Sell safely online.

With the Internet becoming an ever more popular place to shop, we’re looking at ways to make that experience as safe as possible. In last months issue we looked at points to note to make it safer for you when you purchase items on line. This month we look at how to make the selling process safer.

Taking the step to sell online is a big decision for most companies. Cost is usually the biggest factor - although getting a professional and reliable web-based shop is, by far, the cheapest way to get a 24/7 presence - and security the next.

In addition to a website, you’ll need an online merchant account and a payment gateway before you can sell online. The merchant account allows you to get the cash into your business and the payment gateway manages the card verification process. Some services like Paypal offer an integrated account but fees can be higher than separate accounts so you’ll need to look at your product ‘ticket prices’ and the number of transaction and then work out the best arrangement for your business.

For the vast majority of businesses, selling safely online means reducing your risk of taking a payment from a fraudulent (generally stolen) credit card. If you are a very large company that has thousands of client records saved on your severs, you will also need to take precautions against identity theft as personal details are of great value to online fraudsters.

A purchase fraud against a vendor invariably involves using a stolen credit card to get a product shipped to the fraudster for them to then subsequently on-sell for cash. The vendor will, at some point, need to refund the fraudulent transaction and will have already shipped the product, therefore losing out on the cost of the shipped product.

Knowing the type of fraud you can expect can help you take the appropriate precautions for your business.

The first stage is to correctly set up your payment gateway to reduce the risk of accepting fraudulent cards. In general, the tighter the security checks you specify, the lower your risk of getting a fraudulent transaction. However, the tightest levels can also risk you rejecting valid cards and losing a sale. The biggest issue here is 3D secure. Payment gateways recommend that this protection is enabled but few customers either have this enabled or can remember their password.

When you have received a sale, the most important factor in protecting you business is to be vigilant. If it’s only one person running your website, this is relatively simple, if it’s a team, make sure that they are all trained to notice the obvious signs and to be wary of strange looking orders. The top points to look out for are:

Buyer location. Some Payment gateways identify the physical location of the buyer at the point the transaction was completed, often referred to as ‘IP address location’. If this is not the UK and you are only shipping to the UK, then beware the transaction.

Delivery and billing address: Fraudsters will not get a product shipped to a card holders home so if these addresses are different, there maybe an issue (there may also be legitimate reasons for this such as shipping to a second home).

Unusual order. If an order is an unusual mix of products or sale value, think before you ship.

If you do suspect that a transaction is fraudulent, don’t panic; You’re very unlikely to lose anything until a product is shipped. Contact the card issuer to see if the card has been reported stolen and also your payment gateway provider to check if there have been any other occurrences of the card being fraudulently used.

Ultimately, selling online need not be any more open to fraud than selling through a traditional shop. Remain vigilant and aware and keep up-to-date with notices provided by the banks and police. If you are ever in doubt, ask advice.

Shopping more popular than church this Xmas

Firstly: Merry Christmas everyone!

A recent survey concluded that more people would be shopping online today, Christmas Day, than will be going to Church!

With retailers trying harder and harder to get their sales figures up, consumers will benefit with some retailers starting their sales as early as last night! The survey continued that the total value of online sales today, in the UK, would be £103m, up from £80m for Xmas day 2007.

Retail or Etail?

Retail sales figures published today show the extent that traditional retail is failing to attract and retain consumers.

Retail sales in October 2008 were 2.2% lower than 12 months ago. If you couple this to a 3% rise in prices over the same period, the real fall is more than 5%. Like-for-like sales have now fallen in seven of the past eight months with every sector down on a year ago (except food and footwear).

Compare this with online sales where etailers have seen a year-on-year growth of more than 16% and, with the Christmas boom-time still to come, it looks like being another good year for those businesses that sell on-line.

A quick poll earlier today of our etail customers suggests the main reasons for the growth in etail sales at the expense of traditional retail are:
1. Consumers looking for a bargain
2. Convenience of on-line shopping over retail
3. Growth in reliability of on-line stores.

We'd also add the fact that there are no limited shopping hours, no pressure from pushy shop assistants and the comfort of your home is much nicer than braving the aweful weather we're having this year.

Do you do ecommerce?

We had an enquiry the other day from a prospect asking if we 'did' ecommerce sites and what would it cost?

It's virtually impossible to price a development without knowing what you're going to develop so I started to ask some starter questions; what would they be selling, target customers, forecast volumes, product options and accessories, shipping rules...Nothing too taxing, you wouldn't have thought.

No answers were forthcoming so I helped them through a few points to think about that I subsequently realised maybe of some general interest.

Visualising your online shop as a bricks and mortar shop can help you think through what you want to achieve and how you're going to achieve it. With a traditional shop, you'd think about what customers see and think when they walk into your shop; what products you'd show them, how you'd stack shelves and group products, how would you up-sell accessories, what additional products would you have on display at checkout, what payment methods would you accept and how would you entice the customer to come back and buy some more.

The same thought process needs to be applied to an online shop. Thinking through these points will give you a better feel as to what you want to achieve and will help any developers to give you what you want in the most cost effective and efficient manner.