| Transactions |
| Before you can ship out your product to all those customers, you need to have a program to figure out the bottom line. That's right, taxes and shipping. Even with Internet sales, the taxman cometh. There are a few things to keep in mind. Such as, your shopping cart program, the programming language that was used to create that shopping cart, how to complete the transaction securely and so on. Quite a few companies are trying to figure out plug and play options for transactions to add on to your shopping cart program. Unfortunately, they aren't as plug and play as, say, a scanner. You still have to have some kind of programming knowledge to implement them. Bummer for the little guy! |
| Let's take
a look at the taxes first (get the unpleasant out of the way).
Taxes are a risky thing, with the laws continually changing, you really should consult with a tax attorney to figure this out. I am not in a position to even write knowledgeably about the tax situation. A few things to consider though, tax rates vary greatly, even within the same state. There's thing Nexus thing going on also. Nexus is a legal term that means "where your presence is doing business" (in a nut shell anyway). So, if you're doing business is Pennsylvania, you have to collect, report and pay sales taxes for all orders placed within that state (I think, like I said, consult an attorney). You can find programs that are specifically geared for the purpose of tax calculation. Two examples are, Taxware and Cybersource. These both have their advantages and disadvantages, so be sure to research, research, research! |
| Next thing
to tackle is shipping costs. Do you want to charge the exact amount
or do you want to set a flat rate dependent upon weight classes?
Do you want to profit from your shipping for the convenience of your services?
All of these things must be thought out before putting someone on the clock
to create your e-store. You are going to want your customers to know
their shipping costs before they click on that buy button, that way there
are no surprises.
Well, that's it for this month. Next month we will cover E-commerce options. I know I said I'd do it this month, but the research has stretched this out to a series. So until then, do that research and shop wisely! |
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