Facebook is a social networking site that lets people connect and communicate with family, friends and coworkers, and share messages, photos, videos and games. With Facebook’s widespread reach, the idea of leveraging its popularity to promote businesses is catching on like wildfire. Facebook has become a marketing tool that provides business owners an opportunity to effectively engage customers, without a spending a fortune on advertising.

The fact is that people spend a lot of time on Facebook and as a business owner, you can use it to communicate with your most loyal customers. Unlike individual or personal accounts that can only have a maximum of 5,000 online friends, a fan page is not bound by any limitation as to how many people can “Like” it. Thus, depending on how you promote your page, you can direct an infinite number of fans and their network of friends to your online store (case in point, as of this posting, there are 19,874,022 people who “Like” Starbucks while Coca-cola has 22,899,244).

For easy recall and for use on your website and especially print collateral, be sure to secure your business’s Facebook username. When you first create your page, the URL is the Facebook domain, followed by you page name and a long string of number. Not easy to remember (e.g., www.facebook.com/pages/your-fan-page-name/123456XXXX00000). You can change that to a much simpler www.facebook/yourbusinessname once you reach at least 25 likes.

We all know that word-of-mouth advertising is far more effective than anything a business owners could advertise themselves, short of giving stuff away (which they often do on Facebook). It is fair to say that the people who hit the Like button on your fan page are loyal customers or at least interested in your products. Since all wall posts and messages will be seen by these fans, you are assured that you are reaching the right audience, and that your message will be spread virally (the phenomenon that occurs when word-of-mouth meets the web).

Another way businesses are using Facebook is as a customer service tool. As long as you are keeping up with customer feedback regularly, you can address customer concerns right away. What people are saying about your product, or business in general, can inform your future marketing efforts and how you conduct business.

Lastly, if you wish to spend additional advertising dollars, Facebook can help target your advertising to particular segments and charges either by impressions or click throughs. Creating a Facebook ad is as simple as clicking on the sidebar promoting this offering (usually on the right side). Next, upload your image/ad, then select age, location, gender, education, occupation, relationship status, interests and languages. Facebook gathers these details from user’s personal profile and presents the number of users who match these criteria.

Facebook is where the people are, so it’s only natural for many businesses to take advantage of its marketing opportunities. Make the most of it and you can stay connected with your customers while promoting your business. Like?

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One of the most powerful marketing tools for an eCommerce business is email marketing. Email marketing is inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising and is inherently trackable as emails contain embedded links to your site or a designated landing page.

One of the more frequent questions I get asked is “How often should companies be sending emails?”  This really depends on your company and the type of business you’re in. Generally speaking, you don’t want your readers to experience “email fatigue” and unsubscribe from your list.  You can’t keep people from opting out but by segmenting your list, you reduce the likelihood that a reader will unsubscribe.

One good way to segment your list is to group the subscribers by the date of the customers’ last activity or by what they purchased (or category of the purchase). By segmenting your lists, your email marketing efforts will be more targeted and hopefully, more relevant to your customers.

It’s important to create compelling emails that will entice your recipient to open your message.  Most people already have nightmarish quantities of emails to sift through so your email subject line needs to grab their attention. Getting readers to open your message is half the battle. A nice touch is to address the reader by their first name but ultimately, it’s about tailoring your content or offer to the customer.

There are a number of occasions to use email marketing: reaching out to past customers, offeri special deals to current customers or just to let customers know about current specials, promotions, contests, new store openings and other company news.

There are some types of emails that can run on auto-pilot, once set up. These include drip campaigns that offer up a series of strategic product promotions relevant to your customers.  Order confirmation, shipment confirmation and abandoned cart emails should be triggered when a set action has taken place. These should be set up as auto-generated form letters to work behind the scenes so you don’t need to worry about them on a daily basis. These email templates should be reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure they are still up-to-date and relevant to the recipient.

Timing is Critical

There is one category of emails that needs to be sent promptly and that is the order confirmation email. Immediately after a customer checks out, send a follow up email thanking them for their purchase, along with a receipt or billing status, order status, tracking and shipping info, if available. Again, this type of email should be set up to automatically go out after a customer has completed a transaction. Providing this information is an ecommerce best practice that customers have come to expect. It also reduces the volume of “where’s my order” calls that can tie up your customer service department.

Give customers a reason to sign up

There are many ways to incent people to sign up to receive your emails: Give away a shopping spree on your site, hold a contest where customers submit photos/videos products in their home, innovative product use, etc., allow customers to share their experiences with products and services (product reviews) and involve them in discussions.

Test and optimize landing pages

Email campaigns that contain promotions and sales of certain items should direct readers to a special campaign landing page on your website instead of just linking to your home page. Why? Because you don’t want to force your visitors to search for the promotion. In addition, a dedicated landing page provides more information about the promotion, keeping your email short and to the point. Lastly, the landing page can help you track conversions and measure how effective your email blast is in converting sales. Make sure your landing page and email match, from look and feel, to language and tone. It doesn’t have to be identical, but the messaging should be aligned, to avoid a disorienting change when a reader clicks from your email to the designated promotional landing page.

Once you have mastered the basics, there are some additional elements you may want to incorporate into your email campaigns. Social media, embedded product video and personalization are some of the more advanced tactics. So, if you haven’t started email marketing yet, the key is to just get started. Learn from your buyers’ behaviors to see which email campaigns are most effective. Integrate email campaigns into your overall marketing and growth strategies instead of the occasional email blast. If recipients forget they signed up on your list because you send an email once in a blue moon they may see it as spam and unsubscribe. Be consistent!

Types of Email Campaigns

• Drip Campaigns
• Newsletter (talks about your company, new products, your customers as a community)
• New Product Announcement
• Order Confirmation
• Shipment Confirmation
• Abandon Cart Emails
• Promotions and Sales

Email Best Practice Checklist

• Personalized emails
• Accurate, catchy subject lines
• Compelling content (Focus on Offer, Expiration – creates urgency)
• Calendar (schedule of email campaigns in advance)
• Metrics and tracking (open rate, #of emails sent, conversion rate, sales revenue)
• Take advantage of holidays to send emails
• Clear call to action
• Send both image and text only emails
• Test all links for errors and to ensure links open the proper page
• Ensure the images are linked correctly as well as coded for alt tag (text description)
• Clear/easy unsubscribe from email list
• Add Social widgets like Facebook & Twitter to enable easy sharing
• Segment list Test Email Through Spam Filters before sending out
• Optimized creative and landing pages

Getting to “eCommerce heaven” is a marathon, not a sprint – but you can get better every week.

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Building repeat business is a sure-fire way to increase a store’s revenue. As business owners, we naturally tend to focus on getting new customers; taking steps to court existing customers is a promising strategy as well. Typically, it is less expensive to keep an existing customer than attract a new one.

For online storeowners, however, getting repeat business can be tricky. Return clientele is a rare gem in eCommerce since customers hardly return to a site after making a purchase. Fortunately, there are some tools that can be used to increase the chances of bringing visitors back – namely, a loyalty program. Of course, this type of program can only be effective if good customer service and products are already in place.

Loyalty programs, which are common among brick-and-mortar stores, can be effectively used by ecommerce merchants to keep customers coming back. These programs can take various forms and involve all or some of the following components:

• Percentage discount off of certain purchases
• Electronic coupons for frequent shoppers
• Rewards points redeemable for products
• Free/reduced shipping for members

As nice as these perks may be, an effective loyalty program should do more than just give things away. Retailers must focus on providing consumers with a satisfying experience, be it in the overall service they receive, personal touches such as a birthday promotion or priority notification on desirable items.  It may seem counter intuitive but rewards alone won’t make customers commit to your program, let alone create loyalty. Genuine customer loyalty is earned through positive experiences with your products,  customer service and brand.

Ask yourself: Is there enough value in my products? Is my site accessible and user-friendly? Am I taking care of my customers?  Evaluate how you run your business and remember that no matter how glamorous your loyalty program is, it won’t make up for substandard products or poor customer service.

Building customer loyalty may be difficult in the highly competitive ecommerce business. But customer satisfaction can always tip the scale in your favor. So whatever you do, think about your customers and how you can improve their shopping experience. A loyalty or rewards program should be the icing on top of the cake.

Below are some of the basic yet effective elements your business should deliver:

• Easy navigation to complete transaction (easily found “check out” button)
• Detailed and accurate product descriptions with clear images
• Uncomplicated checkout process
• Prompt shipment
• Secured shopping cart software security hacker safe (add trust symbols like Verisign)
• Helpful customer support (include a tollfree phone number)

Disregard any of these and you can forget about a loyalty program. Strive for an excellent customer experience and watch your program succeed. But how do you measure the success of a loyalty program? Membership increase over time is one metric. After all, more members could mean more conversion, right? Well, not exactly. Although membership growth is important, it’s not the most reliable indicator. To measure your program’s success, study your analytic data. But even without it, you can still tell if your loyalty program is working based on the following:

• The percentage of “participating” members (i.e., accruing points, spending money)
• Frequency of spending
• Customer retention
• Member’s program engagement (i.e., redemption activity)

A successful loyalty program can strengthen the relationship a store has with its customers. It should also collect useful data that can be studied for patterns in customer purchasing behavior, rate of spending, and so on. This information can also be used to engage “unprofitable” customers using rewards and incentives to encourage participation.

Ultimately, loyalty programs cannot guarantee customer loyalty but they can complement your excellent products and first-rate customer service. Loyalty programs can provide value for regular customers as well as intimate details about customer preferences, which can be used to effectively tailor future marketing campaigns. Because above all, knowing your customers and catering to their wants and needs is the real secret to happy, returning customers.

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Doing business on the Internet has lots of benefits – both for the merchant and for the consumer. But despite its advantages, ecommerce still faces a few challenges, one of which involves customer service.

Without the benefit of face-to-face contact, feedback forms and email are the most common methods of providing customer support and many consumers find this impersonal and unfriendly. In 2009, a market research firm conducted a poll on the factors responsible for a significant drop in online sales during the first half of that year. The results revealed that “lack of human assistance” was one of the major factors attributed to sales decrease during that period.

It goes without saying that good customer service plays an important role in engaging customers. By “good customer service,” I mean customer support from a real person. According to the poll, shoppers who weren’t able to get assistance from a real person said it affected their decision to not make a purchase. That data may be almost two years old, yet it’s still relevant today. Online stores are trying to overcome the problems by improving their websites’ usability – from applying uncomplicated navigation to simplifying the checkout procedures. The goal is make it easier for customers to complete their purchase without requiring additional assistance. But still, a well-planned customer service strategy can make all the difference of increasing sales or losing them to a competitor.

Without implementing effective customer service, your visitors are sure to turn their attention to other stores that can offer the type of customer service  they want. Customers whose issues remain unresolved today are more likely to spread word about their negative experience through blogs and on social networks, which can quickly blow up and tarnish your brand. You don’t need a survey to tell you how bad that could be for your business.

There’s no getting around customer service.  So what’s the best solution? This may sound counter intuitive to reducing customer support calls – a practice many ecommerce businesses mistakenly adopt – try to give customers more ways to contact you or your team.

Aside from the standard email, you can provide a live chat solution on your site. Since your online store is open 24 hours (7 days a week), people are expecting round the clock, real-time assistance. Live chat is one of the best ways to do that. The other one is through telephone support. Both can be outsourced to different time zones to cover times outside normal business hours. Training and the use of call flow scripts are both recommended.

Although your customers purchase online, many still feel like picking up the phone and calling for assistance or inquiries whenever the need arises. And by providing contact information outside the Web, you’ll inspire customer confidence.

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Experts agree that mobile commerce is the wave of the ecommerce future. How is this possible? Currently, there are 4-5 billion mobile phone users around the world – the source of 8-10% of daily web traffic. Smartphones, with their multiple functionalities, are now outselling computers. Tapping this market successfully could boost sales and it’s not just for established ecommerce retailers, small online businesses with limited resources can participate as well.

Challenges

Mobile commerce, or mcommerce, is not without its challenges, considering it is still in its infancy here in the US (mobile commerce adoption took off first in Europe and in Asia). For some people, the smaller screen of mobile devices hinders their experience, and accessing existing webpages on mobile browsers can be slow and, at times, downright impossible. What keeps most consumers away from mobile commerce is the issue is security, especially if they have to type in a credit card number or other sensitive data to complete a transaction.

Solutions

Mobile technology is constantly developing. Many companies have started to develop software solutions to address key issues, including security and payment processing (for instance, Paypal is now offering express checkout to ensure a less complicated payment process for mobile transactions).  Soon, launching and maintaining other mobile commerce apps will become much simpler and cost-effective.

Thinking of optimizing your existing site for mobile devices? Don’t. This may result in a cluttered site on a small screen. Building a separate site geared to mobile users is the best option. One of the worst experience is when the mcommerce version of retailer takes you from their haphazardly slapped together mcommerce store to their ecommerce store. This happened to me over the Christmas holiday shopping and needless to say it was really poor user experience. Try looking into out providers, such as Mobify, that specialize in creating mobile-friendly websites, another is Unbound Commerce has worked with Yahoo Store Owners.

Advantages

Businesses that have already gone mobile are now enjoying its financial benefits as mobile commerce gives consumers yet another channel for making purchases. Mcommerce appeals to the youth market, which is especially keen on being untethered to a computer and more likely to purchase online. Furthermore, it offers a number of extra benefits for merchants and customers alike. One example is the convenience of a faster transaction. If the item is downloadable, such as music, a video or other media, a customer can receive his order almost instantly, while the seller receives the payment straight away.

Aside from the obvious convenience to customers, many exciting features like location-based marketing, advertising and promotional technologies are giving merchants a variety of ways to make money via mobile commerce. In short, mobile commerce opens the opportunity to purchase and sell any time and anywhere. If you are not considering getting into mobile commerce, chances are, your competitors already have. Don’t get left behind!

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Gift cards may have been considered an impersonal gift at one time, but it is now one of the most requested gift by all ages and backgrounds. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that retailers have trained customers to use them; it’s hard to refute the convenience afforded by gift cards to both giver and recipient. Plus, the advent of online gift codes have experience a boost in sales from last minute shoppers. A gift card program can help brand your store, so think of ways to use it as both an incentive for new customers and reward for existing loyal patrons.

How It Works

Many shopping cart solutions available today can generate gift cards or certificates (codes). A sender can order a “virtual” gift card to be sent directly to a recipient through encrypted email. Unlike a physical gift card, a virtual gift card has a unique code (numbers and/or letters) instead of a barcode or magnetic strip for tracking purposes. Online gift cards can be any amount a sender chooses, or in denominations, depending on the solution you use.

When the recipient of a gift card chooses to make a purchase and pay with the gift card, he will enter the unique virtual gift card code into the designated field during checkout. Gift cards typically don’t have an expiration date and any remaining credit can be used at a later date.

Benefits of Gift Cards

For the customer, it’s all about convenience. For the merchant, the benefits are reflected in the bottom line. Research shows that most customers spend an additional 40-50% of the gift card’s value. That means a customer redeeming a $200 gift card, is likely to spend up to $300 in total purchases. If she fails to use up the card’s full value, the remaining balance automatically becomes extra earnings. In addition, gift cards allow your customers to help you promote your store by giving gift cards to those new to your brand.

How to Maximize Gift Cards

Take advantage of online gift cards by giving your customers a reason to buy them. Try offering incentives for each purchasing, like adding a bonus credit of $5 for every $50 gift card bought. You can get more out of your gift card program by combining it with other programs, such as customer rewards or employee performance recognition programs. To add personality to the cards, provide an option that allows senders to add special notes to their orders.

Be sure that the gift cards appear as cross-sell items on your shopping cart page and include it in your marketing communications (customer emails, newsletters). More importantly, ensure that they are given sufficient visibility on your homepage, in front of customers who are in a hurry to complete their shopping list. Try offering gift cards to salvage an abandoned cart, if you know the visitor was shopping for a gift.

EFS Checklist – Gift Cards and Gift Certificates (PDF)

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One of the most common misconceptions about starting an online business is that once you’ve set up your site, customers will eventually find you. Of course, people may eventually find you, but the question is: how long before they do? And at what cost? After spending thousands of dollars marketing to just about anyone who might be interested? Marketing blindly can cause a business to die a slow and painful death. On the other hand, knowing who your market is gives you greater chance of success. Before opening your eCommerce store, one of the first things you should do is find your niche.

What is a Niche Market?

A niche market is a segment of the mainstream market that is highly defined in its tastes and preferences. Unlike mainstream, niche markets can yield more lucrative results because you’re making specific products available to an audience that’s already positioned to want them.

What’s wrong with marketing to the mainstream? In eCommerce, marketing a product to an undefined audience is like throwing a message in a bottle into the sea and hoping someone from the other side of the world will find it. You are just putting your product out there, counting on anyone to chance upon it and, hopefully, buy it. Aside from being under the mercy of the public’s taste and preferences, you are facing stiff competition from established businesses. For example, if you are a bookseller, you have to contend with the likes of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

How does targeting a niche market work? Once you’ve identified your niche market, you’re not just throwing your message into the open sea, you are communicating to your customers directly.

How to Find Your Niche

What are your hobbies and interests? The first step you can take is to identify the things you are most passionate about. For example, if you love dogs, then you might enjoy running a business that has something to do with pets. There’s a market for that, definitely. However, there are pet stores and animal lovers are already doing business online so try narrowing your choice, such as by breed. If you love to cook treats for your pets and concoct all natural shampoos for them using herbs, how about organic products for dogs?

To find out if there’s a demand for your product, do some research on what people are looking for online. Try using keyword tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool or Wordtracker to determine what people are searching for. Try typing a word or two into Google Search and it will automatically suggest commonly searched longer phrases.

Start your keyword research by making a long list of keywords that are relevant to your business and the website you are planning to build. In your search, focus on long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are used to find less competitive markets (your niche). A long tail keyword would be something like “herbal dog care shampoo” as opposed to “dog shampoo,” which is a highly-competitive broad keyword. “Dog shampoo” may return more search results but they are of less value to you. The idea is to look for sets of keywords (and their variations) that people search most often to help you assess market size and analyze the level of competition. Your main goal is to find and exploit keywords with little or no competition and use them to your advantage.

Less Competitive Keywords Can Help You Dominate Your Niche

Why would you target hundreds or thousands of keywords that bring a relatively small traffic? Simple. Less competition means you can get your business ranked on the first page of Google (where most people look). Long tail keywords weed out the competition, making it easier to rank and attract customers. Moreover, these less competitive keywords can convert sales surprisingly well. Visitors who are using long tail keywords are more precise with what they want. They know exactly what they need and you can provide it.

Be sure to look for potential suppliers for your niche market as part of your due diligent research, vetting out suppliers can help you find out if the product category you’re getting into is profitable or not profitable.

Marketing to a niche segment delivers results and it’s also cost-effective. Since you are offering goods that satisfy the needs of a predefined audience, your marketing budget is going to get you better results. Knowing where your efforts and dollars are getting the biggest bang allows you to create a more aggressive and effective strategy.

Download the Niche Market Checklist.

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Sizing up the competition is critical to any business, but in the ecommerce world, you have a lot of tools at your disposal. First off, you’re able to immediately become a customer by visiting competitors’ websites, making purchases, and even signing up for their email subscriber lists. The tools afforded by web analytics and even search engines, makes measurement easier than ever before.This unprecedented access to data means that everyone should be conducting thorough research on his competitors. Stay ahead of the game by conducting a SWOT analysis, which we covered earlier, and don’t forget to conduct a self-assessment as well.

This week’s checklist is a guide for analyzing the competition and putting yourself in the best possible position within your market.

EFSChecklist_Analyzing_Competition

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Selecting product suppliers can seem like a daunting task and depending on your product specialty, there are lots of vendors from which to choose. In addition, every vendor has a different way of conducting business.

The checklist helps you ask the right questions to determine if a manufacturer or supplier is a good fit with your business processes. The questions in the attached document will serve as the basis for your vendor profile system, which will help you to quickly identify how best to work with any new vendor. Keep an individual form for each vendor or provider so that you or your staff can always refer back to it for reference.

Please give us feedback and let us know if there are other questions that might be helpful.

1. How does the vendor want your orders placed? Fax, email, electronic data
   interchange, online, by phone? Figure out which one best fits your processes.
2. How do they charge for drop ship fee – per item or per address/billing?
3. How many days from receipt of PO do they ship? What is the cut off time
4. How do they bill? By monthly statement or per transaction – to match your PO issuance.
5. How do they send the bill – by email or snail mail?
6. How do they prefer to receive payment – by check or will they take credit cards
   for 1 lump payment? Do they bill against a credit card per transaction?
7. What’s their policy for pricing – MAP or MSRP?
8. Who else carries the product online?
9. Are they okay with blind shipping?
10. Do they ship internationally? Ask how they charge and if there’s a cap.
11. What does the label or paper work look like? Ask if they provide custom papers.
12. Do they fill out W-9? Ensure that they are a legitimate vendor and issue 1099.
13. What are the payment terms? Net 30, 15, or is there a discount if invoice is paid
    within 5-10 days?
14. What’s the policy for damage claims for both drop ships and inventory items?
15. How do they notify accounts for out of stock items and items that are to be
    adjusted on the website?
16. Do they provide product images and descriptions? Is it web-based or on a CD?
17. Do they pad shipping charges? Can you use your own UPS/FedEx account?
18. What’s their way of sending tracking numbers back to customers? Can they
    provide text file transfer so that it can automatically go into your order
    management software like StoneEdge Technologies, saving you tons of time?
19. How do you know what orders are still open or shipped? How would you know
    an order has been shipped?
20. What is their backorder policy/process? Do they ship backorders? What is the
    communication process so that you are informed?
21. What is their return and exchange policy?

Below is the pdf version that you can download and use in your ecommerce business today. Please subscribe to our weekly checklist to get valuable tips in helping you save time and make more money with your business today.

http://www.ecommercefaststart.com/media/uploads/2010/12/EFSChecklist-Vendor-Questions.pdf

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Planning to accept credit card payments for your online store? It’s possible but first, you need to have an online merchant account that allows customers to pay by credit card. Credit card transactions through a merchant account are usually processed and approved in real-time through a payment gateway. Meaning, once the customer checks out at the site, the transaction is processed right then and there.

If you are operating a brick and mortar store, you probably already have a merchant account. Remember that a traditional retail merchant account is different from an online merchant account. You need the online type to accept credit card payments over the Internet.  Don’t worry, in setting up your online business, getting an online merchant account is one of the easiest steps you have to take – provided that you have a basic idea of what to look for and what to avoid.

How online credit card payments work

Accepting credit card payments online involves several elements:

Online Merchant Account – As mentioned earlier, this is your account with a financial institution or bank that enables you to accept credit card payments from your customers.  Internet transactions are prone to fraud since the credit card holder’s signature is not required to authorize a purchase. When choosing an Internet merchant account provider, make sure you understand the process on how the  fraud process is handled.

Payment Gateway – The payment gateway allows you to securely accept billing information (payment amount, type of credit card, credit card number, and expiration date). It then forwards the transaction details to your bank, which in turn, forwards them to the card association (Visa or MasterCard, for instance).

The Customer’s Bank – This is the bank that issued the credit card. It receives the billing information from the credit card processor and assesses whether there are enough funds to cover the transaction. It then sends back an authorization code that tells whether or not it allowed the transaction to go through.

Your Web Site – Since your customers will be entering their billing details into your website, make sure that it integrates well with the merchant account provider and gateway service you choose as well as integrating with you backend.

Applying for online merchant account

Look for online merchant account providers that offer flexibility. Do a bit of research to see which ones allow you the option of using your own shopping cart. You should also have the choice to use their Internet gateway or your own. Customer service is important too. You’d surely want a merchant provider that is reliable if you have questions or need advice.

When you apply for an online merchant account, you will be required to complete an application. But remember: you shouldn’t be required to pay an application fee – most providers aren’t asking for this anymore. You’ll be expected to provide your basic information (address, phone and fax numbers, business name, type of ownership, website address, etc.). Providers will assess your qualification for their service so be prepared to supply other important information such as your estimated average credit card transaction, projected monthly sales volume, your federal tax ID number or Social Security number, and bank account number.

How much does it cost?

Merchant account providers earn money by collecting fees for the use of the service. Expect to pay certain mandatory flat rates and percentage-based fees for every credit card transaction online. Fees vary from one provider to the other but the most common are the following:

Discount Rate – The percentage of your overall sale, usually between 2 and 3 percent

Transaction Fee – A flat-rate amount charged for every credit card transaction you process, usually between $0.20 and $0.30.

Statement Fee – A flat-rate monthly fee charged for monthly statements of your account, about $5.00 – $10.00.

Monthly Minimum – A fee collected at the end of the month if your monthly sales don’t exceed this amount.

Annual Fee – A fee charged each year for use of the online merchant account.

Your site is ready to accept credit cards once your application is approved. Your customers will be able to process their orders and make purchases right away.

One last tip, on your credit application be sure to double the request on the credit limit request. For example if you project that your monthly sales will be $25K, be sure to apply for $50K or double your projection. Some merhants including myself have experience problems with my merchant accounts when the volume of transactions are higher than originally requested, and if this does happen, the merchant processor can put a hold on the funds until they finish their investigation which is really bad for your cash flow.

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