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	<title>Sun Coast  Global Marketing - Florida Small Business Consulting &#187; shopping cart</title>
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		<title>Shopping Carts &amp; E-commerce</title>
		<link>http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/shopping-carts-e-commerce/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:59:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>J.L.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Another requirement for efficiently running your online store is a virtual shopping cart. This actually is an electronic order form that serves as the first step in the fulfillment process. Its purposes are to:<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


<h5>Related articles:</h5><ol><li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/e-commerce-primer-how-to-begin-getting-paid/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid'>E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/start-ups/selling-on-the-web/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Selling on the Web'>Selling on the Web</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/ready-to-build-your-e-commerce-site/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Ready To Build Your E-Commerce Site?'>Ready To Build Your E-Commerce Site?</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Another requirement for efficiently running your online store is a virtual shopping cart. This actually is an electronic order form that serves as the first step in the fulfillment process. Its purposes are to securely:</p>
<ol>
<li>Enable your customer to browse and select items, and then later decide which ones they want to purchase.</li>
<li>Display a summary of items that your customer has selected.</li>
<li>Provide links to information for your customer to consider before confirming the purchase, such as the return policy or the description page for each product.</li>
<li>Allow your customer to change the quantities ordered or remove items before checking out.</li>
<li>Enable your customer to navigate to the checkout process or to return to the store to choose more items.</li>
</ol>
<p>This shopping cart software allows you to accept orders for multiple products from your website(s). It automatically calculates and totals your customer&#8217;s order, including tax and shipping charges. Some shopping carts are even integrated with the fulfillment capabilities of UPS or the U.S. Postal Service to make the order acceptance and shipping process much smoother.</p>
<p>There are several services that offer secure online shopping cart technology. PayPal, for instance, offers a free shopping cart program to its merchant members. At checkout, shoppers indicate that they want to make their purchases through their PayPal accounts, and the process rolls out automatically.</p>
<p>Other application service provider (ASP) companies also keep your shopping cart on a third-party site, where it is secure and regularly updated. Securenetshop.com provides this type of service for a monthly or annual fee. Popular software packages that can be purchased include Miva Merchant and QuickStore.</p>
<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


<h5>Related articles:</h5><ol><li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/e-commerce-primer-how-to-begin-getting-paid/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid'>E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/start-ups/selling-on-the-web/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Selling on the Web'>Selling on the Web</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/ready-to-build-your-e-commerce-site/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Ready To Build Your E-Commerce Site?'>Ready To Build Your E-Commerce Site?</a></li>
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		<title>Selling on the Web</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:39:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>J.L.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Start-Ups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[e-commerce]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[As with any business move or expansion, considering an online presence can raise a sometimes dizzying list of questions for an entrepreneur. Exactly what must be put in place to make it happen? How does an online presence change the market for the business? What are competitors doing? How will people shop? What kind of security is required? How will customers pay online? Why Go Online? The most amazing aspect of e-commerce is its ability to impact sales and marketing [...]<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


<h5>Related articles:</h5><ol><li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/e-commerce-primer-how-to-begin-getting-paid/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid'>E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/shopping-carts-e-commerce/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Shopping Carts &#038; E-commerce'>Shopping Carts &#038; E-commerce</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/who-are-you-selling-to/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Who Are You Selling To?'>Who Are You Selling To?</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As with any business move or expansion, considering an online presence can raise a sometimes dizzying list of questions for an entrepreneur. Exactly what must be put in place to make it happen? How does an online presence change the market for the business? What are competitors doing? How will people shop? What kind of security is required? How will customers pay online?</p>
<h3>Why Go Online?</h3>
<p>The most amazing aspect of e-commerce is its ability to impact sales and marketing efforts immediately. By going online, suddenly a neighborhood bakery or a home based consulting service expands its reach to a national, or even international base of potential customers. Web-based sales know no international boundaries.</p>
<p>Forrester Research, which analyzes online trends and statistics, projects the online retail market for U.S. businesses to be $230 billion by the end of 2008. That&#8217;s a full 10 percent of anticipated total U.S. retail sales.</p>
<p>Not only is the internet increasing the number of potential customers that a company can reach, but it&#8217;s also driving profitability, according to research from IPSOS, commissioned by PayPal. The survey discovered that, far from being an extra &#8220;expense,&#8221; internet operations boosted businesses&#8217; bottom lines. Of small businesses that sell online,:</p>
<ul>
<li>64 percent said the internet has increased their revenues or sales</li>
<li>48 percent felt the internet helped to expand their geographic reach in the United States</li>
<li>73 percent saved money by decreasing administrative costs</li>
</ul>
<p>Cash flow is of significant importance to a new business&#8211;online or brick and mortar. The study found that small business owners who conduct business online feel it allows them to receive payments faster and conduct business easier.</p>
<p>When entrepreneurs move online, they establish themselves on a level playing field with larger competitors. On the internet, even the smallest online retailer can be as attractive and as functional as the largest big box store&#8211;without the need to have a physical presence on every street corner. Often, small shops project a &#8220;boutique&#8221; feel that attracts shoppers, who perceive smaller businesses as more distinctive than larger stores.</p>
<h3>Turning Shoppers into Buyers</h3>
<p>Online shoppers are finicky. Those who aren&#8217;t experienced customers&#8211;who haven&#8217;t yet discovered the convenience of two-day delivery or easy returns&#8211;tend to be skittish during the entire shopping experience. A well-planned, secure shopping cart should make the checkout process easy, clear and flexible for the shopper.</p>
<p>Jupiter Research found that 54 percent of internet shoppers have stopped buying from certain online stores in the middle of a transaction because they have concerns about service, delivery, shipping or handling. Other estimates range as high as 60 to 90 percent abandonment of shopping carts on some e-commerce sites.</p>
<p>Sometimes it&#8217;s because of confusion; other times, frustration over the process or lack of information. Some shoppers just use the cart as a place to hold items they&#8217;re considering and, in the end, never buy.</p>
<p>When setting up an online shopping cart for a business, consider the following tips:</p>
<ul>
<li>Don&#8217;t force the shopper to go through a lengthy process of logging in, creating passwords and filling out voluminous forms. Privacy issues and complexity of the process can lead the buyer to end the process before even registering.</li>
<li>Include a link to a page detailing customer service policies, such as warranties, delivery guarantees, return policy, and shipping fee structure.</li>
<li>Provide &#8220;help&#8221; tips, a frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) page and a toll-free phone number for consumers to use if they have problems or questions relating to checkout.</li>
<li>Offer assurance that credit card information is protected through encryption and a highly secure online transmission process.</li>
<li>Allow customers to call up information about the items being purchased without having to leave the checkout page, with links to windows that contain the product information page.</li>
<li>Make it easy for buyers to add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product once they are on the checkout page.</li>
<li>Indicate the progress buyers are making during the checkout process, revealing the number of steps involved, showing which step they are on at any given time and allowing them to return to earlier steps to make changes.</li>
<li>Show the shipping costs at the front end of the checkout process. For some products, these costs determine whether the shopper will buy online and the quantity they will buy.</li>
<li>Clearly indicate a button or link to move on to the next checkout step and make it more prominent than other links on the page.</li>
<li>Provide multiple options for payment, including credit cards, checks or an online payment service.</li>
</ul>
<p>Cash flow can make or break a company, especially in its early stages. That&#8217;s why many online businesses often encourage credit card payments, although it&#8217;s also helpful to give buyers alternative opportunities to pay with checks and money orders. Offering a variety of methods for shoppers to pay online increases the opportunity for these buyers to pay in the method they prefer.</p>
<p>Accepting payments online increases revenue and cash flow because money goes into the account immediately. Even more compelling is that there are more than 1.2 billion consumer credit cards worldwide. Credit card payments aren&#8217;t returned for non-sufficient funds&#8211;and credit card holders tend to do more impulse buying than those who write personal checks.</p>
<p>Businesses have several options when setting up an e-commerce function and accepting payments online, which include:</p>
<p>Processing payments through a merchant account. To accept credit cards online, a small-business owner must first apply for a bank merchant account and then find a way to process transactions. At a brick-and-mortar store, the processing takes place when a card is swiped through the card reader. At an online store, the processing is done when a shopper types in the credit card information, which is then verified by a merchant account processor.</p>
<p>During most online checkout flows, a shopper is asked which method of payment is preferred. If the shopper selects a form of credit card payment, he or she will be redirected to a secure page within the store to enter the credit card information. After the shopper selects &#8220;submit,&#8221; the credit card information will be sent to the correct merchant account, where it will be verified and either accepted or denied by the merchant account service provider.</p>
<p>Merchant accounts may have drawbacks for some small-business owners, however. Most charge set-up, monthly and per-transaction fees. Additional fees may also be involved if a business owner has a pre-existing account for a physical store, and wants to convert that account to accept payments online. Moreover, some banks won&#8217;t approve small online businesses for merchant accounts, considering them high-risk operations.</p>
<p>It may take 30 days or more for a merchant account to be approved and the integration process can be burdensome for business owners to do it themselves. Fortunately, the growth of online sales has given rise to an entire industry of merchant service bureaus that will grant a merchant account and everything else needed to accept online payments.</p>
<p>Integrating an online payment service. If a business doesn&#8217;t have access to a merchant account or the fees are just too high, one solution is an online payment service, like PayPal. PayPal allows businesses to accept credit-card transactions and payments safely and conveniently. It also allows buyers to send payments directly from a bank account.</p>
<p>When a buyer indicates the desire to use PayPal during checkout, that person will be directed to sign into or sign up for a PayPal account to then complete the transaction.</p>
<p>For merchants there may be benefits for offering PayPal. There are no setup charges, monthly charges, minimums or gateway fees. PayPal charges a per-transaction fee, which ranges from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction. PayPal also actively fights chargebacks on behalf of online merchants. If a transaction meets all of the requirements of PayPal&#8217;s Seller Protection Policy, then the merchant will not be liable to for the chargeback by the customer.</p>
<h3>Ensuring Transaction Security</h3>
<p>Online entrepreneurs have a responsibility to do all they can to ensure their websites offer a safe shopping experience. But they don&#8217;t need to be information technology security experts to have a secure site&#8211;the techies already have developed security measures that any online small business can adopt.</p>
<p>There are services in this space that bring together all the security measures that an online small business needs to have in place. PayPal enables businesses to set up a website that accepts credit cards without seeing or having to store the account numbers of its customers.</p>
<p>This makes buyers feel even safer because they don&#8217;t have to share their personal or financial information online. Gateway services like Authorizenet.com, CyberSource or Chase Paymentech Solutions will also handle credit card and electronic check payments securely.</p>
<h3>Developing a Privacy Policy</h3>
<p>Consumers&#8217; fears of identity theft and the aggravation over spam make privacy policies essential for online businesses. Customers expect merchants to boldly exhibit their privacy policies on their stores&#8217; sites, with links from the catalog pages and the shopping cart.</p>
<p>A privacy policy should describe how data, such as the customer&#8217;s personal contact information and financial details, is collected and used. Consumers should be given the opportunity to opt out of having their information sold or distributed and of receiving e-mail newsletters or other company communications.</p>
<p>An online business must post its privacy policy&#8211;and stick to it! This type of policy shows that the business takes customer privacy seriously and will use information it obtains in a responsible way.</p>
<p>Businesses can obtain a &#8220;seal of approval&#8221; for their privacy policies through a company called TRUSTe. For an annual fee, this California-based organization awards use of its seal to e-commerce sites that adhere to its privacy principles and comply with its verification and dispute-resolution processes. If a business doesn&#8217;t have a privacy policy, TRUSTe offers models that can be adapted and even a privacy policy writing &#8220;wizard&#8221; to help with the process.</p>
<p>Starting an online store may seem like a daunting challenge, but the reality is it&#8217;s never been easier. Today, many of the processes of moving a business online have become standardized and even automated. Business owners discover an entirely new meaning in their business lives when&#8211;through the process of building an online store&#8211;they realize they&#8217;ve optimized their new-found markets and won the trust of internet consumers.</p>
<p>The Internet, in fact, can work for any entrepreneurial personality. If an entrepreneur thinks life is just a bowl of cherries, we&#8217;ll find him selling cherry bowls. Never have entrepreneurs had such a clear, easy and relatively inexpensive opportunity to reach a global marketplace for so many products and services. It&#8217;s amazing how a business can thrive when its customers only need to lift a finger.</p>
<h3>10 Steps to Move a Business Online</h3>
<ol>
<li><strong>Competitor landscape review.</strong> Look at competitors online and decide how you will differentiate yourself from them.</li>
<li><strong>URL.</strong> Register a domain name.</li>
<li><strong>Web development.</strong> Hire a web site developer or buy web development software, then determine site design and navigation.</li>
<li><strong>Technology.</strong> Buy a server or find an outsourced Internet service provider.</li>
<li><strong>Payment.</strong> Find a secure online order solution, including shopping cart and payment service.</li>
<li><strong>Protection.</strong> Fight viruses and protect the site and computers with anti-virus software.</li>
<li><strong>Marketing.</strong> Develop a marketing plan, which includes determining and publishing customer service policies.</li>
<li><strong>Contracts</strong>. Establish alliances with crucial partners, such as product suppliers, search engine optimizers, fulfillment services, shippers, web technicians, marketing or public relations firms.</li>
<li><strong>Product. </strong>Create an online catalog or listings.</li>
<li><strong>Maintenance.</strong> Keep inventory, catalogs and listings up to date for your customers.</li>
</ol>
<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


<h5>Related articles:</h5><ol><li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/e-commerce-primer-how-to-begin-getting-paid/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid'>E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/shopping-carts-e-commerce/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Shopping Carts &#038; E-commerce'>Shopping Carts &#038; E-commerce</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/who-are-you-selling-to/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Who Are You Selling To?'>Who Are You Selling To?</a></li>
</ol>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>E-Commerce Primer &#8211; How To Begin Getting Paid</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:06:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>J.L.</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[How do you get paid? By accepting credit cards for payments. How do you do that? A good first place to start your search for merchant status is your own bank. Most issue credit cards, and if you have a long-term relationship, that's a big plus. Your bank says no? Try ...<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


<h5>Related articles:</h5><ol><li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/shopping-carts-e-commerce/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Shopping Carts &#038; E-commerce'>Shopping Carts &#038; E-commerce</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/start-ups/selling-on-the-web/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Selling on the Web'>Selling on the Web</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.suncoastglobal.com/start-ups/the-right-way-to-manage-your-money/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: The Right Way to Manage Your Money'>The Right Way to Manage Your Money</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>How do you get paid? By accepting credit cards for payments. How do you do that? A good first place to start your search for merchant status is your own bank. Most issue credit cards, and if you have a long-term relationship, that&#8217;s a big plus. Your bank says no? Try a few other local banks&#8211;offering to move all your accounts&#8211;and you just may be rewarded with merchant status.</p>
<p>You may also try other companies that specialize in issuing accounts to online merchants, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Cardservice International</li>
<li>VeriSign</li>
<li>Credit Card Processing Services</li>
<li>The Processing Network</li>
<li>21st Century Resources</li>
</ul>
<p>Or, log onto Google and search for credit card processing. You&#8217;ll find many dozens of outfits, large and small, that are on the prowl for startups seeking merchant accounts.</p>
<p>Credit cards aren&#8217;t processed cheaply, however, at least not for a startup. A typical fee schedule for a small-volume account (fewer than 1,000 transactions monthly) would include startup fees amounting to around $200 and monthly processing fees of around $20.</p>
<h3>Making Customers Feel Secure</h3>
<p>The one must-have for online credit card processing: secure, encrypted connections. You&#8217;ve seen this many times yourself. Go to virtually any major e-tailer, commence a purchase, and you are put into a &#8220;secure server&#8221; environment, where transaction data is scrambled to provide a measure of safety against hackers.</p>
<p>Truth is, these worries are generally unfounded&#8211;the odds of a hacker grabbing an unencrypted credit card number from a non-secure website are pretty slender&#8211;but buyers feel reassured when they see they&#8217;re entering a secure site, and that means you need to provide it.</p>
<p>Is this a technical hassle for you? It shouldn&#8217;t be. Whatever vendor sells you credit card processing should also, as part of the package, provide a secure transaction environment. If they don&#8217;t, look elsewhere.</p>
<h3>Fraud Prevention Tools</h3>
<p>Contrary to reports of rising fraud rates, credit card payments remain one of the safest payment methods available online. Sophisticated internet solutions, such as the LinkPoint Secure Payment Gateway, process credit card payments in real time using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, which encrypts all confidential information during the transmission and authorization of transactions.</p>
<p>Other fraud-prevention tools, such as the Address Verification Service (AVS), make online credit card acceptance even safer. The service compares the numerical information in your customers&#8217; addresses with records stored by card-issuing banks. It then returns codes that indicate whether the numbers match.</p>
<p>Although the information provided by the AVS does not affect the authorization of your transactions, it can help you make informed decisions about suspicious orders.</p>
<p>Besides the AVS, you can protect yourself by using the card validation code 2 (CVC2) and the card verification value (CVV2) verification systems of MasterCard and Visa, respectively. These verification services use the three-digit codes printed on all MasterCard and Visa cards to help you determine whether your customers possess legitimate cards.</p>
<h3>Special Considerations</h3>
<p>Be sure to ask prospective processors about the costs of storefront solutions that you must have to effectively operate your website, such as shopping carts, Web hosting, payment gateways, virtual terminals, virtual checks, databases for fulfilling orders, customer tracking, and a way to calculate tax and shipping charges.</p>
<h3>Typical Fees</h3>
<p>Shop around for a credit card processor that best suits your needs. Talk to several different processors and don&#8217;t be afraid to ask questions. Find out about:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The discount rate:</strong> The percentage of each transaction paid to the merchant account provider. If your monthly charges are less than a certain volume, the processor may charge a higher percentage.</li>
<li><strong>Transaction fee:</strong> A flat rate charged for each transaction processed.</li>
<li><strong>Equipment:</strong> Some examples include point-of-sale terminals, printers and peripherals. Also find out about installation costs. (This may or may not apply to you as an e-business.)</li>
<li><strong>Monthly minimum fees:</strong> These are minimum fees that the merchant account provider collects each month from the merchant if the merchant&#8217;s discount rate and transaction fees don&#8217;t add up to the monthly minimum specified on the original merchant application. It is usually about $25 per month if the monthly minimum volume isn&#8217;t reached.</li>
<li><strong>Reserve fees:</strong> If your credit history is in question, or if you own a new or high-risk business, you may be required to set up a reserve account, which protects the processor from any future losses. The reserve account is calculated as a percentage of your sales.</li>
<li><strong>Chargeback fees:</strong> These are the costs charged by a processor to cover disputed charges.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Other Payment Options</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Money orders.</strong> For customers who don&#8217;t have credit cards, money orders are a great payment alternative, particularly if you sell your products in an online auction environment, such as eBay.</li>
<li><strong>Existing checking accounts.</strong> Services that transfer checking account funds electronically are another quick and easy option for customers without credit cards. Western Union&#8217;s MoneyZap service, for example, lets buyers pay merchants online from their existing checking accounts.</li>
<li><strong>Check cards.</strong> Offline debit cards&#8211;aka check cards&#8211;are typically issued by large credit card companies through their participating banks. U.S. consumers today make the majority of their offline debit purchases with the Visa Check Card or MasterCard&#8217;s MasterMoney card. These enhanced ATM cards carry the Visa and MasterCard logos, respectively, and may be used everywhere the credit cards are accepted, including over the internet.
</li>
<li><strong>Electronic checks.</strong> These are another emerging e-payment option. Through a process called check conversion, brick-and-mortar merchants can transform their customers&#8217; paper checks into electronic transactions that are processed through the automated clearing house (ACH) network.</li>
<li><strong>Internet checks.</strong> You can also accept checks over the internet using payment-processing software, such as LinkPoint International&#8217;s VirtualCheck. Customers who elect to make check purchases from a website are prompted to key their information into a browser-based form. Again, data is encrypted and captured by the transaction processor&#8217;s payment gateway.
</li>
<li><strong>PayPal.</strong> Based in Mountain View, California, PayPal is the world&#8217;s largest online payment system. Recently acquired by eBay, PayPal lets consumers send money to anyone with an e-mail address through their credit card or checking account. Consumers sign up once for the free service-after that, they use their account number to buy products online securely, conveniently and cost-effectively.
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Are You High Risk?</h3>
<p>Just because some merchant account providers lump e-businesses in with other high-risk businesses, like telemarketers, merchants in the travel and cruise industries and internet auctions, it doesn&#8217;t have to mean you won&#8217;t be able to open a merchant account. It does mean, though, that it may be more challenging to set one up.</p>
<p>Merchant account providers&#8211;banks and independent sales organizations&#8211;will also consider how long you&#8217;ve been in business, your credit history and any previous merchant accounts you&#8217;ve held with other processors.</p>
<p>Your length of time in business matters because merchant account providers want an assurance that you understand the business environment in which you operate, can identify the potential risks you face, know how to prevent or reduce fraud, and understand how to manage credit card acceptance. Regardless of risk, this kind of knowledge comes only with first-hand business experience.</p>
<p>Your credit report will show how well you&#8217;ve repaid past loans, and if you&#8217;ve had any liens, judgments or bankruptcies filed against you. A favorable credit history will go a long way toward establishing your credibility as a prospective merchant.</p>
<p>And if you&#8217;ve had an earlier, well-maintained merchant account, it&#8217;s a positive indicator of how you&#8217;re going to deal with your new processor. Terminated merchant accounts will show up on the Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants file, also known as the Combined Terminated Merchant File.</p>
<p>If your previous processor terminated your merchant account because you defaulted on it, or if you incurred too many chargebacks, this may negatively impact opening a future account.</p>
<p>To increase your merchant account eligibility, follow these tips:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Ensure a positive credit rating.</strong> Remove any past bankruptcies, late payments or liens from your credit report before you apply for a merchant account. To obtain your credit report, contact a credit reporting bureau such as TRW or a company that provides merged credit reports from major reporting agencies, such as Equifax, Experian or Trans Union. </li>
<li><strong>Be honest about previous merchant accounts, bankruptcies, liens or judgments.</strong> By acknowledging past financial challenges, you improve your credibility and may encounter one less barrier to opening a new merchant account. You cannot hide information that&#8217;s part of the public record.</li>
<li><strong>Be willing to pay higher fees or accommodate special account requirements.</strong> If you need to abide by special restrictions or pay slightly higher fees in order to open a merchant account, by all means do it! It&#8217;s worth it to provide your customers with as many noncash payment options as possible. It will help you generate revenues and stimulate impulse purchases.</li>
</ul>
<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


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		<title>Online Legal Issues &#8211; You&#8217;d Better Be Aware of Them</title>
		<link>http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/online-legal-issues-youd-better-be-aware-of-them/</link>
		<comments>http://www.suncoastglobal.com/internet/online-legal-issues-youd-better-be-aware-of-them/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>J.L.</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Here is a partial list of the most important legal issues you face on the internet.  Learn them.<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


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</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Here is a partial list of the most important legal issues you face on the internet.  Learn them.</p>
<h3>Age</h3>
<p>The age of your users impacts the website. According to Federal Trade Commission regulations through the Children&#8217;s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a website must get a parent&#8217;s permission for children under 13 to disclose information.</p>
<p>Also, remember that children under 18 should not be permitted to view information which is adult in nature. In addition, children under 18 may not be able to agree to contracts such as your website user agreement and purchase contracts. Finally, FTC also regulates advertising and other content directed at children.</p>
<h3>Bulletin Boards, Chat Rooms, Etc.</h3>
<p>Any posting ability by users should be subject to site submission rules and a user agreement. The rules should obtain users&#8217; consent not to post pornographic, defamatory or infringing materials and, through your user agreement, consent to your company not being liable for other users taking such actions.</p>
<h3>Copyright</h3>
<p>The footer of your site should display a copyright notice for the content of the site. The notice should read &#8220;� [date] [copyright owner name] All rights reserved.&#8221; You should also deposit a copy of the site with the Copyright Office to record ownership of the site&#8217;s content, look and feel.</p>
<p>Finally, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, depending on the purpose and the users&#8217; activities on the site, your company may be eligible to register for limited liability offered by the act for the site. You should consult your attorney for review of the act and how to register.</p>
<h3>Domain Name</h3>
<p>When building your website, domain names are an important part. Often they are directly tied to your business name, your logos and your brand. Businesses often fail to give proper thought to which domain name to choose.</p>
<p>Picking a domain name should have the same careful thought as naming other products or services. Choosing a domain name should include analysis of trademark law in relationship to the name. Under current law, domain names may be awarded to trademark holders over others through arbitration or litigation. This means that having trademark registration in the same name as your domain name may ensure that you retain ownership of the name.</p>
<h3>Export</h3>
<p>If persons from other countries use your site, then you are exporting. If you sell to such persons, you are exporting the item you sell and entering into contracts with persons of other countries. If you use encryption on the site, then you are exporting technology regulated by the Department of Commerce and Defense.</p>
<p>Various government departments regulate the countries with which U.S. companies may do business and when a company needs an export license to transmit items, technology or information abroad. Doing business with certain countries, such as Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Yugoslavia and others, is severely restricted.</p>
<p>Depending on the information on your site, what kind of business you do, the technology and information involved, your site may be subject to these regulations, and you should consult with your attorney about these business decisions.</p>
<h3>Framing</h3>
<p>It is important to be careful how your website frames to other sites. There have been trademark cases regarding consumer confusion over which site is which, and which site is the source of the content and data.</p>
<p> Also, be careful, because some sites&#8217; &#8220;terms and conditions&#8221; and/or &#8220;user agreements&#8221; prohibit collecting and reprinting data displayed on the site&#8211;even if such data is factual, such as times and places for events.</p>
<h3>Giveaways</h3>
<p>Sweepstakes, contests, lotteries and giveaways are governed by state and national laws as to how they must be conducted. Florida and New York require registration with the state if the prizes are over $5,000 in value. Most important, you should have rules outlining the terms and conditions of the giveaway.</p>
<p>The rules are an offer from the sponsor which the entrant accepts by entering. The offer, plus the acceptance, make a binding contract covering the giveaway.</p>
<h3>Home Page</h3>
<p>On the footer of the home page of the site, you should have a link to your privacy policy, your user agreement or terms and conditions, and your copyright notice.</p>
<h3>Insurance</h3>
<p>Be sure that your business insurance covers website activities. Often website activities are excluded from errors and omissions and other business insurance.</p>
<p>Lloyds of London and a few other companies have insurance specifically covering materials and sales via websites, including security of credit card numbers and other important data.</p>
<h3>Jurisdiction</h3>
<p>One of the primary reasons for having a user agreement is to better address the issues of jurisdiction. Under current law, website owners may be subject to jurisdiction and law in any state or country where its users are located. Being subject to the law of so many different locations makes trying to comply with the law and trying to assess your risk tricky.</p>
<p>An attorney can help you consider which markets are your highest risk and how to lower your risks through consultation with local counsel or blocking users from those regions. Additionally, you should consider that many foreign jurisdictions do not offer protections for intellectual property which are comparable to the U.S.</p>
<p>Therefore, if a user in such a region steals content or software from your site, you may have little recourse by law, and a hard battle to fight on foreign soil and in a foreign language.</p>
<h3>Linking</h3>
<p>When linking to other sites, you should consider two factors. One is what word or image you are using for the link and whether it is a trademark of another site or company. If so, you need the trademark owner&#8217;s permission to post the company&#8217;s trademark on your site.</p>
<p>Second, you should always link to the home page of a website since there have been &#8220;deep linking&#8221; cases claiming loss of advertising revenue which would have been gained if the users had been directed through the home page.</p>
<h3>Metatags</h3>
<p>Courts have not permitted use of another company&#8217;s trademarks as metatags on competitors&#8217; sites. These cases arose when company A used company B&#8217;s trademarked term in the metatagging of company A&#8217;s site so that when a user looked for company B, company A would come up in the listing. For example, it would not be permitted for Coke to use the metatag &#8220;Pepsi&#8221; on the Coke website.</p>
<h3>Notification</h3>
<p>Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, there are required procedures for someone to notify a website that materials on the site may infringe on that person&#8217;s copyright. If the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies, these procedures should be outlined in a notification policy on the site.</p>
<h3>Obscenity</h3>
<p>Materials which are considered &#8220;obscene&#8221; by state or federal law are not permitted on the internet and, especially, may not be viewed by children. What is obscene is based on the local standards of the viewing community. This makes prior determinations of what is acceptable somewhat complex. If you have questions about your site and its content, you should review them with your attorney.</p>
<h3>Privacy Policy</h3>
<p>If you collect any information from users of your site, using cookies or otherwise, the Federal Trade Commission requires you to have a privacy policy. The privacy policy should contain an explanation of how you collect the users&#8217; information, how and where the information is stored, how the user can delete or change the information, and to whom the information is disclosed and for what purpose. The European Union also has similar and strict regulations on collection of information via websites.</p>
<h3>Rules for Mail Order</h3>
<p>The FTC and some states have guidelines for selling items by mail which have been extended to cover internet sales. These guidelines cover return policies, customer contact and other information about how to inform your customers about your products, shipping and sales procedures.</p>
<h3>SEC</h3>
<p>The Securities and Exchange Commission considers a website a means of disclosing information to the public about a company. Therefore any information disclosed on your website should be given the same review and consideration that your company gives all public disclosures with regard to &#8220;forward-looking statements&#8221; and &#8220;material&#8221; information.</p>
<h3>Trademark</h3>
<p>Trademarking the name of your company, logo, mottos and domain name is an important part of your business development and should be reflected on your website. Your nationally registered marks should display an � and unregistered marks should display a � or SM.</p>
<h3>User Agreement</h3>
<p>Having a user agreement or &#8220;terms and conditions&#8221; may be the most important part of a website. A user agreement requires each user to agree to be bound by a contract governing his or her use of the site by clicking &#8220;I agree&#8221; before being permitted to use the site.</p>
<p>Be aware that simply posting your legal agreement without forcing the user to click &#8220;I agree&#8221; prior to use is unlikely to bind your users to the terms. The user must take an active step through which she agrees to the terms and must not be allowed to proceed to use the site without such step.</p>
<p>A user agreement allows a company to:</p>
<ul>
<li>dictate how the site may be used (for example, for reading and printing materials)</li>
<li>dictate how the site may not be used (for example, reverse engineering the coding tricks, copying content, for illegal purposes)</li>
<li>dictate who may use the site (for example, persons over 18, US citizens)</li>
<li>dictate procedures or policies for the site (for example, return policies, complaint policies, notification of copyright infringement policies)</li>
<li>dictate your company&#8217;s waiver of implied legal warranties (for example, implied warranties of noninfringement, fitness for particular purposes, etc.)</li>
<li>dictate the limit of your company&#8217;s liability for the site, other users postings on your site, sites you link to, etc.</li>
<li>dictate jurisdiction for any disputes relating to the site</li>
</ul>
<h3>View Source</h3>
<p>The ability for users to view the source code of nearly all websites by using the &#8220;view source&#8221; command in browsers means that the source code for your website is not protectable by trade secret law.</p>
<p>For something to be protected by trade secret law, it must not be publicly known, the owner must take some effort to keep the information secret, and the information must have monetary value to the owner. If the information is publicly available on the web through &#8220;view source,&#8221; the information is not a trade secret.</p>
<h3>Warranties</h3>
<p>Statements on your website about your products and services are express warranties to customers. It is important to carefully review all website text to be sure that what your company promises is true and corresponds with its other policies and advertising.</p>
<p>When you review, look for statements that are absolute statements which may be hard to prove or verify if the Federal Trade Commission were to request that you do so. Examples of such statements are: &#8220;Our printer works with all software,&#8221; &#8220;Our services are the best,&#8221; and &#8220;We guarantee that our product will always perform perfectly.&#8221;</p>
<p>Also, be aware that the FTC has specific guidelines that should be followed for use of the words &#8220;free&#8221; and &#8220;guarantee&#8221; in advertising or on your website.</p>
<p>Also, review your website to be sure that the text matches your regular business contracts. For example, your website should not promise a 60-day money-back guarantee if your contract states only a 30-day warranty.</p>
<h3>XXX</h3>
<p>If your site contains adult materials, be sure to consult your attorney regarding special legal requirements regarding notice prior to entering the site, notice requirements under federal regulations and other laws applicable to the adult entertainment industry.</p>
<h3>Your Risk</h3>
<p>The law is all about risk. The more time and money you spend following laws and regulations governing your business, the lower your risks of fines or successful claims by government or third parties.</p>
<p>Originally Posted on: <a href="http://www.suncoastglobal.com">Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com</a></p>


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