I’m going to go out on a limb and take an unconventional stance on the subject of telephone numbers on websites.

Simply put:

No, you can’t have my phone number.

In my early days in ecommerce, I posted (and paid for) an 800 number which I prominently displayed in the header of my website. “Call us anytime!” And let me tell you, plenty of people took me up on this offer.

In the ensuing years, I went from the toll-free number to a local number, which did reduce call volume somewhat (but not as much as you might think).

Finally, over a year ago I took the phone number off my sites altogether.

There are a few circumstances in which I’ve given access to my phone number:

1) If you dig deep enough into some of my sites, you might find my (local) phone number that goes to my “Virtual Attendant” voicemail box. (Hint: scour the privacy policy - it’s in 4pt type somewhere in the lower third). However, this is always in proximity to a company email address, along with an admonishment that emails are answered much faster than phone calls.

2) If you buy something from me, I provide the afore-mentioned “Virtually Attended” mailbox phone number - again, with an admonishment that email is a more efficient method of getting assistance. This advice is reiterated by my Virtual Voicemail Attendant.

3) If you are a current client of mine (I’m not taking any more currently), you already have my cell phone number. You may call it, but you’ll pay me for my time. And even then, I may not answer when you call, or return your call as quickly as I’ll return your email. (If/when I take on more clients, they will most likely not be given this number).

Am I drinking the “4 Hour Work Week” koolaid? Maybe a bit, but I had already reached this conclusion through my own experiences well before I was introduced to the 4HWW concepts. Here are a few of my observations from my ecommerce ventures:

• Having the 800# did not increase sales over having a local phone number.
• Having a posted phone number (whether 800 or local) did not significantly increase sales. It did, however, significantly increase customer service costs.
• The majority of people calling were not calling to place an order. They were calling for free advice, to complain about something we had no control over, or to ask questions that are clearly answered on the site.
• Customers who placed orders over the phone were more likely to return items, initiate chargebacks, or otherwise demand further time and attention — and least likely to be repeat customers. In short: they were much harder to please, and generated less revenue.

Many ecommerce consultants will tell you to put a toll-free number on every page of your site. Now, I’ll concede that it depends on the market you are in, and that for some folks that’s the correct advice. If you are selling high priced items or programs that require that kind of interaction in order to close the sale, then by all means, you should have a prominent phone number (and make sure that it gets answered).

However, for sites selling lower priced items - and I’m talking $500 or less, maybe even $1000 or less - I don’t think you need one. In fact, I think it can be detrimental to your online business, both in terms of the actual costs of manning the phone line, and in the opportunity cost of devoting resources to a negative ROI activity.

Here’s a little experiment for you to try:

1) Go to Amazon.com and locate their 800 number.

2) Can’t find it? Ok, try their “Contact Us” page.

3) Can’t find a “Contact Us” page? Hmmm. Try their “Help Department” pages link near the bottom of the page.

4) Ahh… there we go. A “Contact Us” page. Oops, we have to sign in to get the phone number…

5) Where now…? Oh, there it is… a little “phone” button. Click that…

6) And if you can squint hard enough, you can see their phone number - and that will connect you to their “automated customer service system.”

That is a far cry from the “conventional wisdom”, wouldn’t you say? Amazon is arguably the largest ecommerce site in the world, and they certainly don’t have their phone number plastered everywhere for anyone to call whenever the mood strikes them. Not only do you have to hunt for the number, but you have to be a registered customer of theirs before they’ll even give you access to their automated system.

If you are running an ecommerce site, I think it’s important to realize the business that you are in and the type of customer that you want to attract. My ecommerce sites are online stores, not extensions of an offline catalog, and I run them like online stores. That is, the transaction is done online. I market online, my customers are online, they order online, and they can contact us online.

I’ve got more I want to say on the subject, but I’ll save it for next time. In the meantime, if you have a comment about this post, give me a call and we’ll chat.

Or, if you prefer, leave your comment right here on the website. Technology is awesome. :)

Tags: come back in one year, no phone number for you

Shopping Carts, Gateways and Payment Processors: Anatomy of an Online Purchase

Years ago, an exchange of cash was all it took for a customer to make a purchase from a merchant. How things have changed! Today, most businesses offer their products or services on the Internet - clearly, they can’t be restricted to cash-on-delivery practices anymore. E-commerce has emerged as a lucrative channel for merchants to boost sales and grow their bottom lines. Many consumers have Internet access both at work and at home, and browsing an online catalog can be faster than browsing the aisles of a physical store - and customers get the added convenience of shopping 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Merchants should understand the value of operating in multiple channels. For those who haven’t yet incorporated e-commerce into their business but want to, there is much to learn. They must educate themselves on how payment processing works in order to best accommodate their online shoppers and serve the needs of their business. Though paying for an online purchase takes just a few seconds, it involves a complex chain reaction of behind-the-scenes processes.

Merchants can increase revenues and reach more customers by offering an efficient, successful e-commerce solution. This article examines what must be in place in order to complete a transaction that is both secure and offers superior customer service.

What Makes an E-Commerce Solution Possible?

In addition to the range of software and hardware that companies use to support the sale of products and services online, there are three vital components that make online shopping possible: the shopping cart, payment gateway and payment processor. Each is critical to ensuring successful implementation of e-commerce functionality.

• Shopping cart. The shopping cart acts quite literally as a virtual shopping basket. It holds the items customers select from a Web site until they are ready to proceed to the checkout stage, where their credit card information will be processed. The shopping cart:
  • Keeps track of items until they are purchased
  • Automatically totals the amount of a customer’s order, including shipping and tax
  • Allows shoppers to securely enter address and credit card information
• Payment gateway. In order to accept credit cards through the Internet, a payment gateway is critical to transport the credit card information from the shopping cart to the payment processor once the consumer clicks the “Buy” button. In most cases, this transaction happens almost instantaneously. The payment gateway receives encrypted transactions from the merchant’s shopping cart. An encrypted transaction simply means that credit card numbers can’t be read by people who are not supposed to read those numbers. Authentication is then provided and the decrypted payment information is transmitted for authorization. The payment gateway:
  • Fulfills the same function as a point-of-sale (card swipe) terminal at a physical retail location
  • Takes information provided through a shopping cart and transmits it electronically and securely to a payment processor to be routed for authorization of payment
• Payment processor. The payment processor transmits a customer’s credit card information via the Internet to the merchant bank for authorization. It also sends data back to the merchant’s bank to approve payment or the transfer of funds. Specifically, a payment processor:
  • Acts as a link from the merchant to the acquiring bank or merchant bank
  • Receives information from the merchant through the payment gateway and packages the information for delivery to the acquirer, ensuring that all necessary transactional data is present and valid
  • Later transmits information back from the acquirer for delivery to the merchant to settle the transaction

With the shopping cart, payment gateway and payment processor in place, merchants have all they need to offer convenient e-commerce solutions that deliver superior security and service. With a little research and education, merchants can find the best providers to accommodate their business needs and those of their consumers. It just makes sense - with online shopping projected to account for $116 billion, or five percent of all retail sales this year - e-commerce provides merchants an opportunity to make more money and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The tenth annual Shop.org report, The State of Retailing Online 2007, conducted by Forrester Research states that e-commerce has come of age and its profitability throughout the channel has stabilized. Eighty-three percent of respondents to the survey reported making more money and 78 percent said they were more profitable than just two years ago. The report found that apparel, accessories and footwear reached $18.3 billion in 2006 for online purchases and is expected to hit $22.1 billion by the end of 2007.

e-onlinedata (EOD) is the nation’s fastest-growing, most trusted provider of online payment solutions. Thousands of Internet, mail order, auction sellers and retail businesses - from start-ups to billion-dollar companies - are choosing EOD every month for affordable, reliable, and easy-to-use credit card processing and Authorize.net payment gateway solutions. For more information on e-onlinedata or to apply for a merchant account, please visit www.e-onlinedata.com/paymentwerx

Merchant Processing 102 is a production of e-onlinedata provided to WebSite Werx, reprinted with permission from e-onlinedata. Content is intended to provide merchants and small business owners with practical information and insight into the world of payment processing.

Please feel free to post a comment to the blog and I will do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Tags: accept credit cards, authorize.net, ecommerce merchant processing, eonlinedata, online merchant account

Thinking about adding electronic processing capabilities? There’s a lot you should know.

There are countless reasons why a business should add credit card and electronic payment processing capabilities - transactional speed, convenience, increased customer satisfaction, improved cash flow, views into sales data and more. But perhaps the most important consideration is the sheer volume of consumers who use non-cash methods as their primary form of payment.

In 2005, credit card and electronic transactions accounted for an overwhelming $3.4 trillion of total U.S. payments, according to The Nilson Report. That’s 50 percent of all transactions nationwide for that year. More recently, Visa USA estimated that nearly 60 percent of U.S. consumers aged 18 to 25 use cards as their primary payment method.

So while the reasons for adding payment processing are clear, understanding all your options and which are right for your business is far more complex. This article will give you the information you need to get started in setting up payment capabilities for your business, and it will provide some of the essential details you need to consider when selecting a provider.

How Payment Processing Works

Some form of the modern credit card has been in use since the late 19^th century, mostly as department store charge cards representing lines of credit. Things have changed and today, the step a merchant needs to take in order to accept credit card payments is to establish a merchant account with a bank or third-party payment provider. Once your account is live, the transaction process generally works as follows:

1. A customer presents a credit card for payment.

2. By swiping the credit card through an electronic point-of-sale (POS) transaction terminal, typically provided by the bank or payment provider, an electronic request is submitted to the processing network for authorization.

3. The processing network receives your electronic request and determines if the cardholder’s account is valid and if the funds are available. If so, a response called an “authorization code” is transmitted, guaranteeing your access to the funds.

4. A receipt is then printed for the customer using the POS terminal or your computer. The customer then signs the receipt and, for their part, the transaction is complete.

5. At the end of the business day, a merchant will electronically submit a final request to the processing network to “capture the funds” for all authorized transactions in a given day. This process is referred to as settlement. Once approved, a response is generated to your electronic terminal or computer.

6. From there, the funds associated with the batch you settled are deposited electronically into your business bank account, usually within 48 to 72 hours. Typically, the rate and any fees paid to your merchant account provider are deducted from your account at the end of the month.

7. At the end of the month, your merchant account provider will send a statement to you, detailing the credit card activity for the month and the associated fees you’ve been charged.

This process describes what happens in a traditional retail, or “bricks and mortar” sales environment. For Internet and e-commerce merchants, the set-up process requires a few additional steps.

Retail Terminals vs. e-Commerce Processing

Because they do not have access to the purchaser’s physical card, Internet and e-commerce merchants rely on specialized software that allows them to capture and process credit card information on their Web sites instead of through a POS terminal. There are two basic software programs needed to enable online commerce:

• Shopping Cart: A secure series of scripts (or coding) that keep track of items a visitor chooses to buy from a site until they proceed to checkout. On the checkout screen, the shopping cart collects the credit card number, billing address, authorization number and expiration date.
• Payment Gateway: When the online shopper is ready to finalize the transaction, the information collected in the shopping cart is transferred to a payment gateway for authorization. It is the equivalent of a physical POS terminal used in a retail setting.

Another situation where a purchaser’s card is not physically present happens with MOTO or Mail Order and Telephone Order. Here, touch-tone processing or an automated response unit (ARU) allows for credit card authorization and processing over the telephone. This type of processing does not require a shopping cart or payment gateway.

Pricing Basics

Now that you know how processing works and what the available options are, you’re probably wondering how much all this will cost. While service fees and rates vary from provider to provider, “bundled” pricing is the most common type of agreement used in determining which per-transaction rate applies to which type of merchant. In the simplest terms, pricing is based on risk: the higher the risk involved in the transaction, the higher the rate the merchant will have to pay:

• Qualified Rate applies primarily to card-present or traditional card-swipe (not key-entered) transactions. This is the lowest possible rate a merchant will incur when accepting a credit card. Telephone and e-commerce transactions cannot receive the qualified rate because they are unable to swipe a customer’s card.
• Mid-Qualified, or partially qualified rate, is the percentage a merchant will be charged if they accept a credit card that does not qualify for the lowest rate. This may happen if a consumer credit card is keyed into a credit card terminal, virtual terminal (online) or via a shopping cart. This is the best rate that a telephone or e-commerce business can receive.
• Non-Qualified is the highest percentage rate a merchant can be charged and applies to those transactions posing the greatest amount of risk. This rate would apply if a special kind of credit card is used like a rewards card or business card or if address verification is not performed, or a merchant does not settle its daily batch within the allotted time.

Again, these rates are used to determine the cost to the merchant on a per-transaction basis. There are additional costs associated with payment processing, including start- up fees, equipment costs, chargeback fees and more. Stay tuned for the next e-newsletter installment for additional processing tips and useful information for merchants and business owners.

e-onlinedata (EOD) is the nation’s fastest-growing, most trusted provider of online payment solutions. Thousands of Internet, mail order, auction sellers and retail businesses - from start-ups to billion-dollar companies - are choosing EOD every month for affordable, reliable, and easy-to-use credit card processing and Authorize.Net payment gateway solutions. For more information on e-onlinedata or to apply for a merchant account, please visit www.e-onlinedata.com/paymentwerx

Merchant Processing 101 is a production of e-onlinedata provided to WebSite Werx, reprinted with permission from e-onlinedata. Content is intended to provide merchants and small business owners with practical information and insight into the world of payment processing.

Questions? Please feel free to post a comment to the blog and I will do my best to answer them.

Tags: accepting credit cards, eonlinedata, merchant accounts, online merchant processing, payment gateway

I admit it - I’ve been slow to embrace email marketing on my ecommerce sites. It has literally taken me years to get around to implementing it on my own sites (even though I have helped many clients do it successfully). This has been a huge mistake, and one I’ve been actively working on remedying.

Before I get into the different methods and tactics I’ve used (including some of the tests I’ve performed and their results), I’d like to start at the beginning:

What is email marketing? And why should anyone bother?

Here’s the definition that I believe answers both the what and the why at once:

Email marketing is an avenue for an ongoing relationship between you and your prospects and customers.

Once all of your efforts, resources, time, effort, and advertising dollars have finally brought a visitor to your site, one of two things usually happens:

1. They browse and end up buying, or
2. They leave and never return.

If in doubt, check your website logs - you’ll see the stark reality of what I’ve just said . It is the very rare visitor that comes back once they’ve clicked the back button or the little red ‘X‘.

Even among those who buy from you, how many make their way back to purchase again?

By implementing an ongoing email marketing system with your site, you add a third option:

3. They don’t purchase, but they do give you permission to contact them in the future.

What is your purchase conversion rate? 2%? 3%? Even 5%? That means 95 or more out of 100 visitors are not buying from you. If you don’t have a way (and permission!) to contact them again, those 95+ visitors are gone for good. They aren’t customers.

They aren’t even prospects!

They are, at best, a ‘hit’ in your log. (At worst, they cost you money by clicking on your ad, and you now have no way to recover that expense).

With permission to contact them again, you have an opportunity to establish and grow a relationship with your prospects, converting some of them to customers.

And for those who do buy from you, I’m sure you know that the first sale is the hardest (and most expensive) sale to make. Permission-based email communication with previous buyers provides you with an opportunity to maintain “top of mind” awareness with your customers, and solidifying you as the provider-of-choice whenever they need the product or service you provide.

In upcoming installments I’ll talk about:

• just how easy it is to get your own email marketing engine going;
• results from my own testing on live ecommerce stores;
• common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid;
• ways to increase sign-ups to your email list; and
• strategies for effectively communicating with your list.

If you have a question about list building or email marketing for ecommerce stores, please leave a comment and let me know.

If you’re not building a list of opt-ins (prospects & customers who have given you permission to contact them), why not?

What is the #1 thing holding you back?

Tags: email marketing, list building, opt ins, permission marketing

Update: Since writing this post the course (and its website, sadly) have been taken down by the owner. I don’t have a suitable replacement at this time. However, if you are interested in learning how to set up and optimize your own blog, I recommend the following step-by-step DVD as an excellent resource:
WordPress Setup & Optimization Course

If you have a blog, or want to have a blog, you’ll definitely want to check this out:

Targeted Blog Traffic Course from James Alenteal [link removed: course sold out]

That is not an affiliate link - it’s a straight-up recommendation for a top-notch course on how to bring more readers - targeted, receptive readers - to your blog.

There’s a special on for the next 48 hours (which you can read about on James’ blog), and then the price goes up. But to be honest, even after the price goes up, I think he’s priced it too low! Also, he’s only selling 50 copies total, so that is the real reason you’ll want to move on this quickly - my guess is the course gets sold out before the price goes up.

You can read all about his course (and see what I had to say about it) here:

[update: course sold out]

Tags: blog traffic, James Alenteal, recommended resources

I’d like to take just a brief moment and acknowledge some of the sites that have linked to my blog:

• WAHM Business Tips & Advice Blog Carnival
• Make Money And How To Monetize Your Blog
• Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship #1
• Carnival of Online Income - November 26, 2007
• November 30, 2007 edition of living a real life.
• Making Money Online - Edition 12
• Blog Carnival
• Carnival of Small Business Issues - Edition #27
• Carnival of Online Income - November 19, 2007
• Blog Me Cash: Blog Carnival 11

Thanks for the links, everyone! (And to those reading this entry, there are some really good articles and resources to peruse in the above list - check them out if you get a chance).

Tags: blog carnivals, incoming links, reciprocation, thank you

Rich Schefren (my business coach) has finally released Part II of his “Attention Age Doctrine“.  It’s free, and Rich provides the very best free information I’ve ever seen.  Here’s the link to get it now:

http://www.websitewerx.com/likes/doctrine

This has my highest recommendation and endorsement - if you’re still reading this, STOP and go get the Doctrine!

Tags: attention age doctrine, rich schefren

For a good part of one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, the Yahoo Stores system was reportedly down, causing shoppers and merchants alike a great deal of frustration. Check out this snapshot from the Yahoo Merchant Services system log:

(Source: http://updates.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/)

Looking at their timeline, it took over 24 hours for them to finally say that the issue had been resolved - ouch!!

CNBC has a full story here on this issue that has generated quite a bit of angst among a certain segment online businesses (and another article here). Sounds like there are a *lot* of unhappy merchants this morning. Here’s a quote from a merchant that had SIX online stores that were down yesterday: “All of a sudden, the bedrock of our company has been replaced with quicksand. I guess its time to diversify our merchant platform.” (Tom DePrato, quoted in the CNBC story).

I’m not one of those unhappy merchants this morning, though…

My ecommerce software and hosting combination is rock-solid, and all of my online stores worked flawlessly as they processed more orders yesterday than any other day of the year. It’s been rock-solid each and every year, and I must admit I never gave it much thought — until I heard about the pain many of my fellow online merchants have been experiencing with other solutions.

So, I’d just like to take this opportunity to say…

“Thank You, ShopSite and Lexiconn!!”

Tags: cyber monday, ecommerce hosting, ecommerce software

When I’m out and about, trying to complete my holiday shopping, it’s easy to remember how quickly I’m running out of time to get it all done. The traffic, the crowds, the incredible (and time-sensitive) sales all help to reinforce my sense of urgency. However, I find that when I’m at home, at my computer, shopping online, the sense of urgency tends to fade and take a back seat, giving me a false sense of “having plenty of time” to get everything done.

As an online store owner, though, I want to remind my visitors of the proximity of the holiday, and do what I can to recreate a similar sense of urgency. It’s even more important online than in the “offline” world - the choice of online stores is nearly infinite in comparison to the brick-and-mortar choices within a reasonable driving distance. Also, when you factor in shipping times, it’s even more important for the customer to buy now rather than waiting. If they’ve made it to my website, it is imperative that I do everything I can to make the sale before they are off to the next site.

A subtle, but powerful, way to increase the sense of urgency to buy now is to put a countdown timer on your site. Here is a snapshot of the timer that I’ve put on all my ecommerce sites (and even my eBay listings):

It’s a flash-based timer that continually counts down the time left until Christmas day. I used a similar timer on the run-up to Halloween, and saw a significant increase in sales. It’s pleasant to look at, non intrusive, and yet reinforces the idea (through the continual ticking off of the hours, minutes and seconds left) that time is running out.

If you’d like this timer to put on your own site, it’s free! I created the timer myself, so I’m giving it away to my subscribers. Subscribers to this blog will get free access to the timer, all necessary files to set it up, and instructions. An email will be going out later today to current subscribers with the link. (Not a subscriber? It’s easy - fill in your name and email in the form at the upper right, and be sure to “confirm” when you receive the confirmation email. The link will then be emailed to you).

Happy Holidays!

Tags: black friday, ecommerce, free countdown timer, holiday countdown, holiday sales, marketing

ShopSite just released the latest major upgrade for their award-winning ecommerce software - ShopSite version 9.0. I’ve been beta testing it for a while and it is a great update; I’m using several of the new features on my ecommerce sites. I highly recommend getting this upgrade as soon as possible (either by asking your hosting company or by going to them direct).

Below is the press release that has the details. I’ll be posting more soon about specific features that I’m using and how they are benefiting my business.