Your Online Store – Part Two

The first part of this blog talked about some ways to bring traffic to your online store. This second part touches on secure payment gateways, competition, shipping, and customer service.

Receiving Payments

You have to be able to accept electronic payments for your online store. Fortunately, there are some excellent payment processing companies from which to choose. Each payment provider has its own fee structure, be sure to compare before making a decision.

Some well-known payment processing companies include:

• Authorize.net (this is the one I used)
• PayPal
• stripe
• WePay
• Google Wallet
• Chargify
• Dwolla

Customers feel better about shopping online when they know they are using a safe and secure means of making payment.

Know Your Competition and Their Prices

It’s easy for potential customers to price shop online. Everyone wants a bargain, and he or she is going to hunt for it.

This was tough for me. I honestly didn’t know how some companies were able to have prices that were lower than my cost. I knew they were probably buying in bulk, but still the prices were well below what I could offer. When that was the case, I usually took the items that I couldn’t offer a comparable price off my website. I focused more on the products with which I could be competitive.

Shipping

I wasn’t ever able to provide free shipping like so many businesses do. What I did, was keep my shipping costs as low as possible. My customers didn’t seem to mind paying shipping. In fact, I had some fantastic return customers who never balked at having to pay.

I tried to keep my niche item in stock, but there were times when I would get an order for something I didn’t have. My main suppliers were willing to drop-ship occasional articles for me. It seems that manufacturers and distributors have no problem doing this for large retailers, but I ran into some problems finding those that would do it for my small business. I would suggest lining up suppliers that are willing to do this for you should you be out of stock on a particular item, or have a special order.

Customer Service

I took pride in offering people excellent personalized customer service. Whether they walked into my physical location or shopped at my online store, each customer received the attention they deserved. I know for a fact that some of my online customers came back due to the service they received; they made it well known to me.

Providing personal customer service is an advantage you have over large companies. I would highly recommend you make use of it. It’s not only something your customers will remember but is also something that will make you feel good. One of the most rewarding parts of being a small retail business owner was the personal relationships I developed with my customers.

I hope this blog has provided some helpful information. Thank you for stopping by and reading.