NPR’s MarketPlace had a segment last week about the resurgence of layaway as a payment method. Layaway – which fell out of favor as credit cards gained popularity – is a way to offer no-cost financing to your customers; the only cost to you as a vendor is the bookkeeping required to track payments. Hope you’re considering it for your store this holiday season!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Google Checkout extends free period
Looks like it will go on through the holidays into February 2008.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Getting the most out of PayPal
Some are critics of PayPal; I’m a fan. My business simply could not run without it. And with just a little effort, you can get a better deal than most:
- As soon as you start making money, sign up for the Money Market fund. It’s the link labelled “Money Market” at the bottom of the PayPal page after you log in. Instead of having your PayPal funds be dead money, they start earning interest at a rate comparable to most other Internet banks.
- The month after the first month you make $3000, apply for Merchant Rates. This reduces your transaction fees. It’s a bit tricky, though, so be careful:
- Don’t do this until you have made $3000 or more in the previous calendar month. If your application is rejected because you didn’t bother to count, you are not permitted to reapply for 30 days. They will not waive this rule, so don’t break it.
- You must actually apply to get this rate; you don’t get it automatically. To apply, look at the bottom of the PayPal page, and find the “Fees” link. Click this, and then click one of the links under “Premier/Business Account” on the row that says “Receive Payments.” At the bottom of the page is a link to an application form you must fill out.
- Don’t do this until you have made $3000 or more in the previous calendar month. If your application is rejected because you didn’t bother to count, you are not permitted to reapply for 30 days. They will not waive this rule, so don’t break it.
Don’t have a Merchant Account with PayPal yet? Click here to get one!
The Mashable gang has even more ideas for using PayPal.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Internet Retailer’s Guide to E-Commerce Technology
Internet Retailer’s Guide to E-Commerce Technology is a who’s who of firms working in the e-commerce space, from affiliate marketing to web monitoring. The format is quite interesting – it’s laid out as a directory, but each page is bisected and each firm gets only half a page (so the entry for IBM is the same size as the entry for Zoovy). Many firms provide pricing numbers, and SMBs need not be intimidated since a variety of price points are represented.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Payment Gateway Overview
The paper Online Payment Gateways Used to Facilitate E-Commerce Transactions and Improve Risk Management provides an good introduction to payment processing.
PayPal Documentation
Grumble grumble … for some reason, the links to documentation on the PayPal site are broken. Here is the correct link to the PayPal API Documentation. Thanks to Tad at PayPal for providing the new URI.
Aside: It’s a big aggravating that legitimate email from PayPal’s Merchant Technical Support group gets caught up by the GMail spam filter. Is this a misfeature designed to increase the take rate on Google Checkout?
