Target the Little Guy. This Could be a Reely BIG Shoo!

Written by Mike Banks Valentine


Continued from page 1

I have to admit that I attend these shows partly as agitator forrepparttar cause ofrepparttar 108988 little guy. Nobody wants to "find" that sector ofrepparttar 108989 market as it is inevitably fragmented and hard to reach. But Oracle has seenrepparttar 108990 light and Microsoft is afterrepparttar 108991 little guy with their own suite of tools through their small business portal, bCentral.com offering a far less power- ful suite of solutions broken up into modules to appeal torepparttar 108992 penny-pinching needs of small business owners.

As forrepparttar 108993 AIIM show, I found an email solution offered by one company AIIMing at BIG boys of ecommerce who became VERY interested when I suggested they seek out a partner to buy their software and offer it as a hosted solution to small businesses. Fifty percent ofrepparttar 108994 economy? Yeh! That's worth persuing! Damn! I gotta mention that inrepparttar 108995 business devel- opment meeting on Monday! This could be BIG!

I'm so glad he thought of that! Damn! Why has BIG business mostly abandonedrepparttar 108996 small business market? Some ofrepparttar 108997 most successful corporations rely primarily onrepparttar 108998 small business market to becomerepparttar 108999 megalithic behemoths they are.

Staples, Office Depot, Costco, Home Depot and dozens of BIG corporate discount stores got huge by offering solutions (read, cost savings) torepparttar 109000 small business person. Where isrepparttar 109001 ecommerce superstore? How about eDepot.com? (The name has been reserved, could it berepparttar 109002 small business ecommerce superstore arriving at last?) Shopping carts, payment gate- ways, merchant accounts, web hosting, site development, SEO services, ebusiness software, do-it-yourself-ebooks and tutorials. I wish I'd thought of that! Wait, I did!

Oooooh, if only I had some venture capital or angel investors! Not to say that this idea hasn't been badly attempted by some well-meaning small busines portals. The problem has always been that they partner with BIG businesses who insist on immediate, BIG growth and vast volumes of business before losing interest and pullingrepparttar 109003 plug on 50% ofrepparttar 109004 economy.

How BIG a market is 50% ofrepparttar 109005 ecommerce pie? Must BIG dogs eat ravenously atrepparttar 109006 market beforerepparttar 109007 scraps are left torepparttar 109008 little guy scavengers? Go forrepparttar 109009 vast quantity that is represented byrepparttar 109010 little guy and stop relying on premium prices andrepparttar 109011 rare BIG single purchase by monopolistic corporations. Why just rely onrepparttar 109012 fortune 500 when you could just as easily taprepparttar 109013 Fortune Five Million?

Let me see now . . . 157 Billion dollars in Ecommerce divided downrepparttar 109014 middle is just under $78 Billion for small business. Market worth persuing? Doh!

Mike Valentine does Search Engine Placement for the Small Business http://website101.com/Search_Engine_Positioning WebSite101 "Reading List" Weekly Netrepreneur Tip Sheet Weekly Ezine emphasizing small business on the Internet http://website101.com/arch/


Alternative Online Payment Systems

Written by Godfrey Heron


Continued from page 1

Establishing your own merchant account for credit card processing and installing a shopping cart can easily run into hundreds of dollars. In addition there arerepparttar ubiquitous monthly minimum fees and address verification fees (a proven anti-fraud strategy).

WPS providers don't levy application setup or monthly charges, and repparttar 108987 costs are competitive with Credit Card transaction processing charges. These average at $0.35 and 2.5% per transaction.

EASE OF USE / CONVENIENCE

Although WPS providers intimate that their services are very user- friendly,repparttar 108988 fact ofrepparttar 108989 matter is that WPS services are not as easy to use as credit card systems. WPS services requirerepparttar 108990 user/ customer to register with them, if they have not already done so. Now this is a major disadvantage as it interruptsrepparttar 108991 flow of "impulse" purchases. Potential customers have been known to abandon shopping carts for even less interuptive purchasing hiccups.

Onrepparttar 108992 merchant side, payments received in WPS accounts are not automatically lodged to your bank account. The merchant will have to manually claim and then transfer payments into their bank account. With credit card merchant accounts your account is automatically updated.

CASH FLOW EFFECT

Having your own merchant account will certainly increaserepparttar 108993 flow of funds to your bank book. While a merchant account provider will hold your funds to prevent charge backs losses,repparttar 108994 period of time is usually relatively brief, about 48 hours. Expect to wait for at least a week before money appears inrepparttar 108995 account of WPS providers.

CUSTOMER PERCEPTION

At this point in time credit cards arerepparttar 108996 medium of choice and a business that uses only WPS providers asrepparttar 108997 means of receiving payments may appear to be amateurish and "small-fry". Inrepparttar 108998 online world, where site visors don't have a face to relate to, perception is critical, andrepparttar 108999 ability to accept credit cards has been held as a mark of an established, feet onrepparttar 109000 ground firm.

CONCLUSION

There are definite advantages to using WPS providers. They should however be used as backup payment services or in conjunction with merchant accounts. Its always to your advantage to presentrepparttar 109001 customer with as much payment options as possible.

The following is a list of WPS providers:

http://www.paypal.com http://www.c2it.com http://www.westernunion.com http://www.billpoint.com



Godfrey Heron is the Web site Manager of Irieisle Online a leading web hosting and design company. Hosting solutions Starting from US$9.95. http://www.irieisle-online.com




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