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How to setup your e-commerce store using Payshop

Category: Ecommerce

How to setup your e-commerce store using Payshop
Mohab Ecommerce 0

How to setup your e-commerce store using Payshop

We are all aware that e-stores are more than just an add-on in today’s world. They are now a necessity. E-stores are fast becoming the preferred choice for buyers to make purchases. With their online presence, e-stores are easily searchable through most search engines, thus enabling the retailer to reach a wider customer base.

Here we present to you Payshop, a single-stop resource for all your e-retailing needs. Payshop gives you access to a multitude of templates, effective SEO tools, and everything else you need to run your e-commerce store.

While brick and mortar stores have limitations when it comes to timing, e-stores are available all the time. So buyers can make purchases at their leisure. Additionally, the detailed descriptions provided on e-stores make it easier for buyers to make purchase decisions quickly, while online payment platforms make the transactions much simpler.

Payshop, through Expandcart software, provides you with a volley of highly responsive and beautifully designed templates to start up an online store. Another one, Xcart software, is a type of PCI-DSS compliant software that gives you the freedom to operate flawlessly on your personal server. Xcart helps your e-store integrate seamlessly with the most popular payment gateways.

So, if you are a retailer without an e-store, Payshop can help you create one with ease.

Find templates

A good e-store requires a good template. The very first thing that a prospective buyer notices is how your e-store makes them feel. A template can tell a lot about a business and can help build trust and confidence in buyers. At Payshop, you are able to find pre-designed templates for your web-store. You can find the template that is the best possible fit for your business without the hassle of having someone create a template for you. The choices are all laid out, all you need to do is pick one and it’s yours.

SEO tools

It is common knowledge now that search engine optimization is vital for the growth of a business with an online presence. Where your store appears on a search engine, has a huge role to play in its growth and expansion. Payshop provides you with a myriad of SEO solutions to fit your business needs. Using these simple tools and effective strategies, you can help your business grow by leaps and bounds.

One-time licensing fee

Most e-commerce providers, which are supposedly ‘free’, charge you heavy hidden fees when it comes to transactions or a monthly subscription. With Payshop, you needn’t worry about being duped. Payshop charges you a one-time licensing fee with no hidden costs which will sneak up on you in the future. It’s a one-time investment for a lifetime of worry-free e-retailing.

Social media and marketing campaigns

In order to enable any e-store to be heard over the cacophony of loud online retailers trying to sell their wares, it is vital to create unique and strategic marketing and social media campaigns. Marketing for an e-retailing site must be aggressive if you are aiming to outrun the competition.

A business must aim to not only make its campaigns unique but also to be able to touch an emotional chord with its buyers. Payshop gives you the ability to design and run social media and marketing campaigns that will make the presence of your e-store known by the world.

Set up your e-shop with Payshop

People want to be able to do things quickly and with ease. E-retailing is now the major choice of buyers for making any kind of purchase. For the growth and survival of your business, creating and maintaining an e-store is a necessity. E-retailing enables you not only to maintain your older client base but also to grow and expand, and reach out to a whole new section of people. It allows your business to reach places way beyond what you could have ever imagined.

An online business needs to have an online payment gateway to operate. Payshop supports seamless integration of a payment gateway into your e-store. By creating an e-store using Payshop, you will be able to reach out to a worldwide audience.

5 years ago
Startups living in uncertain times?
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

Startups living in uncertain times?It goes without saying that startups have transformed how we interact with the world around us in the past few years. If you’ve traveled to any of the world’s major cities in, say, 2010, you would have likely checked into a hotel and hailed a taxi cab to take you there. Today, you can expect greater convenience, value for money and, possibly, a chance to meet locals at a click of a button through Airbnb and Uber.

The trend carries on as I type this blog entry. Uber, an established company by now, is being made to tweak its operations to keep newcomers like Bird, which now rent scooters as an affordable, convenient and reliable means of transportation, from eating into their market share. Also consider how corporate giants such as HBO, Amazon and Disney are being compelled to launch their own streaming services to reclaim their market shares from the likes of Netflix and Hulu.

But the truth is that startups can only flourish in healthy economies. Successful startup enterprises, after all, reflect harmonious matchmaking between entrepreneurial creativity and innovation and an optimistic outlook by investors. Perhaps it’s within our nature as humans to be creative and problem-solve, so the entrepreneurial spirit will probably never flag. But access to capital can be a problem. Even the most revolutionary business ideas of our time couldn’t have seen the light of day without funding.

There are many scenarios that can affect access to capital. How business-friendly is the economy? Are investors and lenders bogged down with red tape? Are they optimistic about the prospects of yielding a profit? Might they be concerned about consumer purchasing power if it’s not rising? Or maybe regard the market as saturated in a given sector? Endless possibilities can influence the outlook of investors and lenders.

One scenario that can surely affect startups’ access to capital is a financial crisis. Despite the inspiring success stories I’ve mentioned above, there is evidence that shows that potential for startups to succeed in the US has not yet fully recovered to its former pre-crisis levels in terms of births and deaths of startups, job creation and, perhaps most importantly, commercial lending. Fast-forward to 2018, and you’ll find the business press making noise about an upcoming and potentially deeper recession. Gloomy headlines such as “another economic downturn is just a matter of time” and “monetary policy for the next recession” can be found in the Economist and the Financial Times. JPMorgan Chase has even put a date on when it expects the bad news: 2020.

If the recession of 2008 is any guide, we know that we can’t underestimate how connected the GCC markets are to the fortunes of Wall Street: the US market, as the world’s biggest and most important, had a direct impact on commodity markets globally, which in turn affected GCC financial markets and government revenues. So the question for us becomes: how will we cope if a new crisis befalls us? Can we prepare any contingencies to keep new startups connected to their lifeline? Crisis or not, a lot can be said about the ability of startups to address all sorts of challenges, including the problem of access to capital. Just ask the people behind Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Beyond that, the role of pro-business institutions like Bahrain’s Tamkeen will be key in helping startups to rise and, if the doomsayers are correct, survive the winter of another recession on Wall Street.

About the author

Mahmood Almahmood is a translator and editor at a national news service. Trained in the social sciences and the arts, he enjoys staying abreast of the business press and analyzing its trends.

5 years ago
Key Points to Know Before Integrating a Payment Gateway into Your Website
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Key Points to Know Before Integrating a Payment Gateway into Your Website

More people are now shopping online and as an online business owner, you have to make a smart move to provide a seamless checkout process.  Many shoppers abandon their shopping carts just before completing the purchase if they encounter problems with the payment process. It is critical that you provide a seamless and convenient payment process by working with a reputed payment system provider.  You have to learn how to integrate a payment gateway into your e-store as this is a major step in improving user experience at your e-store. With the right payment network in place, your customers will enjoy quick and secure payments, which will in turn lead to higher sales conversion, reduced cart abandonment and increased customer loyalty.

There are multiple payment gateways in the market and choosing one may seem like an overwhelming task. To make the right decision, you should consider the following factors before integrating the payment system into your e-store. Read on.

  1. Processing Speed

If you want to tap into the fast-growing e-commerce industry, you have to provide the best customer experience through a quick and painless checkout process. The gateway you choose for processing your payments should be fast in order to provide a seamless user experience.

If your customers experience hiccups when making payments, they will most likely abandon their carts and move to your competitors.  To avoid this, evaluate the processing speed of the payment system; query the provider’s downtime and contingency plan.

  1. Security

One of the greatest concerns in online shopping revolves around safety in transactions. Many businesses and customers have suffered losses due to fraud and these go into billions every year.  When choosing a payment gateway, evaluate the security levels offered to protect your customers’ sensitive data. Failure to do this will lead to loss of customer trust, business losses, and hefty fines from the regulatory authorities among other devastation consequences. The provider should guarantee encryption of all transactions during payment transit and storage.

  1. Consider the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs)

Many business owners have suffered irreparable damage due to the purchase of services without reading the terms and conditions (T& Cs). When purchasing a gateway to process your online payments, you have to read every item in the terms and conditions list to avoid surprises along the way.

Pay careful attention to the small print because otherwise, it could lead to business losses in the future. Look for contract issues such as software integration fees, processing volume requirements, transaction fees, monthly fees, early termination fees, minimum fees, fraud software fees, etc. Ask for clarification before signing on the dotted line.

  1. Multiple Payment Options

There’s no compromise when it comes to accepting multiple payments at your e-store. The best payment network must support such needs as more customers now go for alternative payment options other than credit cards.

  1. PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard) compliance

Another crucial factor to consider when shopping for payment gateways is PCI-DSS compliance. These standards guarantee the system is safe and secure. You will not have to worry about data breaches, data loss, and fraud among other online data handling problems. With the PCI-DSS compliance badge on your website, it is easy to win and retain customer loyalty which is the aim of every business owner.

  1. Flexibility

Every business has unique needs and when shopping for payment gateways, you have to identify a system that is compatible with your e-store needs.  Consider whether the system you choose is flexible enough to adapt to the specific needs of your business, adapt to the programming language of your site, and to process all global currencies you need for your business among other things. Look for a flexible payment processing platform which you can adapt to suit your business needs.

These are only a few of the crucial factors to consider before integrating a gateway for payments to your website. It is also important to consider technical support from the provider, ease of technical integration, reporting features, UI and usability, built-in invoicing capabilities, and fraud detection and other security features.

5 years ago
How to offer a seamless checkout while helping to prevent revenue loss
Mohab Ecommerce 0

How to offer a seamless checkout while helping to prevent revenue loss

As an e-commerce store owner, your main objective is to increase revenue in a highly competitive business environment. To do this, you have to deliver a seamless shopping experience devoid of any hiccups. On the surface, it looks like an easy feat to achieve but in reality, providing a seamless user experience is the most difficult thing an online store owner has to do. One area of focus when talking about user experience is the checkout process. While you would like to provide a seamless checkout process, there are security concerns and PCI compliance standards to worry about and finding a balance is not easy.

This article addresses how you can provide a seamless checkout process without exposing your business and the customers to security risks such as fraud. Keep reading.

The risks involved in e-commerce checkout process

Many online businesses have sunk under the weight of security lapses. While the internet has come as a godsend for sellers and consumers, the inherent security risks in data handling pose a big hurdle.  As an online business owner, you must appreciate the magnitude of responsibility on your hands once you start to take payments online.

It is a big convenience to both the customer and the retailer but there are risks of data loss, which can lead to fraud. While your initial concern is cart abandonment, you should not forget the consequences of lax security measures on your e-commerce store.

Stripping down their checkout to the bare essentials might seem like a good idea in providing a seamless checkout process but in doing so, you will expose both your business and the customers to fraud. Worse still, your brand can lose credibility in case of data breaches and it will take a lot of marketing to get back on your feet. In essence, you have to find a balance between providing a seamless checkout process and security checks.

In summary, your business risks losing revenue by relaxing the checkout process in the following ways:

  1. Fraud: Any business that loses customer data during checkout will have to refund the amounts lost. With the increasing cases of online fraud, you need to avoid chargeback claims at all costs because they can drain your revenue. You need to implement effective security systems without complicating the checkout process.
  2. Interchange costs: If you don’t provide billing address information, your business risks an interchange downgrade and associated increase in costs.
  3. Hard declines and soft declines: Hard declines are permanent while soft declines arise when the card-issuing bank can’t complete a transaction. Both types of declines lead to revenue loss and you need a payment solutions company that can advise you on how to minimize these.

Balancing seamless checkout and preventing revenue loss

The objective of your online business is to make money and to do this; you have to seal all avenues of revenue loss. If you are in the process of implementing a seamless payment system, you should also have revenue loss at the back of your mind. To find a balance, consider the following:

  1. Implement basic fraud tools: By working with your payment solutions provider, you should enable the best fraud tools subject to your security risk. Enabling these tools guarantees that you don’t expose your business and customers to fraud and at the same time, you provide a seamless shopping experience. Anti-fraud security such as AVS and CVV lower the risk of fraud.
  2. Request AVS and CVV authentication: To avoid soft declines, ask for AVS and CVV authentication for your U.S customers at least on the first transfer for each customer.
  3. Implement 3D secure system: For customers outside the U.S (Europe or in the Asia Pacific region), you should implement the 3D secure system to deal with soft declines. This system also helps solve the problem of chargebacks. This security system shifts chargeback liability to the card-issuing bank.

If you run an online store, you need to appreciate the importance of providing a seamless checkout process. It is the only way to reduce cart abandonment rates, grow revenue and build customer loyalty. However, there is also the risk of losing revenue through fraud, declines, and interchange costs. For this reason, you should find a balance between a seamless checkout and effective security during checkout. Go ahead and identify the best payment solutions provider to implement a seamless and secure checkout process.

5 years ago
Why is It Important to Be PCI Compliant?
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Why is It Important to Be PCI Compliant?

The e-commerce market continues to grow at an incredible pace across all industries.  More consumers now shop online, and online retail sales keep increasing every year. However, it is not all hunky dory in the online business landscape. One of the biggest concerns online businesses must grapple with is the increase in data breaches.  Now that payments happen online, there is a big risk of data loss without proper data protection mechanisms. The industry has adopted secure online payment systems, but there is still a need for regulation and close monitoring. This is where Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards come in to protect cardholder data. If you are an online business owner, there are various benefits of becoming PCI compliant.

This article examines the risks of insecure payment systems, PCI standards and the importance of PCI compliance. Keep reading.

PCI in Brief 

The advent of internet technology provided an ample opportunity for businesses to expand their reach. As more people went online, trendsetters in all industries moved their operations to this platform to tap into the new opportunities. The early online stores had to accept credit cards to offer a seamless online shopping experience, and this is where security problems started.

With no regulation on data security, data processing, and data storage, it was only a matter of time before credit card fraud started to hamper online shopping. At this point, providers of payment solutions came together to develop the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or PCI DSS compliance standard.

PCI standards define data security requirements for businesses handling online payments. The bottom-line is to protect the online shopper by minimizing risk to cardholders’ data. Today, this is an industry regulatory requirement accepted worldwide. Businesses must undergo rigorous requirements, to become PCI compliant and it is an ongoing process.

Reasons for PCI Compliance

The process of PCI compliance is tough but when your company is compliant, there are multiple benefits you enjoy. These include:

  1. Reducing the Risk of a Data Breach

The last thing you want as an online business owner is for your customers to lose their data while transacting on your website. This can lead to devastating lawsuits, loss of brand trust and ultimate failure of your business.  Information flow online is fast and swift and within no time, your business will hemorrhage customers leading to a slump in sales. By complying with PCI standards, you can rest easy knowing your customers’ card data is safe and secure.

  1. Increase Brand Trust

The PCI badge on your website makes shoppers more comfortable to undertake transactions. It is a badge of honor for any business to attain and it takes a lot of investment in security standards on your website.  It is easy to build customer loyalty when you offer a secure shopping experience.

  1. Boost Sales Conversion and Revenues

When your customers feel secure shopping from your website, they will always come back. If there is no security breach on your e-commerce website, there is a higher chance of retaining existing customers while attracting new ones. All these factors boost sales conversion which in turn improves returns.

  1. Avoid Costly Fines

The issue of data fraud affects all businesses in the online ecosystem. If your business suffers a data breach, there is an immediate impact on all other businesses as customers will fear the same will happen elsewhere. For this reason, your business will suffer hefty fines from PCI in case of failure to comply with the standards. These hefty fines force businesses to observe best practices in data protection while at the same time implementing all guidelines provided by PCI.

  1. Build Your Company’s Image

Internet shoppers can always switch to another online store if they feel uneasy making payments on your website.  For this reason, you need to invest heavily in your image branding and one way of doing this is by becoming PCI compliant. Consumers now appreciate the importance of security when shopping online. If you have met the highest standards, they will comfortably shop from you and recommend you to their friends too.

When thinking about facilitating online payments on your e-commerce website, you should look for a payment solutions company that will boost your efforts to achieve PCI compliance. By becoming PCI compliant, you will easily sustain your business by averting fraud, increasing customer loyalty and building brand trust.

5 years ago