Section
Navigation
5. Gaining an Online Presence
Business
to Customer
:Without a website
5.1
eMail Marketing
5.2 Merchant Services
5.3 Creating Mobile Applications
5.4 Newsletters
5.5
Selling on eBay
:Using Third Party Platforms
5.6
Marketing Platforms
5.7 Free Services
5.8 Social Media
:With a Website
5.9
Building a Website: Introduction
5.10
Building a Website: Technical
5.11 Mobile
Web Pages
5.12 Professional Pages
5.13 Shopping Carts
5.14
Payment Systems
5.15 Site Hosting
5.16 Webzines
5.17 Auctions
5.18 Blogs
5.19
Content Management Systems
5.20 Web Portals
5.21 Wikis
:With a Website:
Types
5.22 Selling Content
5.23
ePublishing
5.24 Distance Learning
5.25 Selling Advertising
5.26
Becoming an AdSense Publisher
5.27
Becoming an Affiliate
5.28 Selling
Physical Goods
5.29 Corporate eCommerce
5.30 eCommerce Servers
5.31
Staying Safe
:Business to Business
5.32
Customer Relationship Management
5.33
Supply Chain Management
5.34 Digital
Exchanges
5.35 eProcurement
5.36
Industrial Consortia
5.37
Private Industrial Networks
Control
Panel
5.2
Third Party Merchant Services
Rather than build and maintain their own site, many small companies use third-party services which offer a customized site with integrated online payment facilities for a monthly fee. Commission charges are generally higher, but the services provide an excellent means of starting up or testing the market for some product or service.
Service | Start Up Fee |
Monthly Fee | Transaction Fee |
AmazonMerchantServices | None |
None | From $0.30 + 1.9% |
DesignNetworkSolutions |
None | From $29.95 for 25 items |
None |
eBay |
Free for 50 insertions/month.Otherwise insertion fee basedon category and reserve or final price | None |
Sliding scale fee based on final pricerealized and shipping cost. |
HandzOn |
None | From $19.96 for 5 items |
PayPal enabled. |
YahooMerchantSolutions |
$0-50 | from $39.95 |
0.75% to 1.5% |
Questions
1.
What are the pros and cons of merchant services?
2. Model the profit margins
of two hypothetical products to find when it would be wise to move from merchant
services to Internet payment providers and/or an Internet merchant account.
Sources
and Further Reading
1. Information is taken from the service
websites.
2. Selling on Amazon: Pros and Cons
by Charles Nicholls. Practical
Ecommerce. August 2011.