eCommerce@2Byt.com

Many of those who surf the Internet will have come across the term, ‘ecommerce gateway’. Have you stopped to find out what it means? Most of you probably have not because you were busy doing something else over the net during that time and did not want to stop your work. Ecommerce gateway is actually the “gateway” from your site to the merchant account. This is the “gate” through which processing of your payments is done, whether it is by credit card or any other form of payment. Ecommerce gateway is better known as the payment gateway, because it is closely related to payment.

Features and Factors

The ecommerce gateway will basically cover sale facilitating features like shopping carts, merchant accounts, web hosting and so on. Other less known services are also offered which depend upon the type of ecommerce the site:

1. Virtual terminal – this is the place where a customer can place an order after using the ‘help’ or ‘contact us’ button to enquire about your product. Many people dislike the fact that they need to go back to the home page and again navigate to the item they are interested to buy. They would rather just place the order after their questions and/or concerns have been clarified. 2. Fraud alert – this is something that most payment gateways have build within, just like a bank has an inbuilt alarm. Sometime this alarm gives false alarms, but most of the time it is accurate. By using a good fraud prevention system you save yourself and others from a lot of problems. Many will include special features such as AVS or address verification system where the details given by a customer at registration time is checked for accuracy, matching the name mentioned on the credit card with that who received the goods, as well as the three digit number that the credit cards have on their backside for additional safety, etc. 3. Recurring billing – this is something most gateway do for regular customers. By this process, you will need to key in your payment information only once on the site. After that everytime you make another purchase, the site will recover your information and before checking it out with the customer for any change, it is processed. This saves the customer time and effort. 4. Other types of payment – some gateways provide processing of e-checks though this method is really not very popular as it is slow and difficult to process.

Ecommerce fulfillment services means that the process that goes into the delivery of the product/service from the time it is ordered to the time it is delivered to the customer’s door step. Many sites will outsource this feature to a third party or an ecommerce fulfillment services vendor who will handle this process on behalf of the organization.

Need to Know

What do you need to know before hiring one such vendor organization? I have highlighted a few of the fundamentals in this article:

1. Receiving – how do they procure their goods from the suppliers and how much time does it take to do so? 2. Inventory – the cost of a ecommerce fulfillment services is highly influenced by this aspect. Many customers leave the site for good if after they have ordered an item, they are met with the answer that product is not available. This information should be available before the customer starts placing an order. 3. Shipping of the goods – this is one of the most crucial features of the ecommerce fulfillment services offered. The vendor should be able to adjust the shipping process according to the needs of the customer 4. Enquiry/ Tracking of the order – this is a feature which is extremely popular with the customer who needs to know where and in what stage of processing his/her order is at any given moment. 5. Return and refund – This part is very sensitive and many times the real test of the ecommerce fulfillment services offered. The customer should be able to refund an item he/she is not satisfied with without too much fuss and formalities. If the customer finds that he/she have to go through a lengthy and cumbersome process to get what a refund, then you can bet that you will loose him/her as a customer. 6. Record keeping – the services should be able to track and store all information that covers the fulfillment of an order, right from the start to delivery. This is usually done through specially designed software which is well within the means of even small size ecommerce businesses. 7. Online payment processing – without this, the online business will most likely close down. The fulfillment vendors should be able to process all payments online.

The list goes on and on. You can add any type of service to it that you think will add value to the process for the customer.

If you are as green as I was when I started with the Internet, you will be totally lost in the world of Internet terminology. So, what is ecommerce fulfillment? In simple words, it is the process by which an order/purchase need is completed, starting from the time it is booked on the Net, to the time it is delivered at the door step of the customer.

Focus and Achieve

In order to have the best and offer the best ecommerce fulfillment you will need to be very focused in what you want and how to achieve it. In ecommerce your highest aim is to get the customer to buy your product, and keep him/her coming back for more. Let us see how we can achieve this:

* Be very wise with words when you disseminate information. Be specific and avoid unnecessary verbosity. People really do not want to read two full paragraphs before proceeding to the nest step for placing an order. * Organize your site keeping in mind the navigational skills of a beginner Internet user, not masters; keeping it simple makes navigation a pleasure and whets curiosity. Even the most promising sites will repel you if you have too complicated processes to access the information you seek. * Put the customer first. Do not focus the too much attention on your introduction, rather you must focus on what the customer needs from you. * Have the main page posted with relevant links which can take the customer to the topic they wish to learn more about. Not everyone will want to know everything about your site; do not waste the customer’s time with too much information. * Have the ‘contact now’ button on all pages so that the customer does not need to go back and forth to find it. Also, this will be very helpful to you, when people copy and send the link of a page (where an item is described) to friends; when they do not have a contact or order button on the page, they will most likely forget about it. * Have the buttons that are important for the customer in places where they can be seen immediately. These would be the ‘Contact us’ , ‘FAQ’, ‘Price list’, ‘Availability’, ‘About us’ and so on type of buttons. * Keep the clicks towards the completion of the purchase to the minimum possible. There is nothing more annoying that to keep clicking on this and that forever before you finally close the deal.

Ecommerce fulfillment is all about pleasing the customer and doing a great job out of it. When you are doing a great job with ecommerce fulfillment you will surely begin to have as many repeat customers as new ones.