[SOLVED] Internet Sales (Or "How to Sell Things No One Wants")

The Crowing One

So I've been in the process, these last six months, of setting up and getting off the ground a small chapbook press. At this point the house's first book is set to be released by the end of the summer. This is all rather "casual" in a sense, but I want to offer the ability to purchase our products over the all-powerful internet.

I've done a bit of poking around for various sites where I could easily have an "online marketplace", and I'm pretty sure a simple PayPal setup is just grand.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions or experiences on this front. Transactions would be on the small side, and I doubt that a single payment would break much more than $10, if that, at least to begin. A huge part of the model, here, is offering the product(s) at cheap prices.

So, what may be the best set-up for secure, cheap online selling? The ability to embed a store within a single page of HTML would be awesome, but unnecessary.

Thanks!

Pheezer

PayPal is more or less Satan Inc. but I don't know of anyone else who offers you the ability to take payments online with no entry costs.

mspencer

I work for a merchant processor as a support tech -- I'm not in sales -- and I'm bored at work here with nobody calling in. I'll help. I want to get more information before I unload with both wall-of-text-spewing barrels though.

First, you might find taking payment directly over the Internet isn't really necessary. If your sales volume is low you might want to just list a phone number and direct people to call you to order. Accepting payments by card is unfortunately kinda expensive. I'd avoid it if you can -- I talk to too many small merchants who think their sales will go way up if they advertise that they take credit cards, and then we bury them in fees (as per the contract) and they hate us. X__X

Second, what kind of sales volume are you looking at? I know you said about $10 average per order, but about how many per month can you confidently say you'd sell, such that you might end up losing money if you guess too many?

Edit: also I don't think they necessarily answer your questions but you can read my HUEG posts in this thread if you want.

The Crowing One

Awesome!

Thanks for the link to the other thread, as well. That's a huge help.

I ended up getting a big, paying contract earlier this week, anyway. So this project is, once again, on hold.

Thanks!

bowen

Google merchant is like, the absolute best alternative to Satan, Inc.

And you don't have to pay the huge fees up front like with CC processing, but you do pay an abnormally large amount off the percentage for it. But only like 10-20% so, $1-2 off your transaction, and a 30cent transaction fee (I think).

So, it may be completely worth it to take that route as well. I'd avoid PayPal at all costs if you can, or if you do go with them, set up a bank account that you can empty daily so that your main account doesn't get frozen, etc. Use a different bank then your main bank too.