Spotlight Product: iCop

iCopiCop

Founded in 1999, the International Council of Online Professionals (iCop™) was a premier organization for online business owners.

The iCop™ mission is to provide an organization for those online business owners who are truly concerned with establishing the highest business practices on the Web!

iCop™ sets the industry standard for online business! For business ethics! For consumer confidence! For home based business! iCop™ is a professional membership site for accredited online businesses ONLY.

The iCop™ Membership Seal is proudly displayed on web sites around the world whose owners adhere to the highest standards of business ethics as espoused by our organization.

The organization and its members have nearly a decade of impeccable reputation for business ethics, and … We will continue to set the standards for business ethics in online business, with our top rated members!

The iCop™ Seal Builds Consumer Confidence! Get the iCop™ Seal of Accreditation for YOUR online business. Turn your “almost” customers into satisfied buyers with your iCop™ Membership!

Click here to visit i-Cop.org

Click here to apply to be a 2CO Spotlight.

Refund vs. Chargeback

What is the difference between a refund and a chargeback? They both give the customer their money back, but there are substantial differences between the two. A chargeback is is a forced refund from a bank/credit card provider. Once a chargeback is issued, there is no way to refund a customer.

Probably the greatest difference is that when a bank/credit card provider intervenes on behalf of their customer, they charge the merchant a fee.  A refund, on the other hand is between you and your customer with no banking fees to pay.  Additionally, a refund is an immediate resolution to a customer’s needs. In many cases a customer will be satisfied with a credit toward a future purchase or a replacement for the item rather than a refund.

Too many chargebacks will eventually get a merchant account closed. In the case of 2Checkout, this means that our merchant account is the one at risk. To protect our merchant account standing, we do everything we can to lower the number of chargebacks we receive . Even though the bank/credit card provider intervenes, you still have the option to challence the chargeback. Since the process involved in challenging a chargeback can be quite time consuming and complicated, you may want to contact a customer about the chargeback to resolve any issues and potentially get the chargeback reversed.

As you see a refund allows you the opportunity to communicate with your customer, to come to a resolution, and to avoid additional banking fees.  This is one of the reasons why it is a smart business decision to include a clear refund policy on your website.

PIN Debit Service Provider Expands Network of Customers

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.

Pricing Strategy - Part 2

The Case Against Lower Prices -

In times of increased competition in a finite market, particularly when spending has been reduced, the question of how to increase sales arises. Economics and marketing provide us with many theories and strategies on how to make money - it is after all the basis of both areas of study.

There are different pricing models at odds here. One will tell you to offer the lowest price within your margins. This can result in higher short-term sales. That is, until your competition offers a lower price. What happens long-term with lowering prices? Does quality of the product/service lower as well? How about Customer Service and back end processes? If you eventually make only enough to just get by what parts of your business are you willing to sacrifice? Not to mention what happens when the economy stabilizes, how will your customers react when you start to increase your prices?

Continue reading…

Spotlight Supplier: SelfServeDogWash.com

SelfServeDogWash.comSelfServeDogWash.com

SelfServeDogWash.com was originally started to provide information and consulting for those starting dog-wash businesses, and to promote a book written by Dave Grass titled, Start Your Own Self-Serve Dog Wash (Dave is also the author of Start Your Own Professional Pet-Sitting Service, and other books). It has since grown into a much larger site offering a wide selection of bathing tubs and other equipment and supplies used for grooming dogs. This growth largely evolved out of inquiries by site visitors and readers of the book regarding such items, and the fact that there is a lot of poor-quality merchandise and information in the pet-product industry–which you won’t find at SelfServeDogWash.com!

The site not only serves those starting or already operating dog-wash, grooming, and other pet-related businesses and organizations, but also those who want tubs, accessories, and advice for home installations. It features a popular message board, information on various relevant topics, and individual assistance. Besides being dedicated to personalized customer service, SelfServeDogWash.com carries only good products made by good companies at good prices.

Click here to visit SelfServeDogWash.com

Click here to apply to be a 2CO Spotlight.

Consistent Pricing and Service Crucial for Small Businesses

For all you business owners out there relying on contracted help to run your businesses – which is pretty much all of you – it’s time to reevaluate the quality of your partnerships to ensure you are getting the most bang for your buck.

In times of economic uncertainty, the small business owner is often stuck in a position where they are at the mercy of a number of different businesses. Suppliers, distributers, and banks all need paid for their services. For folks selling online, web hosts, ISPs, and affiliates also weigh down the expense column.

As part of effectively running a small business, budgeting for the costs associated with “doing business” is a crucial job of its own that robs precious time from what most managers consider the most crucial business task — marketing and selling their products. So when one of your suppliers or business partners changes distribution standards or increases pricing, balancing costs versus revenue is an immediate challenge.

Within the vast e-commerce marketplace, we are proud of what we have accomplished. 2Checkout prides itself on the fact that in nearly 10 years of doing business, we have never increased our fees, nor cannibalized our service offering to make ends meet.

Businesses that opened 2Checkout accounts in February of 2000 pay the same fees today that attracted them to our e-commerce service nearly a decade ago and continue to benefit from the upgrades we make to our system. We have never added scaled fee structures or tacked on additional costs for the businesses enjoying increased sales and as a result are more reliant on the labor intensive portions of our service — such as our 24/7 customer care center and screening orders for fraud. Growth and the increase in responsibility for appropriately handling your increase in online sales, comes with the territory of being a service-centric business. And when your business succeeds, we are more than happy to grow to meet your needs and demands. That’s our promise.

You know the old adage — you get what you pay for! It’s very true. It’s important to note it doesn’t mean you need to expect an increase in fees to coincide with each year’s cost-of-living increase or be forced to manage more of the responsibilities associated with your online sales. In the world of business, you can compete on price or you can compete on service. Very rarely can you find a business that can do both. We are proud of the fact we have remained a consistent provider of quality e-commerce services at a steady price for nearly a decade. Dependability is a good quality in a friend, but crucial in a partner for your business!

Tutorial: Charging Shipping by Order Weight

The new Shipping Wizard in the Vendors Administration Area (VA) provides suppliers with more options for setting up shipping charges. One of these options is the ability to charge shipping based on the order weight. When shipping charges are based on order weight, suppliers may set charges based on exact order weight, or they may set charges based on weight ranges. This tutorial will explain how to create a shipping method in your account that will be based on the order weight.

Continue reading…

Small Business Confidence is Up!

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.

Spotlight Product: The Extractigator

The ExtractigatorThe Extractigator

This heavy-duty tree and weed puller makes removing unwanted and invasive plants such as buckthorn, broom, thistles, and nuisance trees easier. The Extractigator is uniquely designed to uproot unwanted plants, by using your weight, NOT your strength.

Click here to visit Extractigator.com

Click here to apply to be a 2CO Spotlight.

2Checkout’s Patricia Hull to Speak at Windy City Summit

2Checkout.com is proud to announce that one of its treasury specialists and financial institution liaisons, Patricia Hull, will be a featured speaker at the 23rd Annual Windy City Summit, May 20-22, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

The Windy City Summit features over 100 treasury management seminars for financial executives and treasury managers. This year’s session tracks cover banking, benefits and risk management, corporate financial and capital structure, fraud and compliance, collections, and payments, to name a few.

Hull will be speaking with Lynda Umbreit from KeyBank Thursday, May 21 at 3:55pm, in a session titled Creating Efficiencies Through Outsourcing the Payables Function. The session will focus on the efficiencies 2Checkout has realized by utilizing third parties to outsource its weekly payouts to vendors.

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