhaps, but look at it from this perspective – it will cost far less than paying the architecture and construction company to build the facility for a traditional storefront.

Collecting Payments

Whether you’re dealing in goods or services, you need a way for customers to select items and take them to checkout. To accomplish this your e-commerce site will need a shopping cart. A quality program will allow you to add different products and categories, add taxes and shipping options, accept payment in various methods and more. When it comes to shopping carts you generally have to options: you can purchase a commercial product or go with an open-source solution.

Open-source shopping carts like osCommerce are widely available and may be offered at no additional cost with your web hosting package. Such a program will provide all the features you need to set up an online storefront. The disadvantage of open-source shopping cart is that some are not easy to customize and don’t cater to inexperienced users. Additionally, stores created with open-source software tend to look very similar to one another.

Commercial solutions are generally easier to customize and offer more features. This type of shopping cart will provide the uniqueness that allows you to standout from all the other store owners on the web. The downside here is that a program like Miva Merchant carries a high-end price tag that ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars. You also need to make sure that your web host supports the software so it can be easily incorporated into your e-commerce platform.

Selecting a Payment Gateway

In addition to the shopping cart, you will require a payment gateway that enables credit card payments to be transferred to your banking account. To accomplish this task you can either sign up for a merchant account or use a third-party payment processor. Merchant accounts have setup fees, transaction fees and strict qualifications. However, the transaction fees are lower than using a service such as PayPal. In either instance, the overall cost are typically less when your monthly sales are over $1,000. Keep in mind that you will also need to secure the payment environment and protect your online transactions. The best way to ensure this security is with an encryption protocol known as SSL. You may have to purchase a certificate with a merchant account while PayPal takes care of securing your transactions.

Bringing in Customers

After creating the site and setting up the store, it’s time to generate some traffic and sell your items. There are many ways to go about this including advertising, getting your visitors to sign up for a newsletter, pay-per-click campaigns and specially crafted landing pages. Succeeding with e-commere is no easy task, but when laying a solid foundation, you can give yourself a much better chance of making continuous sales.

Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » checkout

Ecommerce Tutorials from Allied Wallet

Related posts:

Adjusting Product Catalogs and Shopping Carts for Higher eCommerce Conversions

Related posts:

ShopSite Pro Shopping Cart Review

Related posts:

Review of Volusion – Professional eCommerce Shopping Cart Solution

Related posts:

Effective E-Commerce Ideas

Related posts:

Converting Visitors to Buyers Using Standard eCommerce Features

Related posts:

Tips for Increasing Profits in E-commerce

Related posts:

The Essentials of E-commerce

Related posts: