What has happened today?Today (May 21, 2013) Google has announced that they are closing Google Checkout (it will be retired on November 20th, 2013). It came as quite a shock for many merchants, who used to use this payment option. Before I start to comment on that move let’s talk about the history of this product.
We are now well into 2013 and the “top 10” lists of design trends for this year stop being just wishful thinking. Imagine you want to re-design (or simply design for the first time) your web site. It’s good to check the current trends and stay up to date – at least with those hip elements you find applicable. The same goes for online shops. If you have one of those. You may find yourself browsing through the design trends and wondering: “do I REALLY need that?”
The question you should be asking yourself is: “does this really make my website / e-shop better?”
Let’s take a quick look at some of the most visible trends for today (we have April 2013) and see how they can be applied to an online shop. The opinions below are completely subjective.
It is a good slogan not only for social activity but also for running online business. If you’d like your brand to spread around the world think how it works in particular markets. Popularity in many regions can finally bring you closer to global success.
Some products can be universal for every user. Think about computer accessories, music streaming services or electronics. But many businesses have to target their solutions to particular markets. For example e-book stores need to offer books in a local language, written by local authors. File sharing services have to abide by the local law, clothes stores adapt to the local climate etc. This means they understand and meet their clients’ needs. If you know what your users want you are all set. You just need to use this knowledge wisely.
When you decide to run a global business it is only natural to create your product and promotion in English. It’s the most universal language, especially on the e-business markets. But it’s almost certain that your product develops and gains popularity in specific domestic markets. This would be the moment you start considering whether to translate your service, promotional materials and even to provide customer support in the local language.
Providing business (even online business) in the language of every possible customer can be difficult, extremely costly and absorb human resources. And, if your solution is sold all over the world, it might be even impossible. But if you launch your product in particular markets, prepare promotion actions or start partnerships with local companies, institutions or suppliers, you’ll need to be ready for an increased number of queries, clients and partners from that region. And that’s what you expect. But it might happen that your clients want to talk and write to you in their mother tongue.
Choosing specific payment methods is one thing that’s crucial when you implement payments on your website. You decide to include your customers’ favorites, naturally, and those you can afford. In the end the whole business has to be profitable. Still, entangled in all these musings, it is quite easy to forget about another factor: the currency.
If your main market is located only in the USA, or in Great Britain, or in western countries of European Union, you may not be aware that money comes in different currencies. You’ll be fine using just dollars, euros or pounds. Probably you won’t have to bother with anything else. But if you’d like to go absolutely global or aim for countries that have their specific currencies, some basic analysis is not only recommended, but will simply save you a lot of money.
Who doesn’t like to win? It doesn’t matter whether we think of regular contests, lotteries or simply online rankings. The feeling of being the best, chosen and appreciated motivates us to act and increase work. But what can such winning do for your startup?
First of all – sometimes it doesn’t matter if you win or not. Being nominated or being in the top ten list can already be a great success. A lot of people observe trade contests because it’s the easiest way to be up to date with what’s new or trendy at the moment. You probably do the same looking for competitors, partners or clients. Being nominated could be essential for your startup when it is still unrecognizable. Taking part in a contest can be treated as your promotion channel. If you’re nominated — announce it to the whole world. Use any promotion channel you have (blog, social media, newsletter, websites etc.). Show that you’re proud because you should be! Media love information about winners so it’s always a great opportunity to be on the cover.
You can try to minimize the risk of chargebacks and it’s surely recommended and worth doing. But it is nearly impossible to completely avoid them. Chargebacks just happen. Even if you never make any mistakes, your deliveries are on time and your policy is absolutely transparent — chargebacks are a matter of time. The good news is that you can defend against them, especially if you have done nothing wrong and the chargeback request was uncalled for.
MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) is one of the order taking ways offered by PayLane. It basically stands for accepting credit and debit cards by phone or via e-mail order. What are the benefits? What type of businesses is it tailored to?
MOTO would be great for travel and accommodation rental services, catering companies, florists, take-out restaurants, online product sellers and to small companies located at home, where no physical swipe of a card through a terminal is possible. It is also a perfect way of selling for companies doing international transactions.
January 26th marks not only Australia Day, but also PayLane’s birthday! That’s right, we are 8, which is quite hard to believe, as it feels like we have just had our 7-year run!
To celebrate it, we have just launched a brand new site and we’ve made an infographic summing up the past year — we spent it laughing, crying, celebrating and, above all, working hard to provide the best service. We set up 305 new accounts and launched 27 new services and products, including PayLane for Startups, DevZone, eCommerce plugins and single-click payments.
In these past 12 months we also released 40 press releases and expanded to 4 new countries– Ireland, Germany, Poland and the UK, which resulted in an increase in the number of clients by 135% and newsletter subscription by…800%!
Now, on our 8th birthday, we can proudly say we offer European businesses accepting online payments via 39 payment methods in 167 transaction currencies! And we’re doing a pretty good job judging by how many fans we have on our social media profiles – 5159!
Thanks a lot for being with PayLane for these 8 years. Here’s to great things still ahead of us!
Back in October we introduced wire transfers in Polish banks, which are crucial when running business in Poland. For many of you it had no significance as your business operates only in the UK, France, the Netherlands or Portugal, and you have no plans to try new markets. However, the latest Polish eCommerce report will no doubt make you reconsider your expansion plans — let us present to you some of the most interesting and impressive facts about this market from recent years and the expected figures for the near future.