Topics to be addressed:
Internet Start-ups after the Concept Prototype
eCommerce
Shopping Carts
Payment Gateways
Paypal
Shopping cart consists of shopping cart software and merchant account service.
Tasks to bring up a shopping cart are
1. Code the items to be purchased into the shopping cart (purchased pages) and then make a connection to the merchant account, such as authorize.net which will conduct the credit card transaction and send confirmation emails.
Paypal includes marchant account portion. Paypal is another option. Paypal has developed a large amount of bad will over the years. To make a connection without asking the user to create a Paypal account, the button PayPal provides is very small.
Westi of Cruzio suggests having as many different payment types available as possible. Have the option available that the user wants to use. Requiring a credit card input might take 5 seconds too long for someone.
Are there alternatives to PayPal which don’t require the merchant account.
Yahoo offers a service (monthly payment) which does shopping cart and merchant account.
Google CheckOut may be similar.
Some companies offer a click-to a merchant website to finish the payment.
osCommerce is Open Source and completely modifiable
Adempiere – a popular international open source business management suite was mentioned. Includes everything from ERP and CRM to retail tools such as Point of Sale (POS) registers. Might be applicable in the eCommerce context.
Do any attendees use any of these services for billing for their own services? Todd of Santa Cruz Business Connect has used PayPal. He had another example which this writer did not catch completely??
Question about finding a payment gateway who will hold information until a given time. Example is a pledge made… which will be executed when a goal is reached. Banks don’t like it because of the delay ( and possible confusion ) when the transaction completes.
Alternative suggested: make the charge, refund if goal is not met. Downside: percent charged by the gateway. Could promise to return the percentage possible if the goal is not met.
(Computer shut down.. lost copy about the next 2 topics... attendees please fill in!)
Description of Google AdWords
Description of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
...
Images on sites should have names associated with them to enable searches. Include variations of words.
Example of a Design process: started writing narratives of users of the site. Readers, Contributors, Users
Technology is second to people, relationships when starting a startup.
Problems with Paypal: small button for pass-thru without creating account.
Issues with international sales: different address formats: no zipcode, no numbers, etc. Different phone number format. Switch from State to Province in some instances. Once payment was frozen because no items were shipping. Lengthy resolution process.
e-gold mentioned as possible solution for payment service not requiring bank merchant account. Has been around a long time, but proprietors involved in some kind of legal difficulties.
Cruzio will have a SEO class on Sept 25.
JOOMLA is an open source content management system. Many plugins are available. Build a site in it, allow different levels of administration. Druple is another alternative for people. People have preferences.
