So you think you want to buy a body shop? A body shop can be a great investment if you have the skills necessary to make it work, and are willing to do the business actions necessary to bring in the business and keep the business profitable. I would like to help you work out if you really want to buy a body shop and, if you do, what kind of shop would be best for you.

Do you have the skills to buy a body Shop?

Most successful body shop owners come from inside the industry. They are occasionally body and/or paint men who worked in the production area as a teenager or as a young adult. This education is extremely valuable and, if you are buying a shop doing less than $1,000,000 in sales per year, is an absolute necessity.

Some owners learned the business as an estimator, working for a body shop or as an insurance adjuster out in the field for an insurance company. Another group of buyers have had no body shop experience but they grew up around cars and love them. This buyer should only buy a shop where he has a family member with experience, in the business that will be working with him or where the seller agrees to stay for 1 year and teach the buyer every part of the business.

Towing company owners sometimes want to expand into a body shop. This type of buyer has a lot of understanding about the business but needs a shop where experienced staff is staying with the company. The last group is composed of business people who figure they can run any kind of business. This type of buyer can make if he has at least one family member with experience and the buyer is a very good sales person.

Are you willing to do the business actions necessary to do the business?

In this section I would like to discuss which actions are absolutely necessary to be successful in running a body shop and if not done will guarantee failure.

The single most important action that must be taken by any new body shop owner is to bring in new business. This is twofold. 1. Everyone wants more volume and you bought the shop based on your belief you can do more volume than the last owner. 2. You must replace the volume that will be lost by the transfer to you the new owner.

You get this new volume from several sources:

1. One of them is not DRP Contracts. DO NOT BUY A SHOP BASED ON THE BELIEF THAT YOU WILL GET DRP CONTRACTS IN THE SHOP UNLESS YOU HAVE AN AGREEMENT BEFORE THE PURCHASE TO GIVE YOU SUCH BUSINESS.

2. Rental car companies. This business is relatively easy to get but you do not want to rely on this business over the long term. It is not profitable enough to cover all your fixed costs, even though it will contribute to covering the rent.

3. New Car Dealerships. This is full retail price business but the dealership will expect you to buy their business by giving them a few thousands of dollars a month or some other compensation. Remember if you can steal the business from someone else, then someone else can steal the business from you.

4. Used car dealers and auction cars. This is a good source of business with most of the money being made on buying and selling cars. This tends to be stable business if you like this kind of work.

5. Referral business. These are national body shop groups that make national deals and for 10-15% of the income will send you car work. This is a very expensive way to get business and in the end is not profitable.

6. Corporation Accounts/Fleet Accounts. This is one of the two best ways to get business. Some companies do self-insurance. Others have insurance. Regardless, a salesman can get them to send you all their business by offering good service or other remuneration (Compensation.) Corporation accounts are quite often at full price or some reasonable discount. Some people offer to drop the deductible or give some other kind of a discount.

7. Off the street. This is the best business is the whole world if you can get them in the door and keep them in the door. This is where location plays an important part in getting the business. Visiting all the businesses in the neighborhood and offering discounts to their employees or other employee benefit for coming to you can get this business. This type of business is what a good salesperson dreams of. Most established businesses tell me they did this originally but stopped going out and selling when they got busy. Funny isn’t it? The action that made you busy cannot be done any more because you are too busy. This is how you build a shop’s volume without DRP contracts. This is a profitable business for the man who doesn’t mind selling and making friends with people.

Do I really want to buy a body shop?

If you are an adjustor and feel that your employer insurance company will give you a DRP contract in a specific area, you might have a high motivation to buy a shop in that area, even if its current volume is low. If you are expecting the existing clients to stay with you, after the sale, you have to do some research on this. If the clients are from corporate accounts, car rental companies, or just off the street, you are probably correct. If the clients come from personal relationships of the seller then forget it. People of like nationality have a greater chance of turning over personal relationships.

If you are buying a shop with DRP contracts currently, do not assume that you can keep them. In fact, you must assume you will loose them the day escrow closes. Do not buy a shop that has DRP contracts unless you already have a relationship with those same insurance companies at another shop you currently own. If you are reading my article, I can safely assume you are not a multiple shop owner currently. There are a few ways to buy a DRP shop and not loose the contracts but I cannot publish this information, in as much as the insurance companies will prevent my approach from working in the future.

If you do not want to do the marketing, then do not buy a body shop. PERIOD!

What kind of shop would works best for you?

Of course you want to decide based on the estimated volume that you expect to do, what size shop you need. If you expect the volume to remain the same then you figure the rent and profit based on that number. If you know you can bring in corporate accounts, dealerships and other business then you can use a bigger shop. If you expect to only have new business that you yourself bring in then a smaller shop may work perfectly.

If you get too big a shop the rent will kill you. If you get too small you will limit your possible volume unless you put in a second shift and keep an eye on that 2nd shift. There are larger capacity shops doing small volume that can be bought very cheap or reasonably.

There are smaller, very inexpensive shops available to use as a first time shop. Then after you learn the business and prove you can bring in volume, you can buy a bigger shop and sell off the smaller one. The best guarantee of success is to start small and grow bigger.

What you do not want is to buy a large shop that you cannot fill, thereby working for the landlord.

Conclusion

Keeping all of the above in mind and to not take on more than you can chew. Buy a shop that fits your personality and ability and then move up to the bigger shop when you have proven to yourself that you have done it and can do it again. If I can be of any assistance, I am here to help.

Guide 4 Shopping UK

Guide 4 Shopping as an interactive shopping directory that offers 100% cashback to online customers. Guide 4 Shopping has more than 2000 online stores with special offers, voucher and discount codes.

What is 100% cashback?

Guide 4 shoppers offers 100% cashback to online shoppers that means every time you shop from the listed stores on Guide 4 shopping, the merchant pays some money back to Guide 4 Shopping for referring that customer. Guide 4 Shopping pays that money to the customer as cashback in full. The aim of the service is to offer discount codes to online customers and also offer them cashback on the shopping through Guide 4 Shopping which they would not earn it by shopping directly from the store.

How Cashback work?

Guide 4 Shopping interactive system offers easy and absolutely Free registration to access thousands of retailers ie Boots, BHS, Next, Dabs, M&S, Tesco, Asda, Harrods and more to earn cashback on each purchase. Guide 4 Shopping has been working with these retailers to bring special offers, deals, voucher codes and cashback that are offered freely to online shoppers.

How much can I earn?

There is no limit on how much you can earn. The cashback earnings are based on your shopping budget. A typical home user could save up to £1000 per year on food, home accessories, mobile, electronics, clothes, jewellery, dvds, books, travel, hotel or car booking, insurance, loans, credit cards, gifts and much more. Simply login to Guide 4 Shopping and click on the store link, make the purchase and view your cashback in your Guide 4 Shopping account.

Earn Free Cashback

Customers can also earn Free cashback. Yes without spending a penny you can earn hundreds in Free cashback. Guide 4 Shopping pays £2.50 when you refer a friend that will register with Guide 4 Shopping. Your friend will register Free with us and start earning cashback from our services and you will be credited £2.50 in your account for referring him. It’s easy and quick to earn Free cashback. Please visit our Daily Clicks, Freebies, Draws, Competition and blog to earn unlimited Free cashback.

How can I register?

Simply go to www.guide4shopping.co.uk and click on register at the top of the page. Registration is Free and you can also bookmark your favourite stores in by clicking on Add to Wishlist. So sit back and wait. Register with Guide 4 Shopping UK today and start earning 100% cashback on all your online shopping.

Guide 4 Shopping Team

www.guide4shopping.co.uk

When looking to buy a new tablecloth it is important to ensure you know the dimensions of the table you wish to cover. After all, what would be worse than finding the perfect tablecloth only to discover that you didn’t know what size to buy? This would leave you with the following dilemma: Do you buy it anyway and hope for the best or decide to leave it and go away empty handed.

Making sure you are properly prepared before you start your shopping trip will help to solve this problem before it starts. Doing your homework first ensures that when you do find the right tablecloth, you will have all the necessary data at your disposal to make an informed choice. This will help to reduce the element of risk in terms of sizing.

Measuring your tablecloth is of course, not the only consideration. It is equally important to know how much fabric should be left at each end in order to create an overhang. Doing so will make sure that once you have got your carefully measured tablecloth home, it fits perfectly and creates the right impression.

There are two basic steps involved when it comes to measuring your table in order to get the right tablecloth measurements. As part of this guide, we will walk and talk you through them to make sure you get the perfect size for your table.

Step One

The first thing to do is measure the width of your table making sure that allow for an extra 40mm (20mm on each side) to overhang the sides of the table. Always remember to check the width of the tablecloth fabric against the width of your table. Providing it is wider, the material can be trimmed accordingly. If it is too narrow, then it will not cover the table adequately.

Step Two

Repeat step one but this time measure the table length. Remember to leave the same 40mm (20mm each side) overhang to make sure that the tablecloth has an equal drop on each side.

For instance, if you had a table that measured 2 metres by 1 metre, the amount of fabric you would require for your tablecloth would be approximately 2.5 metres.

By following these simple steps, it will help to make sure that when you buy your next tablecloth, the chances of getting it wrong are greatly minimised.

So, what are you waiting for? Why don’t you give it a try now and take a look through some of the excellent table covers on offer here at the Tablecloth Shop. All you need to do is find the tablecloth you desire from our excellent range and use your newly created measurements to find one that will look amazing on your table.

Japan is the most treasured place for the visitors due to its various shops offering diversified range of products. Shopping in Japan is always a unique experience as one can avail many exclusive products from different Japanese shops that have some rarest collection. Moreover these shops are well organized and maintained that provide a never to forget experience to the customers. Japanese shops have well behaved and patient staff, which intelligently handle all the customers and help them to buy products according to their choice. They treat the customers with due respect and understand the importance of customers in the shop. 

From high-tech electronics products to vital daily products, all can be safely and conveniently bought from the shops of Japan. Authorised tax free Japanese shops provide exemption from 5% consumption tax on the shopping of over ¥10,000 on selected items. Only Japanese international shop offers duty-free shopping. Apart from high technology based products, one can also buy many unique gift and souvenirs items from the Japanese shop which are not available outside of Japan.

Some of the most common shops, which can be easily found in all the markets of Japan,   are clothing shops offering new trendy clothes at competitive rates. Numbers of shops are available through which one can avail various attractive and designer clothes. Apart from this one can also find electronics shops, toys shops, auto spare parts shop etc. Most of the shops in Japan are usually open from 10am to 7pm. These shops are opened on weekends and holidays except some specialty stores. In Japan, one needs to pay 5% consumption tax in addition to the price. Japanese department stores are fun places to shop as they carry different kinds of traditional Japanese goods as well as the latest products.

Japan provides extraordinary shopping experience to people of every budget as this country has shops and market for every class and status. From shops equipped with latest facilities of reputed shopping complex to the ordinary shops of flea market, Japan has something to offer for each category of people. One just needs knowledge and understanding of every type of market and their shops to go for shopping at the right place. Japan also offers shopping experience to those who do not have enough money for shopping. Such people can make their visits to the shop of Japanese flea market where the products are available at quite reasonable price. Shops of flea market provide ease and convenience to the shoppers, as wide variety of products can be found here from electronic goods to clothing and cosmetics.

Hong Kong is probably the best shopping destinations in the world that offer various types of goods and services at reasonable costs. Hong Kong is also one of the world’s leading destinations that thrive in shopping mall tourism as well as retail therapy. In fact, Hong Kong is a shoppers’ paradise. For tourists visiting Hong Kong, shopping is not only a process of buying several exciting stuffs but also an important recreational as well as fun filled activity.

Since Hong Kong is a free international port, it keeps abreast with the world’s latest fashion trends and provides opportunities for the tourists to buy custom-free products that have been brought from across the world. No matter you want to shop fashion accessories, apparels, or electronic items, Hong Kong has superb options for all. Discussed further in this article are some of the most popular shopping areas in Hong Kong that are spread across its three major sections such as the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, and New Territories.

One of the most prominent shopping areas in the Hong Kong Island is the Central District, which is also the economic and financial hub of Hong Kong. With a fusion of designer outlets, high-end shopping malls, and old markets, shopping in the Central District is truly an enjoyable experience. For antique collectors, Central District’s such areas as the Cat Street and the Hollywood Road are a great choice, both of which are lined with a number of antique shops.

Likewise, if you want to shop fabrics, souvenirs, handbags, and other fashion accessories at bargain prices, then Des Voeux Road and Queens Road in Central District are some of the popular choices. Further, the Central District is home to the world’s longest outdoor covered escalator system, the Midlevel Escalator and Walkway System.

Another popular shopping area in the island is Causeway Bay, otherwise known as East Point. This significant shopping district is a great place to shop locally made as well as fashionable items from Japan, with an array of Japanese malls, prominent being the 13-storey Sogo Japanese department store, World Trade Center, Fashion Walk, and Lee Gardens.

Apart from these, Causeway Bay also contains such shopping options as Jardine’s Crescent, a popular open market, from where fashionable clothes and items can be bought at great prices. Many of the large scale department stores offer great shopping as well as dining experiences.

Prominent shopping areas in the island also include Admirality, which comes with a great number of shopping malls, departmental stores, upscale hotels, and recreational areas. Few among the shopping options available here are Pacific Place and Queensway Plaza. The Admirality stations link Hong Kong Island’s MTR Line with the Kowloon Tsuen Wan Line.

Among the significant shopping destinations in Kowloon are Mong Kok, which is a great place for shopping electronic items at bargain rates; Tsim Sha Tsui, an area designed especially for those who want to shop high-end fashion accessories; and Kowloon Tong, whose focal point is the mall Festival Walk, with more than 200 shops. When comes to New Territories, perhaps its most prominent shopping area is Tsing Yi, with a number of glitzy shopping malls.

With these scores of options, visitors touring Hong Kong can shop from morning to late night. But, certain important things have to be considered while shopping in Hong Kong. First of all, don’t get swayed away by illegal products. Since Hong Kong consists of a large number of stores selling same products at various prices, a smart shopper must shop around to compare prices and to buy a product at the possible least price. Likewise, it is advisable for the buyers to shop from stores or malls with membership of the Hong Kong Tourist Association.

Additionally, it would be better to shop an electronic item that carries some kind of guarantee or warranty. One can also approach night markets in order to shop several items at exceptionally cheap rates; however, these may not be attached with any kind of guarantee. Above all, do practice bargaining to buy a product in Hong Kong.

In case if you are convinced that you are deceived on purchasing a particular item in Hong Kong, then you could complaint it regarding by contacting the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) or via calling the Consumer Council Hotline at 2929 2222.

As EVP at MerchantAdvantage, one of my responsibilities is to analyze multiple shopping cart technologies before integrating storefront data into our Channel Management system.

This is an essential process as it ensures that an online merchant’s data is compliant with our data transport system from which we easily distribute data into various marketing channels, such as shopping comparison sites, comparison shopping engines, marketplaces, such as Amazon, Shop.com and Underbid, and other unique marketing channels such as m-commerce sites, such as iSave.com, mPoria.com, mShopper.com, and review and coupon sites, such as PowerReviews.com and MyCoupons.com.

As I do this, I have established 3 points of analysis to make the process as reliable as possible. As technology changes, and new marketing outlets emerge, I think it is important for each merchant to look at their shopping cart infrastructure and analyze the ease of portability of their data into other systems in order to keep ongoing marketing integration “surprise-less”.

Merchants should perform this type of analysis in between the busy season; let’s say before or after March – ergo after the holiday season and before the summer rush. My suggestion is that a technical person should compile a list of questions to ask their shopping cart vendor, in order to ensure that the online merchant fully understands the “power” and “limitations” of their shopping cart technology and how it allows the online merchant to utilize many other software technologies to help the online merchant grow their business.

To begin, here are some definitions to consider – just so we understand each other.

Portability: A shopping cart’s capacity to integrate into a totally disparate system without losing product data impact.

Data Impact: The scale of impact that product data has functioning independently within an online merchant’s or marketed outside of an online merchant’s website. Product data contained within a an individual shopping cart, and website, may have “high impact” on marketing — as product descriptions, manufacturing names, pictures, pricing, and general marketing is robust and current.

However, if incorrectly formatted and mapped to an outside “software system”, the robust product data will have a “low impact” if it is taken out of its current shopping cart technology infrastructure and put on/within a marketing. In order to maintain product data’s “high impact” it is essential to ensure that the original data is mapped to correspond to the required elements of a marketing channel. This might include updating and creating: varied coding requirements, dropping/eliminating symbols, dropping/eliminating line breaks, adding varied prices and inventories levels, changing pictures and product names, and updating marketing descriptions.

An example of something that can cause “low impact” data on marketing channels is a shopping cart’s capacity to output a “new” product file on a scheduled basis, without encoding or symbols. This type of “new and daily export” yields usable data and not blank columns, or duplicate columns, in a data feed to marketing feed, that then will be rejected.

Marketing Outlet or Channel: A separate system used to market product data and drive sales into an online merchant’s site or on another site on behalf of the online merchant.

Marketplace: A marketing channel where the purchase is made outside of the cart and orders are fulfilled by the merchant. The order may be processed by the marketplace or the merchant, but the merchant is somewhat invisible during the view and ordering process. Examples would be Amazon.com, Shop.com, and Underbid.com.

CSE: Comparison Shopping Engine, a.k.a. Comparison Shopping site. This is a marketing channel where the goal is to drive a consumer back to your shopping cart to complete the purchase there. CSEs may charge the merchant a pay-per-click pay-per-lead or commission from all sales referred by the CSE to the online merchant, such as couparison shopping sites do.

Parent /Child Relationship, Options: Many products have options associate with the product before a final purchase is made, i.e., size, color, etc. This is especially true with clothing. These options show up on web pages and the website directs the consumer to select certain options related to a product before the consumer proceeds to checkout. This is great when the purchase happens on the merchant’s website, but how does an online merchant handle all of these options when exporting data to marketing channels and having to deal with a myriad of taxonomy and mapping issues as they relate to each marketing channel?

To answer this, the online merchant must assess:

1. the origination point of the data within their shopping cart technology

2. the options available to access the date therein

3. portability issues (i.e. ease of output and export)

…ultimately forcing the online merchant to analyze how the data is stored in its rawest form in the original database.

Just because a shopping cart technology can export data does not mean that that data is exported in the “form” that you need it exported. For instance, some shopping cart technologies export feature creates new line items for each option; some may create a field with every possible color/size possibility, while others do not.

Essentially shopping cart technologies, while trying to “play well with other,” simply do not and export features inherent in many shopping cart technologies are not designed to sync easily with the many requirements that are essential to working with marketing channels.

This lack of syncing of data is why we created MerchantAdvantage – to make the communication between systems seamless – and is the NUMBER ONE BREAKING POINT for online merchants to work with, and integrate with, systems and marketing channels out side of the their shopping cart technology.

So what should an online merchant be asking themselves to work effectively and efficiently with marketing channels and other systems out side of their shopping cart technology?

Remembering the definitions I outlined above, here are the questions I ask of online merchants about their shopping cart technology before transporting their data to ensure that we have the same “highest impact” data on/within marketing channels. I would be glad to do it with any online merchant, just give us a call at MerchantAdvantage, or you can do it on your own.

5 Questions to ask about your company data & company to see if your shopping cart is portable:

1. Where will this data be used to market? Marketplaces, CSEs, other marketing channels?

2. Is there a unique identifier for each product that stays the same all of the time?

a. Is that unique number for joined products (options) referenced in all joined products (i.e., do child products reference parent – see definition above)?

3. Are there Product URLs and Image URLs? And do they work?

4. Are there encoded characters, ASCII Characters, Line-breaks, or data anomalies?

5. Can any product data export process be automated?

a. Is the location to where exports are updated and pushed to always available on the internet

b. Is the location updated on a scheduled basis that parallels your shopping cart technology cart updates and changes?

5 Questions to ask to see if your portability is optimized:

1. Is each piece of necessary data stored in separate fields or columns, i.e., manufacturer, manufacturer part number, or availability, and not all clumped together in one general description.

Special Note: Some marketing channels require this data in different orders and formatting unique to their marketing channel.

2. Are the marketing descriptions sensible and concise, containing all important data at the front of the description (within first 100 characters)?

Special Note: descriptions can be indexed/searchable and are usually trimmed to the first set of 100 characters.

3. Is the “Cost Field” present in the export?

Special Note: Adjustments to the “Pricing” and “Marketing” fields may be made at any time of the product data dispersion process.

4. Do the unique identifiers match competitors’ unique identifiers?

Special Note: Consumers will and can see your items when viewing competitors’ products on CSEs.

5. Does my data meet all of the requirements of each requested marking channel that I am trying to get/feed to?

Special Note: Each marketing channel requires different types and formats of data delivery.

Okay, now what?

My suggestions:

1. after each question has been answered and each possible point-of-failure has been addressed then you can move onto the planning and process of into which marketing channels you want to work with and feed your product catalog data.

2. You have taken the most important step of data feed integration and marketing, namely understanding what your shopping cart technology allows you to do and not to do and, most important, understanding what you need to do to make sure that you create and market the “highest impact” data to your marketing channels.

3. Integration is ready to be achieved.

Good luck and if you would like to make your life a lot simpler, give us a shout at MerchantAdvantage, we would be glad to work with you, and start feeding and having fun with over 100 marketing channels, cost effectively, with the most uptime, least surprises and zero technician’s heart attacks!!

Happy Holidays!

– Chip Arndt

chip@eTaildTail.com

chip@merchantadvantage.com

In the past, internet shopping was just a thing of science fiction. Shopping would usually mean strolling around for hours in shopping malls that seemed to never have exactly what you are looking for. If you wanted to shop at home, you would need to go through the thick mailed catalogs to locate the items you need.

Presently, everything that you need to do from communicating to banking can be conveniently and effortlessly done on your own computer at home. Shopping online has also become the best and easiest way to buy the rare and the not so rare merchandise.

However, for most people who are not yet very knowledgeable about the concept of online shopping and ecommerce, the use of credit cards for internet transactions could be a bit scary.

From the early days of the internet, a lot of companies offering online shopping have made great developments to make sure that they are able to maintain the excellent availability of their merchandise, proper shipping along with secure and convenient payment transactions.

Of course, online shoppers still need to be very vigilant and cautious particularly in giving out their personal details. With the right knowledge though, online shopping would prove to be more beneficial for modern consumers compared to conventional shopping.

As an online consumer, you would need to look for websites that offer comprehensive knowledge on setting up PayPal and Google checkout accounts, which would allow the storage of credit card information with a company that can then be used for future transactions with the other companies. There are also a lot of websites that teach consumers on making purchases on eBay and Amazon, as well as comparing prices and items on websites like PriceGrabber, BizRate and MSN Shopping.

 

Online shopping has never been so easy and fun. Find all the stores for everything you want to buy in one place. Online shopping in the first 51 days of the holiday season, from November 1 through December 21, was $24.71 billion, reports comScore, down 1 percent from the prior years haul. Online shopping is very popular among most Internet users. Almost 85 percent of web users in the United States shop online. Online shopping had never been safer and easier.

 

Product images in the shopping cart or order summary pages should represent the specific colors or styles selected by the customer. Products such as spare parts, both for consumer items like washing machines and for industrial equipment like centrifugal pumps, also seem good candidates for selling online. Retailers often need to order spare parts specially, since they typically do not stock them at consumer outlets — in such cases, e-commerce solutions in spares do not compete with retail stores, only with other ordering systems.

 

Call the phone number and ask questions to determine if the business is legitimate. Even if you call after hours, many companies have a “live” answering service, especially if they dont want to miss orders. Calling all fashion conscious ladies! I know that we all love shoes.

 

Email is not a secure method of transmitting financial information like your credit card, checking account, or Social Security number. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your financial information through an organizations website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browsers status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”).

 

Click banners that interest you, check the categories in the center column or the drop menu, or use the search box to find good stores. Shopping online brings great stores right to you, and makes comparison shopping easy! Click here to get organized with your beauty regime.

 

Shoppers tend to spend time browsing in stores on the weekends and then buy gifts online when they return to work, where they usually have the fastest internet connections. This pattern held true as well when on Monday, December 11th, consumers spent $556 million online. Shoppers can create countless combinations using a virtual model they can build and personalize to match their measurements – height, weight, and body shape – and a headshot photo to ensure that the style, color, pattern and fit are right. The 3D angle allows users to view garments on themselves from the front, side and back, and shoppers can also email images of their looks to friends and family to help them make final purchasing decisions.

 

Online shopping is really remarkably easy whether you are looking for the latest fashions or trying to keep up with the latest electrical gadgets and wizardry. It is the fastest growing multi-billion dollar business in the world; yet it is remarkable that the customer experience of online shopping itself has hardly changed since Amazon and others created it at the dawn of the web. Sites Larger brands have also benefited from the social shopping sites. Online shopping is the process of buying goods and services from merchants who sell on the Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, merchants have sought to sell their products to people who surf the Internet. Online shopping is great for toys, books, etc. But I can’t stand it for things that must be tried on.

 

Online shopping is popular mainly because of its speed and ease of use. Some issues of concern can include fluctuating exchange rates for foreign currencies, local and international laws and delivery methods. Online shopping is becoming a mainstay of American commerce and more people are comfortable with making purchases from Internet stores. If you have something that you are passionate about selling, consider opening an online store. Online shopping is one of the greatest aspects of the internet today. By choosing to shop online you will be able to enjoy many benefits, some of which are self explanatory, others that are not so apparent.

 

Online shopping is also making buying new and used merchandise easier. Online shopping is easier to do than ever before. You can find a bargain online, search for online shopping malls, find Internet auctions, search through luxury stores and comparison shop with multiple shopping search engines, and much more – all from the comfort of your own home. Online shopping is still new for most people. As a result, many people are afraid to give out their personal information and credit card (or bank account) data to a website.

 

Sites like ClimateCooler, an online shopping mall partnering with popular retailers, calculates the pounds of greenhouse gas produced in the manufacturing, shipping and selling of the product purchased. That amount of money, paid to Cooler from the retailer, is then invested in an organization to help eliminate greenhouse gas pollution. Site visitors have the chance to browse the Web page and even speak to a live mobility consultant.

 

Secure sites encrypt financial information so thieves cant pluck your account number off the Internet and run up unauthorized charges. At the bottom of the page where you enter your personal information, look for a padlock or unbroken key that signifies a secure Web site. Security management is the process of developing a comprehensive data protection plan. It takes into account all potential threats, the existing network environment, the future needs of the organization, and lays out a multi-tiered blueprint to integrate the security technology needed to combat these threats. Secure sites will also have a slightly modified Internet address. Rather than beginning with http://, the sites URL will begin with https://.

 

Amazon is probably the first store of its type on the Internet, but many more have opened since then. Today, instead of just books and videos, Amazon distributes products for a great deal of retailers including ToysRUs. Amazon will gift-wrap and send your purchase to whatever address you request. I only use the gift-wrap service when the gift will be held to be opened later – like childrens birthdays or Christmas.

 

Yet, sometimes you are faced with deciding if you want to make a purchase from a store with which you are completely unfamiliar. For instance, say you have been browsing for a while and you find a great buy on a cashmere sweater. Yet, it cannot be denied that staying ahead of the curve can be a tiring and time-consuming endeavor. Who hasnt come home from a long day at work and then realized they needed a new outfit for the office presentation on Friday? Get what you need from Country Merchantile

 

If you prefer to shop online locally, finding plus size clothing could be a challenging ordeal. Particularly if you are residing in the smaller towns and cities, plus size apparel could be hard to buy locally.

A lot of the local department stores carry a couple of plus size pieces, but they are not usually new stock and therefore, not very stylish and up-to-date. Sometimes, they are not very flattering and have poor quality. So, how would you be able to successfully find plus size items online?

With a search engine, try to do an online search for plus size clothing. You could also try plus size apparel. You would surely be generating thousand and thousands of results that you would need to sort through. You could just end up frustrated and not able to find what you need. It could be a waste of time especially if you are just looking for a simple black dress to purchase. So here are some tips to make your online shopping experience somehow easier.

Make sure that you are as specific as possible as you search online. Try to search for black dress plus size or plus size discount swimsuits.

You might also want to do an advanced search and place the search terms or words in quotes like “plus size swimsuits”. With the use of quotes in your online search, the search engine would be able to filter through the results and give you exactly what you want and need.

Also if you want an item in a specific color, try to include that in the search term that you would be typing. That would also be able to narrow down the results and make your shopping a lot easier.

Choosing the best shopping cart solutions for your launch into ecommerce is critical to the success of your online business. If you’re wanting to learn more about this sometimes confusing world, this guide will explain the points you should consider before purchasing a cart.

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What is a shopping cart?

In a basic definition, it’s a series of scripts that keep track of items a visitor picks to buy from your site until they proceed to the “checkout”. A popular misconception is that shopping carts handle the whole financial transaction, but they only really act as a front end which passes information via a secure connection (another service) to a payment gateway – a separate service altogether.

The payment gateway service then channels the requests and transfers throughout relevant financial networks, including the Internet merchant account with your bank. It then sends back confirmation or denial back to the shopping cart software. For further information on the “back-end” aspects of ecommerce; The good news is that there are literally hundreds of shopping cart packages available. The bad news is the same as the good. Sometimes, too many choices make it very difficult to make a decision – especially when all companies claim to have the superior product. I recently experienced this challenge by reviewing over 130 shopping cart programs. I hope this article may make your life just a little bit easier!

Free or premium shopping carts?

It’s very important before you begin reviewing software and services to be to be very specific in what you actually want the cart to be able to do. It may be that you really don’t require all the bells and buzzers offered by high end packages – if this is the case, then a good package will cost around the $US150 mark. Some companies offer free shopping carts, but bear in mind that nothing in this world is truly free – read the fine print.

Free ecommerce solutions

One of the best free ecommerce solutions around is Paypal, which integrates basic shopping cart functions with a payment gateway and merchant account – funds are paid to you via check or through direct deposit. Paypal is an excellent way to begin in ecommerce and is very widely accepted around the world.

You only pay a small percentage of each sale and there are no monthly fees or setup costs, plus you receive free fraud protection – no chargeback fees to worry about. Paypal also offers web developers a wide variety of easy to use tools to assist with rapid implementation.

What other features do shopping carts have?

Shopping cart software has come a long way in recent years, and many packages are so advanced that they are in effect entire store fronts. Some integrated elements of benefit to your online business you may wish to consider include:

Suggest sell/cross selling functions

Just as in the physical world, impulse buying via the Internet is quite common. Some shopping carts will suggest another product to complement a customers current selection. If offered at a discount rate, this strategy proves quite successful.

Quantity discounts/coupons

Many shopping carts now allow for the calculation of discount rates based on the number of units a customer wishes to purchase. Coupon functions allow you to issue special offers as part of your marketing campaigns. Usually, prospective clients are given special codes that are matched against a particular item or overall discount rate.

Autoresponders

If you follow up all your clients with regular email offers, you may want to consider shopping cart software that has integrated autoresponder capabilities – this will streamline your operations and can be used for maintaining other contact lists as well. Why buy two pieces of software when you can get them rolled into one?

Affiliate modules

One of the most effective, low cost ways to advertise your product is through an affiliate program. Your outlay is minimal if you only pay on performance; i.e. sales generated. An affiliate module can handle the signup process, provide statistics, streamline communications and keep track of payments to be made to affiliates.

Other features commonly incorporated into carts include inventory tracking, sales tax calculation and stationery creation/management.

There’s a number of questions you’ll want to ask yourself when compiling a shopping cart wish list:

What kind of shopping cart does my hosting service support?

Shopping cart scripts are written in many different coding formats – PERL, PHP, ASP just to name a few. Be sure to check with your host before purchasing a program. If you’re currently in the market for software or services and would like our recommendations, Please check our NextAge Shopping Cart software at http://www.nextagecart.com . They have a Powerful SEO Shopping Cart Script

What is my budget?

It’s easy to blow your budget on a turbo-charged shopping cart only to find that there were a number of other critical items you didn’t factor in – like a payment gateway, or the fact that the cart software may be so complex that you need to hire somebody else to assist in implementation!

What kind of delivery mechanisms will I require?

If you are selling hard goods that need shipping, choice of cart is a little easier as this is a standard function. Many carts also offer customers the ability to calculate different shipping options. If you are trading in soft goods such as software and want to make delivery available online immediately, you’ll need to carefully compare carts.

As an example, some shopping carts that are capable of delivering goods online redirect customers to a static download page after a successful transaction. This isn’t a good idea as the customer (and his/her friends) are able to return to the page to download again and again. A better equipped shopping cart will only provide customers with a temporary URL, that will be unique to that customer and may only be available for a few hours after purchase before it is deleted.

Another strategy employed by some carts for soft goods online delivery is to use a static URL for downloading, but scripting is implemented to ensure the visitor to the page has come via the shopping cart after a successful transaction has occurred.

Yet another soft goods delivery means used by carts is that the software is attached to an email sent to the customer after a successful transaction. This may be suitable for very small files, but I don’t think many ISP’s would appreciate you sending 20 megabyte attachments to a customers inbox – in fact, it would not be possible in many instances.

Where will my business be in 6 months time?

Does the package allow for scalability? While you may not require bells and buzzers now, as your business grows you may find that your needs change. The better shopping carts are in a modular format which allow for scalability with minimum downtime. Be sure to check the prices of modules you may need in the future. It isn’t uncommon for companies is to offer the base model for next to nothing and then to charge like wounded bulls for any upgrades.

Is the cart software compatible with my payment gateway?

There are dozens of different payment gateways which plug into various shopping cart packages – but perhaps not yours! Before purchasing your cart, also review gateway services supported by the software (and also make sure that the payment gateway is compatible with the Internet merchant account you have with your bank). It can be a bit of a challenge getting the cart you want to talk to the gateway service you want and also to your bank! Read our guide to

What kind of payments are supported by the cart?

Credit card transactions are now a normal part of our online world. If your shopping cart software does not support credit card transactions or if you have not enabled credit card processing, you’re in trouble – you may as well just close up shop!

There are still some customers who will refuse to use a credit card over the Internet, so you will need to be able to offer other forms of payment – e.g. money orders, echecks etc.

What about disaster planning?

A good shopping cart application will have excellent support for backing up files and allowing for export into a variety of formats. Flexible exporting functions will also be of value in the future should you need to change carts and wish to import existing data into a new application. If you’re currently in the market for software or services and would like our recommendations, Please check our NextAge Shopping Cart software at http://www.nextagecart.com . They have a Powerful SEO Shopping Cart Script

What level of support will I need and receive?

All shopping cart providers will tell you that their software is simple to install and configure. Few will be actually correct in making that statement. If you don’t have the technical expertise to configure your shopping cart, get quotes from the company or a third party contractor to undertake this work for you.

Test out the support system by sending a query to the sales department – if they don’t respond quickly this is usually a good indicator that after sales support will be even worse!

Also, read the fine print before parting with your hard earned cash – you may find that technical support will be charged out per incident.

Some shopping cart software companies also offer user forums as part of their service. This is an excellent bonus. If you are having problems with setting up your scripts, no doubt someone else has experienced the same issues and may be willing to help you out.

Be sure to review the company’s “bug” policy; i.e. if a error in the software is fixed and an updated version is released, will you be entitled to recieve that upgrade or patch at no cost.

While I am all for supporting the solo programmers, a shopping cart is so crucial that it may not be wise to purchase a product from a one-man operation as customer support may not be efficient. If you’re currently in the market for software or services and would like our recommendations, Please check our NextAge Shopping Cart software at http://www.nextagecart.com . They have a Powerful SEO Shopping Cart Script

Remotely or locally hosted shopping cart?

Some shopping cart programs can be purchased as stand alone programs or as pay per month services hosted on another companies’ server. Remotely hosted options usually allow for extensive customization of pages to fit in with your sites look and feel.

Remote hosting advantages

Fast implementation, secure connection supplied, monitoring of service and usually many other features are offered as part of the service. Because the cart is actually hosted on another server, you can also save on bandwidth charges – especially if your products are soft goods and delivered online.

Some remotely hosted shopping carts are in effect total marketing solutions, containing options to run affiliate programs and the ability to send sequential pre-defined messages to clients and leads. Some of these services are excellent for people ‘testing the water’ as they also include gateway services and even an Internet merchant account!

If you are looking for features without needing to spending thousands of dollars up front, remotely hosted may be the way to go. Plan on spending at least US$60 per month for these kinds of services. Compare prices carefully – I have seen one company charge US$200 a month for the same service provided by another for $US59 per month. Remember, this added recurring expense will need to be taken into account when establishing a price level for your products and services.

Remote hosting disadvantages

What happens if the company goes belly up overnight? Remote hosting also tends to give you less control over how cart pages display. If you are going to use a remotely hosted service, check the company history carefully. Some operators have also been known to ‘harvest’ your client databases for spamming purposes.

Local hosting advantages

Total control over the software, no ongoing fees.

Local hosting disadvantages

Time spent in installation, configuration and maintenance, greater initial outlay, requires SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to be enabled on your site which usually incurs an extra charge per month.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider before purchasing shopping cart software or services. It is very important to remember that the shopping cart is only one part of your ecommerce arsenal. Without an effective payment gateway and Internet merchant account (sometimes these are combined), the cart is useless.

Don’t rush your decision to purchase based on marketing hype – the future of your business is at stake!