Video Tutorial - How to make an Online Store

Dear Learners, 

Please go through below video, which shows creation of Online Store step by step. 

Thanks YouTube for great video tutorial.

Accepting payments for non profits organizations

If we’re involved in a nonprofit organization (i.e. charity) and want to receive donations, we can use PayPal to accept the payment online.

PayPal offers great discounts and benefits for charity. Hence we need to create Merchant account in the PayPal system. While creating the account we should select Nonprofit Section under Industry Solutions category.

We need to spend few minutes to understand how this Donate button works.

Currently there are various charities which are using PayPal to receive the donations. 
We can also download a nonprofit guide, which is available on the PayPal site. It’s very handy guide which includes PayPal suggestions and where to start for your charity. 

Now we can begin with How to create a Donation button. Let’s start with step by step.

a) Login to PayPal website

b) Go to Merchant Services and click create a Donate button

c) We need to add organization name, donation ID number

d) We can also customize the appearance of this button by using our button (i.e. as per organization’s website)

e) But now we can start with standard Donation button, which is available on the PayPal
    website.

f) Now we can go ahead and save that button on PayPal website, which is very easy.
   We are saving this button, because we can reuse / modify this button.

g) We can add any special message to this button.

h) We can also thanks to the donor for their donation by sending him to the thanks page.    

i) Now click the Create Button, the button code will appear and we need to embed that button code into charity's web site. This buttons are very easy and quick to create. 

We also need to consider PayPal fees for accepting the donations. 

PayPal offers reduced fees for non-profit organizations, but the organization needs to prove itself as non-profit organization.

Reference -

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_donate-intro-outside

Manage PayPal Merchant Account Notifications

As PayPal Merchant Account Owner you’re receiving lots of PayPal emails everyday.

Suppose we don’t want to read and receive unwanted emails or want to receive only important emails, then PayPal offers us total control within our profile.

Just go to your Profile link and then go to More Options at bottom. Now we can see My Settings section. These settings are automatically set as default; hence we need to change it as per our requirement.

We can set push notifications on our mobile, which means that we will receive text messages about our PayPal activity. We can adjust email notifications here one at a time.

Suppose I don’t want to receive any PayPal newsletters / upgrades / service emails. I can also set it using the same settings.

Many times I have requested money through Request Money Tab with PayPal, but I don’t want to receive these emails as I know I had done it. I don’t need to be reminded through emails, hence I need to remove it from My Settings section.

I also don’t want to share my information with others, so I am going to turn off those settings through My Settings section.

Now I can receive only critical emails from PayPal that are going to matter with me.

So we can focus only on the things that matter to us and not distracted emails. 

PayPal as an E-Commerce Solution

PayPal is a powerful payment and money transfer service to be made through internet.

It serves as a convenient and fast alternative to traditional cash, checks, and money orders.  We can send and receive money through PayPal Globally.

It’s often considered as an eBay payment service, but lot of companies use PayPal everyday for settling all types of debits.

We can use PayPal in various ways, example –

a) Sending cash to your son in college, who is running out of cash

b) Buying any product online through eBay Auction

c) Making Hotel payment through PayPal Smart Mobile application

d) Sending invoice to the customer, who wants to pay you online

e) We can subscribe to a PayPal virtual terminal and offer charge by phone, fax or email options to our clients so that we’ll have the same credit card processing capabilities that large companies have without investing one time in equipment.

f)  We can create recurring subscriptions for our clients; hence we can collect monthly charges automatically from their PayPal account without ever remembering to bill them. 

Ref - http://www.paypal.com/

Why do you need Merchant Account?

If we’re looking to accept credit cards online, we're going to need an Internet merchant account.

It is a special type of arrangement with a bank that allows us to accept credit card payments into a special bank account called as Merchant Account.

The merchant has full responsibility for the transactions that occur with their account.

In addition this merchant account, we'll also need a payment gateway service to move the money between our shopping cart and the banks or credit card companies involved with the transactions.

What is HTTPS and why it is used secure online store?

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.

It is the special communication protocol for secure communication on internet.

It basically adds data security capability to this type of communication.

It is a protocol to transfer encrypted data over the Web. It allows secure ecommerce transactions, such as online banking.

If we are planning to run an e-commerce site, then we should be aware of HTTPS and SSL.

Most web customers are aware that they should look for HTTPS following lock symbol in the respective URL while making a transaction. Hence if our online store is not using HTTPS then we will lose customers. 

What is Web Hosting and types of hosting

In very simple means it a server space on which we can host our website which can be accessible by anyone on the internet.  These types of spaces are offered by many companies called as Web Hosts. These companies also offer email, connectivity, data center services.

We can control our website content by using control panel which is also offered by hosting companies. 

We can use personal hosting service for our personal website which is usually sponsored by company advertisements, hence it’ free type of service. But in personal hosting there is very limited technical functionality is supported, such as we can host very limited web-pages.

For business use web site hosting is expensive depends upon the plan we choose. For complex websites like database driven websites require a more comprehensive package which also offers higher security levels.

Below are most web popular hosting companies which also offer packages for setting your online storefront –

1)       www.1and1.com

2)       www.godaddy.com

3)       www.shopify.com

4)       http://magento.com/

Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Commerce

Advantages of E-Commerce

ü       Global exposure for products and services

ü       Fast, Easy and convenient way of doing business

ü       Lesser advertising, marketing and personnel cost

ü       Selling and buying 24/7

ü       Quick search and comparison of the product

ü       Gain new customers

ü       Can offer coupons and deals

ü       Improved customer service

ü       Automated Inventory Management

Disadvantages of E-Commerce

ü       Lack of security

ü       Higher initial cost

ü       Lack of feel of products

ü       Higher Shipping cost

ü       Shipping may take time

ü       No guarantee of the product quality

ü       Network bandwidth may cause an issue

ü       Difficult to integrate ecommerce applications to existing websites

E-Commerce Terminology

E-commerce is simply selling items / products online. 

These can be physical items, digital items or it can just be services. E-commerce is invaluable tool for all business – large or small.  With online presence any company can expand, grow and maintain good customer base. 

It is online opportunity which any business wants to utilize and implement. It is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business.  This is an effective and efficient way of conducting  online business. 

With e-commerce it is important to understand there is lot of different ways to sell online. If you're just starting out my advise is to keep it simple. Start small with uncomplicated way for people to buy your product and then move on to more compact options as you get return on investments. 

One option for e-commerce is to sell single product. You just need a way for customers to pay for that product.