Payment processing is a key element of an online business. It’s vital that online merchants ensure that they provide a secure and convenient checkout process at their web stores. There are many ways that merchants can accept payments for customer orders, but the most useful and direct is via an online payment gateway.

Now, there are lots of payment gateway providers out there, and it’s important to do some research to find the most suitable one for your online business. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at a pretty major payment processor, 2Checkout.

There are lots of shopping cart software providers out there (Agora shopping cart, 3d shopping cart, to name a few). But whether you’re using a cheap shopping cart solution or one that costs a bomb (or an even better alternative: you’re using InstanteStore), a newbie online merchant might get lost in all the ecommerce jargon strewn across cyberspace.

Read on as we demystify some of these sometimes archaic-sounding terms…

The Challenge

When you are new in the market, trying to get major retail outlets to carry your brand of products can be an uphill battle. Retail outlets tend to court well-known brands (that suit their target market) because they pull in a particular crowd. Retail outlets rarely risk bringing in unknown brands because of image or status concerns. Established brands have a certain status associated with them and retail outlets hope to leverage on that.

Engaging a PR campaign to promote your brand of products might also lead to a dead end. It does not really matter if your products have all the bells and whistles and come with really good pricing if consumers have no place to buy them from.

Of course you could hire a national distributor and go head-to-head with numerous established names but that might not be a good idea even if your product has a ground-breaking, unique selling point. Big names spend millions every year making sure people choose them over newer names. It is virtually impossible to challenge them on their own turf. You have to change the playing field in order to succeed.

How? Read on to find out…