Considering reselling - thought??

[lokki]

Hi All,

I've been developing sites off and on for a while, but haven't done any actual e-commerce stuff. As luck would have it, I am getting back into the business and several clients want to sell product directly online.

My biggest questions are how to handle the business logic, both from my side and the client's transactions.

First off, I'd love to hear how people handle billing their clients. In the past, I would direct the client through registering and hosting a domain, then they'd give me access and I'd do the building. Now, I'd like to become a reseller and handle as much of that as possible. Does anyone use an automated CC charging system, and how does that compare to using PayPal? Other possibilities?

Next up, what is the favourite way to set up a client's logic? Should they get their own online accounting system, and give me the connection info? Is it less hassle for me to get this set up for them?

There are many more questions to come, but these are holding me up right now. I simply don't have enough experience at selling online to know what else to ask, or how to get information. Any suggestions, comments, or pointers to online help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Thanks very much,

-lokki

[dkadave]

Hi,

Well I'm currently a reseller with jag. And it's pretty good to have it this way. Cause I to design sites for people and it's way easier for me to be able to also handle the hosting end. And account creations are so much easier since, all you have to do is log into the reseller center and click add account and it'll create it in just a few minutes. And it's up and running. And it'll be billed to your main account.

Also about billing your hosting clients. I use paypal, most people don't like paypal. But that's the only one, I'm willing to use at the moment. I find it to be the best for a company just starting off. Until you can get quite a few clients, then maybe go to a better cc payment system. Since most of them charges monthly fee's and per transaction fee's that are way higher then paypal.

And for your clients it's best if they create an account for them selves. And they just give you the info to their account. So you can configure their site to work with it.

[lokki]

Sounds like reselling is a great way to go... I'm still trying to rebuild my client list, so it's not economical for me yet. The problem will be deciding at what point do I offer this service to new clients, and how to get existing ones to switch.

Thanks for the input, dkadave! Here are a couple more for general response;

When using PayPal, I assume you can just send out an invoice with a link where clients can pay. Have you found any good invoicing software or managers that you'd recommend?

[jason]

PayPal has a subscription service where they'll automatically bill your clients every month for you. I've never used it, but I think there are at least a couple resellers around that do. I think it was through a Jag reseller's site that I first discoved that the service exists.

--Jason

[gerilya]

More than that, if you have customers that want to pay by credit card and you don't have a merchant account, you can do that through PayPal.
But here is the catch: both subscription service and CC payments are available only with Premier/Business Accounts which have a transaction fee of about 2-3% - more than you pay with a good merchant account.

[lokki]

I got a response from sales here pretty quickly. They pointed me to CompleteMerchantServices which they offer through Jaguar. PayPal is attractive for the moment, until I can get a bigger customer base.

Any favourite links to merchant account sites? Any pitfalls you'd like to warn me about? I need to make a decision on this quickly; I'll be sure to post what I dig up on my own in order to compare notes.

Cheers!

[jason]

The CMS package on the JPC site looks like a pretty good plan to go with. I don't have a lot of experience with merchant services, but the rates that CMS changes seem to be lower than a lot of others out there. I also had a client that was using Merchant Warehouse (merchantwarehouse.com). At the time I had a need to talk with their support people and they were very helpful and easy to deal with. That's about the extent of my experience with any merchant services providers, though.

--Jason

[dkadave]

Your welcome lokki. Well I use the Paypal subscription option. It'll bill them every month. For the amount you put in.

For invoices. I've been writing a script that I'm going to use to handle all my clients. Currently it's still in the works. But my hosting site is using the system to show my plans and features and stuff. It's completely MySQL/PHP driven. It's been working out great for me. And with paypal, i'm utilizing their IPN service, so it'll automatically change the status of the invoice to paid when a payment is sent.

But I haven't found any out there that I liked, that's why I'm writing my own.

If you would like to see the invoice and client system in action, just let me know and I'll set you up with a demo account so you can see it.

Also if you would like to see my hosting site, it's http://www.dkahost.com

[dkadave]

Well as I said, if you are starting out. It's probably best to go with paypal. Cause the others they charge monthly fee's and if you are just starting out. You'll be losing money instead of gaining money.

That's why I deal with paypal only at the moment.

[lokki]

Ok... in rambling around for a bit, I'm just more confused than when I started. I suspect it'll all be clear once I jump in and start, so I've decided to get the reseller account and use PayPal.

And don't worry - I'm not going to hold anyone responsible for taking their advice =D

Thanks to everyone for your insight!!

[dkadave]

I hope everything goes well. Good luck!