How to: Create the Perfect Upsell

A complete shopping cart software review can be almost as critical to the success of your online business as the business you choose. Think of online shopping cart software as the "location, location, location" aspect of an offline business. Choose the wrong location and your offline business is doomed. Choose the wrong shopping cart software and you're likely to suffer a similar fate.


The reality is that you're about to make a business decision that extends well beyond your current business, it literally dictates how big your business can grow and how profitable your ecommerce business will become. The average online shopping cart software package will typically focus on "transactions". In other words, the ecommerce software focuses its attention on getting the customer to process the purchase transaction as quickly as possible. And many rookie online marketers will think they've accomplished a great deal when they get their customer through the checkout process before they change their mind.

This is a huge mistake, but a common ailment.

It's almost as if the online merchant is so insecure in their product offering that getting a customer to actually complete the purchase is a monumental achievement. But compare this to how top offline marketers do it. Think of retail stores like Target and you'll quickly discover a different model. When you shop at Target and place a shirt in your cart, you would find it quite strange to have a clerk approach and guide you to the checkout counter.

Target wants you to linger, they want you to look around awhile and place more items in your cart. And even when you're waiting to pay, they surround you with more items to buy i.e. candy, magazines, trinkets etc. Target wants to sell you every last item you'll possibly buy, going so far as to sell you something more on the receipt from the original purchase. This is smart marketing and a sales model you should strive to emulate!

When you review your shopping cart software, forget about looking at how quickly you can push your customer out the door with one item. Look for the ecommerce system that helps you sell more, helps you earn more revenue per customer and helps you easily establish a full sales and "up sell" process..

This one aspect of online marketing can mark the difference between a profit and a loss. Sell to the end, sell in the middle, sell as they're leaving...but never push your customer out the proverbial door and never base your shopping cart software solution on how fast it can stop your customer from buying more from you.

Best Wishes,

Wendy

Read my eCommerce Reviews at:
http://www.ScamDetective.com

1ShoppingCart Down... Again!

Is it just me, or is having an eCommerce Shopping Cart with impeccable Up-time of grave importance? It is impossible to run your business adequately, or at all really, without your eCommerce host Servers being Up and running. Yet again, 1ShoppingCart is down, and is leaving many businesses without the tools and information critical to run their business. This seems to happen way too often with 1SC!


Here is the message when visiting 1ShoppingCart:

Database Error: Unable to connect to your database. Your database appears to be turned off or the database connection settings in your config file are not correct. Please contact your hosting provider if the problem persists.

Best Wishes,

Wendy

Read my eCommerce Reviews at:
http://www.ScamDetective.com

The Importance of PCI Compliance and Your Shopping Cart Solution

When looking into building an eCommerce website along with an eCommerce Shopping Cart solution, it is extremely important you take in account PCI Compliance. PCI Compliance is Government Regulations/Laws for Credit Card Processing on the internet to ensure Security for your Customers who are buying products/services from your website. In some states these regulations are mandated, and if they are not followed, you can be penalized up to $10,000 for every occurrence of identity theft/fraud which happens as a result of not following specific PCI Compliance laws. To ensure your site is in fact PCI Compliant, make sure you check with your current eCommerce Shopping Cart Solution, and ask if they are up to the current PCI Compliance Regulations.


When speaking to the Company who is hosting the back-end to your site it is also important to bring up the PCI Compliance Standards which are scheduled to change July 1, 2010. If your Shopping Cart Provider is unaware of the changes which are happening on this date, it probably means they do not plan on staying up with the new regulations that have been set forth. If this is the case, this means the same as if you are not PCI Compliant whatsoever, and you once again are liable up to $10,000 per fraudulent charge.

Now, I don’t know about you, but $10,000 to me is A LOT of money. If you are a small-to-medium sized business this can be crippling to your business, especially if there are several identity thefts from your website. On the bright side, if you are fully PCI Compliant then the government, or Credit Card Company, is now responsible for the charges, and you have absolutely zilch to be worried about. Having Peace-of-Mind when selling online is crucial to keeping your sanity in this insane eCommerce world. Not having to worry about losing your business to identity theft can be a very large burden off of your shoulders, and can help you focus on your sales (which we all know is the real key to success when selling any sort of product/service (online or offline).

One last thing to take into account when having your eCommerce website built… make sure you go with a Professional Shopping Cart Solution. Many people these days are having their shopping carts built by their webmaster which can end in a horrific fashion. Not only are you not going to be up-to-speed with current Security Standards, but you’re losing out on the Marketing Features as well. Selling online is more than just getting a customer through your site as quickly as possible to gain 1 sale. It is about gaining the most revenue possible for that sale, and this can be done with Upsells/Crosssells/Downsells, Autoresponders, etc. Why not sell as much to a customer as you possibly can?

All in all, look for a Professional Shopping Cart Provider which best suits your needs. One that will have the most up-to-date PCI Compliance and Security for your eCommerce website, and also one that will gain you as much revenue per customer as possible.

Read my eCommerce Reviews at:
http://www.ScamDetective.com

A Premium Web Cart System vs. a Standard Web Cart

A premium web cart versus a standard web cart, which way should you go with your ecommerce business?

How you make this decision can literally decide the short term and long term future of your online business. This decision extends far beyond the simple layout of your website, it actually affects your entire marketing and sales strategy.

So let's compare the basic concepts of a premium web cart and contrast these virtues to a standard web cart.

Standard Web Cart - Just The Basics

When people first decide to get an online business up and running, they're often thinking about 1 thing and 1 thing only: how do I sell my widget and collect the payment?

But along with the excitement of the new business prospect, there's the accompanying fear that goes along with any new start up. Fear of failure, fear of losing money, etc. So at this point in the decision tree, the new online merchant starts looking for online shopping cart software that will get the basic job done at the lowest cost possible.

Free shopping cart software suddenly looks like the obvious choice and for some online businesses it will be the best choice hands down but for others it can be a costly mistake they never recover from.

Standard Web Cart - Positive Attributes

Cost - Free shopping cart software pricing is really hard to beat.
Simplicity - Since there are few options with free software it's usually easy to set up.
Availability - All you need to do is download it and get started.
Large User Base - This is a double edged sword but at least you know the "good and the bad" of the system based on actual usage of others.

But as the old saying goes; "there's no free lunch in America".

Standard Web Cart - Negative Attributes of Free Shopping Cart Software.

Flexibility - What you see is what you get...literally. If you want something different then you need to hire a professional programmer to make the changes for you.
Support - The software is free but the support will cost real money. There are usually large forums of people that will help answer your questions but it is a "forum" format with no guarantee that anyone will respond to your question or in what time frame the answer will be forthcoming. So if you have a pressing question, you'll need to pay one of the professional support companies to answer you questions.
Installation - For the technically proficient, this is usually not an issue. But if you're not comfortable with FTP, setting "permissions" or linking MySQL databases, then you will need to hire a professional to assist you with the installation of the free shopping cart software before it'll actually do anything.
Large User Base - Do you really want your business looking and acting like thousands of others out there?
PCI Compliance - Just as the desktop auto responder programs fell by the wayside 8 years ago, these stand alone programs are not PCI Compliant and with the crackdown of the credit card companies on the rise, once your business hits their "radar screen", you're liable for up to $10,000 per violation.
Looking Small - Last but not least, you spend a lot of time and effort to look like a "polished" business with a positive web presence. But as soon as your customer adds their product selection to the shopping cart, the illusion is broken and you've just screamed out "Beginner, Amateur, Small" in one action. It's the same as using PayPal as a payment processor because they're free...it's the tell tale sign of a beginner business.

Premium Web Cart - Advanced Shopping Cart Software Solutions

This is where you really need to decide if you're ready to be in business or if you're really looking for a part-time hobby. Because a hobby business is well suited for free software as you're not really expecting to grow the business nor are you expecting to make a full time living from the venture.

But if you're trying to create a real business, then you need to look and act like a real business coming out of the gate. Think about how an offline business is started; lets take a pizza restaurant for example.

The business owner opens their pizza restaurant in a location and building that is well suited to support the business long term and for profitable success. The reality is that they lose money up front as they incur the expenses to pay rent, outfit the restaurant with tables, chairs, decorating etc.

They do this because they know that trying to start their business in the cheapest location and the cheapest building is going to result in very few customers.

Starting an offline business without a proper location and appropriate outfitting is not a "stepping stone" to success, it's a path to assured failure. And an online business is really no different.

So let's look at the positive and negative attributes of using a "premium web cart" for your business.

Premium Web Cart - Negative Attributes:

Cost - It's not free to start and will never be free. You will pay for the service for the life of your business just as you pay for electricity, internet service, and cable TV month after month. Cost is the single negative associated with a premium web cart.

Premium Web Cart - Positive Attributes:

Increased Revenue Per Customer - A premium web cart will typically have multiple up sell mechanisms that effectively get your customers to buy more from you per transaction. Think about McDonalds and "would you like fries with that"...it works very well and is something all online merchants should be doing every day.
Affiliate Systems - Having an army of affiliates selling your products is the greatest sales force known to modern man. You pay them nothing until they create a sale and put cash in your pocket. An online business without an affiliate program is selling only a small percentage of its capability.
Ease of Use - Extensive video tutorials and top rated customer support. When you need help, you now have a true expert to help you.
Upgrades and Installation - All automatic and included.
Complete Systems - Creating a system in a piece meal fashion means you will have multiple programs all running independently of each other. A premium web cart solution will place all your systems under one umbrella.
Multiple Websites - It's very likely that you'll have more than 1 website / revenue stream so you'll want a system that allows for this expansion. Not many systems will allow this but the best ones will.
PCI Compliance - Don't risk your money and possibly even your business. At $10,000 per incident, all it takes is 10 stolen credit cards from your system and you could have a $100,000 bill in the mail.

Summary

If you want people to treat and respect your business like it's a real business then you need to treat your customers as they expect to be treated by a real business. You never see a name brand business using free shopping cart software or PayPal as their primary payment processor and neither should you. You can find a premium web cart solution for about $30 - $40 so invest the $1 per day and look like a real business. Your online business success will depend upon it.

A premium web cart or a standard web cart, which fork in the road will you follow? How you answer this question is likely to determine the long term fate of your ecommerce business. Discover how "free shopping cart software" can cost you more than just lost sales, it can easily cost you a lot more than you possibly imagined!

Best Wishes,

Wendy

P.S. To check out my reviews of many eCommerce Tools... please visit my site: www.ScamDetective.com

Hello Everyone

Hi all,


I just wanted to take this time to introduce myself to the blogging world. I am relatively new to the whole blogging scene, but I have been both using and reviewing eCommerce Solutions for quite some time now. On this blog, I plan on helping folks with their decision on what is the best eCommerce Platform for their specific needs. I really hope this information is useful to y'all...

Best Wishes,

Wendy

P.S. You can also see my reviews on many different eCommerce Tools at: www.ScamDetective.com.