3 Anchors That are Pivotal to Online Payment Success

Online e-commerce is a world of fast moving information and even faster decision making. Having an online presence is a concern for most small business owners, but keeping up with the rapid pace can be inundating. While it’s tempting to stay behind and focus on what you’re innately comfortable with, you could be missing out on massive opportunities to grow your business. Instead of focusing on the minute-by-minute changes, let’s hone in on the anchors of online payment processing. Gaining autonomy in these areas will enable you to be a powerhouse in every capacity of your business.

1. Finding and Establishing Your Niche

This is a foundation for every business, but it’s even more important online. You have approximately 9 seconds to tell your potential consumers what you do best and how you will make their lives better with your products and/or services. Your messaging needs to be concise and consistent across every channel you’re utilizing. It sounds obvious, but many businesses struggle to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. This is very crucial to your online success.

2. Technology is Your Vessel for Success

The very word technology is synonymous with the word anxiety for more traditional entrepreneurs. Yet successful businesses utilize technology to enhance their customer experience, while remaining true to their mission. No matter the size of your team, payment technology, like a payment gateway, will help you consolidate a multitude of tasks and increase your production output. Basic e-commerce technology isn’t as complicated or as pricy as one would imagine. These tools will usually consist of:

i. Website/CMS: Your website is the front gate of all of your online sales. Some business owners find it easier to host their products on shared shopping platforms, however this limits the control you have over your product or service. Shopping platforms also have fees and costs associated with hosting that will subtract from your sales. You can eliminate any unnecessary fees and product competition creating a website yourself. Website building is becoming easier to do. Content management systems (CMS) like Wordpress are easy to navigate and have an array of features to make you successful right out of the gate. Having coding experience does help, but it’s not a requirement to handle a CMS. Many of them are designed for simple drag and drop layouts to give users a sleek design without the extra time or stress.

ii. Shopping Cart/Payment Gateway: Having a beautiful website will be for naught if your shopping cart is difficult to use. There are simple add-ons you can install on your website to enable an easy checkout experience. Having a payment gateway to secure the credit card transaction is important as well. This is where you’ll need to collaborate with a processor to ensure these details are seamlessly integrated.

iii. Point of Sale Systems/POS: POS software can be a fantastic time savor for any business team. They usually have higher price points, but the ROI is well worth the expense. Some POS systems can generate a website and shopping cart for a more cohesive experience for you and the end user. Majority of POS systems are designed to integrate both online and in-store features to maximize operations and production quality at every facet of the business. Do your research and see what options will best fit your particular business needs.

3. Fulfilling Your Promises on Time

Once you’ve established your website and payment setup, you’ll have to ensure that your products are delivered in a timely fashion. It’s crucial that businesses have a fulfillment solution that is fast and simple. You will need to consider where your clientele is purchasing from and what costs are associated with shipping and handling. You will have to monitor of these issues as time continues.

The important thing to remember is that effective e-commerce is attainable for almost any business. Some entrepreneurs find they thrive more online than having a physical location. Many of these resources are extremely cost effective to implement.  TransNational Payments has been an industry leader in merchant services for close to 20 years, providing the best support for credit card processing.