Forum Moderators: buckworks
I'm taking my first steps into the world of eCommerce, and need a little advise if possible, thanks.
I have a well established site that displays photos that people upload. Now I want to give my visitors the option of selling what they upload, where i take a % of the sale.
I do not expect a great deal of business for the first few months, a few sales a month would be great, but it may be a lot more than that.
If it was just a couple of sales in the first month, that would be around £50 - £100.
The big question is do i need a Merchant Account to begin with or would WorldPay suffice?
and if sales do take off, and i do decide to open a merchant account (with possibly Barclays), is there a termination cost with Worldpay? I'd be using them as the merchant to start with.
Another question is - would PayPal be an option? I've read that buyers would have to register first (business is UK) which would be unacceptable and put a lot of customers off.
Any advise would be appreciated
Thank you
Several things you will need to invest in
1-Secure Certificate need a dedicated or shared host with permissions
2- Good secure shopping cart I will recommend cart 32 here can process paypal google checkout in US only and all major credit cards
3- merchant account
you can go paypal or the other but if you feel this is gonna be a working thing and really feel it will work set it up right the first time so it really looks professional, people feel safe and you aren't changing things in a couple months because it did better than expected.
All I know cost on is the cart 350.00 us you will have to check on all the others since it is in another country...Good luck when you get it all set up pm me to take a look ok..
for the numbers you are talking i would look at paypal, there are various options, buy now, shopping cart and so on.
setting up a proper merchant account is expensive and without a track record difficult.
the disadvantage with paypal is that not everyone can pay by it seeminly some countries are excluded, i suspect however that any of your buyers will be from acceptable countries!
topr8
disagree all you want to putting all your eggs in one basket is not a good move I would spend the money to set it up right the first time...
setting up a merchant account is not difficult at all just provide correct information. Have to start somewere sometime so might as well do it now not later.
reason I say this happend to me got to large for the cart we were using, hosting, paypal canceled account for something I still don't understand so what i am telling him I tell him from experience...
and u
[edited by: Patrick_Taylor at 10:42 pm (utc) on Mar. 28, 2007]
worldpay probably won't let you use their worlddirect account for this as you're taking payments for goods belonging to other people - it's all about refunds and the risk of chargebacks ....
if you get a merchant account from a bank you can use worldpay's bankdirect service, or one of several other payment systems
beware that you'll probably get more poor advice here than good advice
the OP stated they were just starting out in ecommerce, personally i've always found that the minimum spend is a good idea when getting your feet wet for the first time.
i suggested paypal because it is relatively easy to set up and there is no additional costs (such as ssl and gateway), you can also charge in various currencies.
if you are based in the uk i'd suggest talking to the people you bank with already [the truth is rates do vary but on low volumes it doesn't make a huge difference] - for me that was Barclays, however i'd already had a merchant processing account with them for a b&m store for over 20 years and it was straightforward, although i needed to open a new and seperate account for the web.
at the time i opened it, you needed a minimum of 20kpounds turnover a year for them to accept multiple currencies - my experience is that people want to pay in their own currency (especially if from the states) - this may well have changed by now.
but with a merchant account you also need a gateway and will be locked in by contract if you don't like it.
i have used the various offering from paypal over the last couple of years for various projects and have not had any real problems.
regarding a shopping cart the jury is out between buying an off the shelf solution or developing your own, there are countless threads on WebmasterWorld regarding that issue and i think in the end it is down to personal choice, there are dis/advantages to both methods.
no offence but that's possibly the worst piece of advice anyone can ever give on this forum
cutting costs / cutting corners / doing everything on the cheap just doesn't work - it's the single biggest reason for failure of ecommerce businesses
DIY websites are often poorly designed, poorly structured, poorly optimised, confusing for shoppers, difficult for shoppers to buy from - likewise getting the wrong shopping cart or the wrong payment system
it all leads to poor traffic levels, lack of sales and ultimately, failure
getting the setup right in the first place is essential for success
get it wrong and you'll be out of business and out of pocket
if it means paying out a bit more to begin with, pay it
if you "can't afford" to pay for it, then you need to rethink
it doesn't cost much to do things properly and it's easy enough for most people to borrow the money to do it - you just need to think more carefully about your business plans and expected profits - and if you still "can't afford" to invest in your business, then better to give up than waste time, effort and money on an almost certain failure
Do it right the first time might not get that secound chance as I did....
