In case you missed it, eBay announced some changes in January affecting eBay sellers. Below is a brief explanation.

Reduced Listing Fees
- Insertion fees reduced
- Final Value fees adjusted for lower up-front costs
- Free gallery picture per each listing
- Lower fees for Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus

Rewards for higly rated sellers
There will be discounts and incentives for those who satisfy customers best. Who decides who gets rewarded? Customers do, by giving sellers high Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs).
- Increased search exposure through Best Match
- Fee discounts for PowerSellers
- Increased protection for PowerSellers

Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer confidence and showcase good sellers.

An overview of the changes can be found on eBay at http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/overview/index.html Additional information available in the eBay forum.

Qualiteam Software presents the long-awaited shopping cart hosting service made exclusively for X-Cart license owners. All hosting plans include the unique set of features such as free online store installation, technical support, web store transfer and security patches application which handles all server-side operations.

Major update in affiliate and reseller programs by Qualiteam. Even better opportunities to gain on recommending our software.

AgoraCart Pro version 5.5.000, the enhanced version of the popular AgoraCart Open Source ecommerce storefront platform, is now available.

Enhanced features include search engine aware URLs, speed enhancements in dynamic category building and creation of cart session files. 50+ new database fields have been added for customization of order management and future expansion of the AgoraCart order management modules. A new and cleaner look for the web based manager also come with version 5.5.x

More details on the changes from version 5.1.000 to version 5.5.000 can be found at:
http://www.agoracart.com/version_updates.html

Links to the purchase of AgoraCart Pro version licensing, which supports the AgoraCart project directly, can be found by visiting:
http://www.agoracart.com/proforum.htm

Miva Merchant and payQuake have announced the formation of a new joint venture, Miva Merchant Payment LLC. This new corporation will combine the market leaders in e-commerce software and credit card processing under one umbrella in the merchant credit card processing business.

Qualiteam announces release of certified UPS integration module for LiteCommerce online store software.
Now LiteCommerce based shops can interface to UPS online tools to get instant shipping quotes from UPS directly.

Qualiteam Software Ltd., the maker of X-Cart, LiteCommerce and Sales-n-Stats software, announces the release of Google Checkout add-on for LiteCommerce online store builder implementing Level 2 Google Checkout integration.

by Lena Crossan © 2007, All Rights Reserved

It’s probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of Internet business. While others make it seem so scary, truly, there’s
nothing to fear. Getting an online merchant account can be one of the easiest steps in setting up your ecommerce business, if
you know what to look for and what to avoid.

It used to be - in order to get a merchant account - you had to fill out mounds of paperwork at a stodgy old bank, then try and
convince the branch manager that small businesses deserved merchant accounts, too. If you were an Internet-based business, the uphill battle was even steeper. Today, however, site owners have many other options including merchant account providers, independent sales organizations and more. Because the marketplace has opened so widely, getting an online merchant account is quite a simple process.

THE APPLICATION

Tip: You should never pay an application fee.

This is an old-school practice many institutions used to use to bring in a little extra cash. While applying for an online merchant account these days still requires an application to be completed, account providers stopped charging application fees long ago.

You’ll be expected to provide the basic information (company name, principle’s name, address, phone, fax, type of ownership, website address, etc.). You may also be asked for information such as estimated average credit card transaction, estimatedmonthly sales volume, federal tax ID number or Social Securitynumber, bank account number, routing number and other financialinformation. This is typical in order to allow the onlinemerchant account provider to assess your qualification for theservice, and to determine your credit rating.

Warning: Never fill out an unsecured online application. Look inthe address bar for a URL that begins with https:// to be sureyour information remains safe.

THE FEES

Tip: Calculate a set number of fictitious monthly charges (forexample, 50 charges at $55.00 each) using the fees each merchantaccount provider you’re considering charges. This way you cancompare apples to apples.

Merchant account providers make money by charging for the use ofthe service. Certain flat and percentage-based fees are imposedon everyone who transacts business via credit card online.Let’s look at the fees you can expect and find out what each onerepresents.

· Discount Rate - The percentage of each sale due to themerchant account provider.
· Transaction Fee - A flat-rate amount charged for eachtransaction you process.
· Statement Fee - A flat-rate amount charge for generatingmonthly statements of your account.
· Monthly Minimum - A fee collected if your monthly sales don’texceed this amount.
· Annual Fee - As the name implies, this fee is charged annuallyfor use of the online merchant account.
· Set Up Fee - A flat-rate fee charged for setting up your newmerchant account.

Warning: Many merchant account providers require no contract atall. Others offer discounts for committing to a long-termcontract. If the provider you’re applying with requires alengthy contract without offering a discount, reconsider.

LOOK FOR FLEXIBILITY

Watch for flexibility in online merchant account providers.You’ll want to work with someone who allows you to use theirshopping cart or your own or to use their Internet gateway oryour own. Being forced into using everything the provideroffers can get complicated and expensive. The same goes forflexibility in service. You want a merchant account providerwho will be there if you have questions or need advice.

THE PROCESS

Once your application has been approved, you’ll be ready toaccept credit cards online! Your customers can process theirorders via your site and make purchases immediately. How doesit work? Once the customer enters their credit cardinformation, that data is whisked over to the processing center.The processing center requests authorization from the issuingbank of the credit card. When everything is approved, the salegoes through. It all happens in real time at the blink of aneye!

Just remember:

1) never pay an application fee
2) make sure online merchant account applications are secure
3) use a set number of sample transactions to compare various merchant providers
4) look for flexibility

Before you know it, you’ll be raking in sale after sale on your website thanks to the benefits of online merchant accounts.

Lena Crossan is Marketing Manager of GoEmerchant.com that hasoffered affordable award-winning ecommerce services since 1995.Discover their proven, innovative online merchant account andother solutions today at http://www.GoEmerchant.com.

Many small business owners will find the need to accept credit card payments for products and services offered on their website.

When I set up my first ecommerce website I found the information surrounding online credit card purchases to be more confusing than any other aspect of marketing on the Internet.

The reason as it turns out is that the various organizations offering to advise you on how to set online payment systems up have conflicting interests and, in some cases, no idea how the systems work together.

The other potentially confusing aspect of online payments is that the entire system involves a number of service suppliers each providing one element of the entire chain. The real trick is getting them all working together.

So let me outline the parts and then give you a couple of suggestions for how you might approach an ecommerce system for your business. (There are dozens of ways to get the same thing done!)

Internet Merchant Account - In order to take online payments, when you don’t physically swipe a credit card, you need an Internet merchant account. This account can be issued by your bank or by a host of companies, such as Merchant Warehouse, that offer Internet merchant accounts. It’s important to note that if you already have a merchant account for your store or business, you will need to get an Internet account as they are different. This account will include a set-up fee and some % per transaction fee.

Most banks only provide merchant accounts for Visa and MasterCard. It is a very good idea to offer American Express and Discover card payment options. In order to do this you need to contact American Express and Discover and activate accounts. Once you have this information you can provide it to your merchant account provider’s payment processor to process all four cards in the same account.

Virtual Terminal - A virtual terminal is an add-on service that comes with your Internet merchant account. This allows you to take phone orders or in-person workshop orders and then go to a secure Internet based site and process the orders into your account.

Secure Payment Gateway - Since Internet traffic is susceptible to eavesdropping you will need a secure payment gateway that allows your customer’s credit card data to be secure as they place orders. This is yet another service provider that specializes in secure transaction and takes the secure data and passes it through a secure gateway to your payment processor. You want to make sure that this part of the process works with your merchant account and your shopping cart. I would stick with one of the leading gateway providers. This would include Authorize.net, VeriSign and SkipJack There is a fee for this service as well. It is important that you communicate who your gateway provider is to your merchant account provider.

If you are selling goods that are available to download immediately you will also need what is known as real time processing from your secure processor. This is simply a connection that gets a credit card transaction approved or declined in real time as a customer places an order. There is an additional charge for this service.

Shopping Cart - shopping carts come in software and hosted service based versions that allow your customers to shop for multiple items and then pass the order to your payment system by way of checkout. This service is very important if you have multiple products available on your web site. There are some very stable, fully functioning shopping carts that are free or very low cost. Some leading cart systems include osCommerce, zencart, and 1ShoppingCart. I must repeat that you need to make sure that your shopping cart is supported by your payment gateway and vice versa - just ask.

Third Party Processing - There is an alternative solution to the entire puzzle known as a third party processor. In this approach, the third party provider may offer all of the processing and no merchant account is required. The drawback to this approach is that you generally pay a higher overall fee per transaction and have limited ability to customize your customer’s check out experience to match your website. PayPal, an eBay company, is the largest provider of this approach and is a very acceptable option.

A Few Words of Advice

Each piece of the ecommerce puzzle comes with a fee, either as a monthly set price or on a per transaction basis. Make sure that you understand what the fees are. Online merchant account providers are notorious for charging very high application and set-up fees. Start with your bank, but shop this aspect around. Most small business owners should be able to set-up a fully functioning, real time processed site with a shopping cart for less that $150/mo (not including per transaction fees)

Make sure that you find out which parts work well with each other. In other words, when you are looking for a shopping cart or payment processors make sure that they integrate with your real time payment gateway and vice versa. If you stick with the big names in each category you shouldn’t have any problems.

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John Jantsch is a marketing coach, author and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System. You can get more information about the Duct Tape System and download your free copy of How To Grow Your Small Business Like Crazy by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com

Starting immediately, Miva Merchant will offer a new no-fee "Basic" partner category in addition to the current Standard and Premium categories. Benefits of the Basic Partner agreement include rights to resell Miva Merchant software, wholesale pricing for Miva Merchant products and access to Developer, API and Hosting documentation.The Basic Partner agreement is available to both existing and new partners. New partners will be eligible to receive free initial installation and set up training from Miva Merchant technicians. In order to apply as a Basic, Standard or Premier partner, please complete our partner interest form at http://www.mivamerchant.com/partners/signup/.