2006 April

If you are buying or selling anything on the Internet you are undoubtedly aware of the many advantages Paypal and companies like it offer. A reasonably priced and simple alternative to merchant accounts, Paypal has become nearly irreplaceable to online charities and businesses alike. In fact, payment processors like Paypal are often the only choice for new businesses since merchant accounts require extensive security information and prohibitively high initial fees.

If your online store has become an online warehouse and you’re wondering where to put your piling up inventory or if you would like to try to increase your profits by expanding your line of products but are reluctant to commit money to something you’re unsure of then dropshipping could be for you.

Merchant accounts are special bank accounts set up to receive customer payments usually by credit card. It is often difficult for new online businesses to open a merchant account with a traditional bank. Banks, fearing fraud and other difficulties, are historically reluctant to trust small Internet merchants. In the face of complicated applications, expensive security deposits, and out right refusal many on line stores turn to payment processors like Paypal. …

For quite awhile now small online and catalogue mail order businesses have been relying on drop shipping to fill their customer orders. For those still unfamiliar with the process it works like this; let’s say an online store sells digital cameras and uses a drop shipper to fill these orders. When a shopper purchase a camera the merchant passes the order along to his or her drop shipper. The shipper …

For several years now people buying or selling larger ticket items on line have been turning to escrow services to protect both sides of a transaction. In brief the buyer deposits payment with the escrow service that then lets the seller know the money has been received. The seller then ships the item and the buyer lets the escrow service know the item has been received and the service releases …

Just about any product you can imagine is available somewhere on the Internet. Millions of online retailers are trying to reach million and millions of potential customers everyday. So many in fact, that the world of online shopping is something of a trackless wilderness. It can sometimes take days of searching to find that perfect product at the right price. Often times those without a fair amount of web experience …

The expense and reliability of shipping is one of the great headaches of owning a small Internet business. Especially in these days of rising gasoline prices merchants are always looking for ways to reduce the expense of getting merchandise to customers. It has historically been the case that either the United States Postal Service or United Parcel Service has met most small businesses’ shipping needs. These two both provide good …

Ebay is engaged in talks with the Luxembourg based Skype with an eye towards buying the Internet phone company according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that the auction site is offering between $2 and $3 billion from their seemingly bottomless supply of cash.

As most auction site resellers already know eBay has recently raised its fees again. The auction giant has increased its fees by 60% with no corresponding improvement in services beyond a promise to improve its much maligned telephone customer support. The monthly basic store fee went from $9.95 to $15.95. The 10-day standard listing fee doubled from $.20 to $.40. While refusing to comment on what the rate increase meant …

If you have an email address chances are you

Online payment provider Paypal has once again become embroiled in a controversy likely to further tarnish the company

On Wednesday, August 31st, Paypal announced that it is extending its micro-payment system to include inexpensive digital content as well as the music downloads it has been doing for some time. This is a big step forward in the struggle to bring convenience and appeal to the world of low cost online purchases.

It looks as if Internet colossus Google is getting into the payment provider business. The Wall Street Journal reported that the new payment systems would be launched this year in an attempt to compete with eBay’s Paypal. Google also hopes to become less dependent on advertising revenue, which at present makes up nearly all of the company’s earnings. The Journal also mentioned sources close to the company as confirming the …

There is a saying that goes

China is frequently predicted to become the largest online market in the world within a few years. The growth of China ‘s computer users is however hampered by low personal incomes that lead to low personal spending. Despite an average income in the cities of about $1,000 a year China has over 100 million Internet users. Only the United States has more.