2Checkout is supported by an ever-growing list of third-party shopping carts.

Traditional shopping carts, like X-Cart and ClickCartPro, have supported 2CO for many years now. Others, like Summer Cart and ViArt, are more recent additions. 2CO is also supported by hosted shopping carts like 3DCart and hosted invoicing systems like FreshBooks.

We’re proud to recommend these carts and services and all of the others we’ve reviewed and confirmed for compatibility. You can see our entire recommended cart list, organized by category (PHP, ASP, Hosted Services, etc.), here. There’s a solution for almost every need and we’re adding more all the time, so check back frequently.

If you have developed a 2CO-compatible shopping cart and would like to have it included in our recommendations, please email us directly at integration@2co.com and we’ll be happy to provide all the information you need to confirm compatiblity.

Vic Cleary and Geno Arce from 2Checkout will be featured speakers at the Internet Dating Conference (iDate) in Beverly Hills, California Friday, June 26.

Cleary and Arce will provide internet dating executives and entrepreneurs a product demonstration of 2Checkout’s features and benefits explaining why 2CO is an excellent value for businesses competing in the online dating space.

iDate, the largest Internet Dating and Social Networking business management conference of its kind, is held twice in the U.S. and at least once internationally each year. Event topics include internet dating business strategies, payments, mobile technologies and marketing, social networks, and a number of legal and consumer safety issues.

In addition to Friday’s product demonstration, 2Checkout will also be compared to a variety of e-commerce options used by online dating companies in a discussion led by Courtland Brooks’ Director of Strategy, Glenn Millar at 9:00 a.m. the same day, titled “Removing the Veil: Payment Processor Rates and Options for Dating Companies”. Attendees interested in learning more can also speak to a 2Checkout representative at the company’s booth during the event’s Expo starting Thursday, June 24.

We recently talked about building a community as a means of developing relationships with your customers. One positive result of having a strong community is the development of trust between you and your customers. With understandable fears of identity theft, establishing this trust can go a long way in making that initial sale.

Two other ways to gain the trust of potential customers is having a clear guarantee and a return policy. Both of these tell your customers that you are willing to stand behind your product. Making sure that your customers know your refund policy before purchasing directly reduces the number of chargebacks you will receive.

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Acculynk’s unique PIN Debit payment method, PaySecure — utilized by 2Checkout — expanded its portfolio of participating networks yesterday with the addition of Credit Union 24 (CU24), the country’s largest credit union-owned ATM and point-of-sale network.

CU24 makes the fourth network to pilot the new system. PaySecure is unique to the business enabling shoppers to safely use their PIN debit cards for online purchases by entering their PIN into a pop-up, graphical, and scrambling keypad without leaving 2Checkout’s purchase routine.

Even though the project is still in its infancy, we anticipate the continued addition of large networks such as CU24 will boost the number of cardholders having access to the system, resulting in a steady increase in PIN Debit purchases throughout the year.

CU24 joins ACCEL/Exchange, PULSE, and NYCE as participating EFT networks. We will periodically provide additional updates as PaySecure’s network of customers continues to expand.

Great news! Small business owner confidence is on the rise, and by no small margin.

According to a recent blog published by Small Business Trends, “the Small Business Optimism Index shot up by almost 6 points, to its highest level so far in 2009.”

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has been the nation’s gauge for small business owner optimism for years and even though overall optimism is still at historic lows, a six-point jump is a considerable increase.

At the least, the increase raises some eyebrows. If the boost in confidence is for real and not just a temporary spike, then small business owner confidence has risen above December 2008 levels and close to marks recorded in October and November. Most impressively, a significant one-month increase the size of April’s spike over March has not been experienced in well over five years. Of course, disclaimers are always in order, as a jump in confidence could very well be temporary, but regaining positive ground in times of economic uncertainty is always enlightening for small businesses, especially those who have invested in technology and positioned themselves to sell online.

The big question remains — what does this increase mean for a small online business like yours? If the indicators are correct, it means it is time to increase inventory, fine tune your advertising campaigns and prepare your site for an increase in sales from the “pent up demand” consumers are feeling from buying less and hoarding trillions of dollars in personal savings accounts that are yielding dismal returns.

The tide could very well be turning. It’s never too early to fine tune your online business to ensure you are ready to capture the business generated from a significant increase in confidence.