rocknbil - 12:38 am on Dec 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

Reading these boards can produce a lot of fear. Fortunately, my clients have escaped them all so far (knock knock.) I've seen maybe five legitimate fraud attempts, so obvious it was funny.

Its one thing to be aware, and to take steps to prevent, another to allow fear to govern you - visit any "payPal hate site" for examples of hysteria.

Jump on in, here's something else to think about: every day you don't, you're missing an opportunity. :-)

Take appropriate steps in security, use common sense, use a reputable processor, you should be fine.

For those of you doing it, what are the biggest issues you've faced?

1) Getting over the "why" of cart abandonment. This will drive you bonkers if you let it.

2) I don't know how to word this . . . but #2 is figuring out how to make something that seems so obvious anyone can get it, more obvious, because people aren't getting it. I have a system in place on one site that CHECKS for stock disposition. If any item is out of stock, they **have** to get past a screen that tells them, "this is out of stock, what do you want to do?" They **have** to make a selection. But they still call to see if it's in stock. Related to #1, sometimes you're doing fine and obsess over the fact that you're missing something, and you're not.

3) Not as difficult for me, because I'm a programmer/coder, but for the "average site owner," a big one would be the security and reliability of the software interfacing with your processor. It may work, but how secure is it, and if it goes wonky, how will you know?

4) The whole "cost of doing business" thing. I have seen customers go through heaven and hell to use something like payPal, and when you stop to add up the things that go wrong and what it really costs you to save a few dollars, it winds up being more costly than "doing it right" with a full online merchant account. You can't hang a cost on "doing it right" and at least attempting to "look professional" versus a home grown, low bucks approach. By saving those few dollars, you cost yourself hundreds, or more.

5) Managing shipping. Too often people try to "keep it simple" and shoot their foot, or their developer does, in the process. Figure out an open ended method of handling this far in advance. There are API's for major shippers, and they are FREE (for now!) Set up your site, connect to them, use them, too few sites do this.

6) Understand PCI compliance and your role in it.