Need advice on starting an on-line business
Discussion
I'm planning on starting an on-line business selling lingerie(!) and need some help/advice on setting up on-line credit card payment.
Looking at Worldpay, they seem to want a £200 up front set up fee and then their cut.
I'm using Actinic to build the shop, so I need a Payment Service Provider to handle the credit card payments. As I'm planning on running this business very much as a 'hobby' to begin with, I don't want to sign up with anything that requires either an upfront payment, or a high monthly contribution (just in case no one buys from the shop!). Does anyone have any experience or advice they could give me please?
Thanks
Igg
Looking at Worldpay, they seem to want a £200 up front set up fee and then their cut.
I'm using Actinic to build the shop, so I need a Payment Service Provider to handle the credit card payments. As I'm planning on running this business very much as a 'hobby' to begin with, I don't want to sign up with anything that requires either an upfront payment, or a high monthly contribution (just in case no one buys from the shop!). Does anyone have any experience or advice they could give me please?
Thanks
Igg
WorldPay and PayPal are c**p.
Stick with a decent bank like HSBC and use their merchant systems.
WorldPay for example have been known to keep funds for 6 weeks before transferring it. That can kill cashflow in the early days.
HSBC are 3 days (ie... same as a normal cheque). Their fees are also very good
Paypal - I've heard too many rumours about their security to trust them. It also looks tacky
Stick with a decent bank like HSBC and use their merchant systems.
WorldPay for example have been known to keep funds for 6 weeks before transferring it. That can kill cashflow in the early days.
HSBC are 3 days (ie... same as a normal cheque). Their fees are also very good
Paypal - I've heard too many rumours about their security to trust them. It also looks tacky
Thanks for the feedback.
This business is very much a background one, hence the desire not to put too much money into it (my idea of not too much is about £5,000 in total, a lot of which is paying for the stock, website design, google clicks etc).
I was just seeing if there was a cheaper alternative to Worldpay that didn't require too much up front.
Thanks again
Igg
This business is very much a background one, hence the desire not to put too much money into it (my idea of not too much is about £5,000 in total, a lot of which is paying for the stock, website design, google clicks etc).
I was just seeing if there was a cheaper alternative to Worldpay that didn't require too much up front.
Thanks again
Igg
PetrolTed said:
WorldPay and PayPal are c**p.
Whilst their payment terms can be frustrating, I'm otherwise very pleased with Worldpay.
Thanks for the feedback. After I posted I went to the shop to see what you used.
I know lots of big companies who use WorldPay so it must work, I just couldn't be bothered with them keeping my company's money for more than a few days.
Thus, I'm going with HSBC for my merchant services
Just a small tip.
Get your 'main' merchant account from HSBC, this will pay usually after 3 days.
Also, get a Worldpay account as a 'backup'. Yes, I know it's a 6-week delay in getting the funds, but it can be invaluable to have a backup merchant account if you ever have problems with your main supplier. Worldpay will give you a £4000 credit limit to start, you need only put a couple of hundred quid through per month to keep it active. As I have found out, it is a VERY good idea to have a backup merchant account!!!
Get your 'main' merchant account from HSBC, this will pay usually after 3 days.
Also, get a Worldpay account as a 'backup'. Yes, I know it's a 6-week delay in getting the funds, but it can be invaluable to have a backup merchant account if you ever have problems with your main supplier. Worldpay will give you a £4000 credit limit to start, you need only put a couple of hundred quid through per month to keep it active. As I have found out, it is a VERY good idea to have a backup merchant account!!!
I think all good advice.
I have used WorldPay in the past and one of the best things I found about them was that when my annual renewal came up, I didn;t want it anymore, just sent them an email, they sent me a cheque and that was it. Nice and easy to end.
I approached HSBC before and found they were utter idiots about it. Hence why I went to Worldpay. I think if you have a run of the mill, business concept like "I buy this for x and sell for 2x" they are fine. If you have something a bit off the wall they are very cagey.
Worldpay on the other hand did want to know about the business but were a lot more accomodating and I found it relatively easy to setup.
As already mentioned there are certainly plus and minus points, but I am about to open up another worldpay account as, I quite simply cannot be bothered to waste a day going to the bank to explain my case, when I can do it on line with minimum hassle. Worldpay also have everything ready for you to integrate into their site, I expect the banks do too, but from experience worldpay was quite straightforwad.
Cheers,
JC
I have used WorldPay in the past and one of the best things I found about them was that when my annual renewal came up, I didn;t want it anymore, just sent them an email, they sent me a cheque and that was it. Nice and easy to end.
I approached HSBC before and found they were utter idiots about it. Hence why I went to Worldpay. I think if you have a run of the mill, business concept like "I buy this for x and sell for 2x" they are fine. If you have something a bit off the wall they are very cagey.
Worldpay on the other hand did want to know about the business but were a lot more accomodating and I found it relatively easy to setup.
As already mentioned there are certainly plus and minus points, but I am about to open up another worldpay account as, I quite simply cannot be bothered to waste a day going to the bank to explain my case, when I can do it on line with minimum hassle. Worldpay also have everything ready for you to integrate into their site, I expect the banks do too, but from experience worldpay was quite straightforwad.
Cheers,
JC
If you are planning on starting it as a "hobby" have you thought about selling on eBay, at least in the short term?
The benefits as I see them are:
No large initial costs, such as site design, build, merchant accounts, WorldPay accounts etc.
A ready supply of eBay customers.
You can experiment with prices, products etc.
Relatively well structured sales method
The downsides being:
High eBay fees
PayPal fees
Inflexible
In my opinion, the most inportant thing about any Web site is promotion. How are you going to promote your lingerie Web site against the likes of M&S, Next and smaller specialist sites when companies like M&S have a multi-million pound budgets for their site, as well as affiliate tie-ins with the likes of MSN, Yahoo etc? (I used to work in the M&S e-com department BTW).
The benefits as I see them are:
No large initial costs, such as site design, build, merchant accounts, WorldPay accounts etc.
A ready supply of eBay customers.
You can experiment with prices, products etc.
Relatively well structured sales method
The downsides being:
High eBay fees
PayPal fees
Inflexible
In my opinion, the most inportant thing about any Web site is promotion. How are you going to promote your lingerie Web site against the likes of M&S, Next and smaller specialist sites when companies like M&S have a multi-million pound budgets for their site, as well as affiliate tie-ins with the likes of MSN, Yahoo etc? (I used to work in the M&S e-com department BTW).
Many thanks for all the input.
Will probably go with Worldpay as this is an online business only, and they are easy to set up - although will be checking out the HSBC merchant service too!
As for promoting the site, I was planning on using google click campaign, as I've found it effective in the past with my other (main) business. I have thought about ebay as a way of starting, but wanted to do it 'properly' to begin with. If I can't sell anything of my new web business site, I'll properly use Ebay to get rid of the stock!
Stock arrives mid November, site goes live end of November - fingers crossed, and if anyone is interested I'll post regular updates on how the business is doing.
Thanks again
Igg
Will probably go with Worldpay as this is an online business only, and they are easy to set up - although will be checking out the HSBC merchant service too!
As for promoting the site, I was planning on using google click campaign, as I've found it effective in the past with my other (main) business. I have thought about ebay as a way of starting, but wanted to do it 'properly' to begin with. If I can't sell anything of my new web business site, I'll properly use Ebay to get rid of the stock!
Stock arrives mid November, site goes live end of November - fingers crossed, and if anyone is interested I'll post regular updates on how the business is doing.
Thanks again
Igg
Plotloss said:
Side question about HSBC Merchant.
Low volume of high value transactions
Cost effective?
I was told that you need a turnover of £5k+ to make it viable. They charge a fixed yearly fee of a couple of hundred then a small percentage per transaction if by credit card and 25p per transaction if debit card. They ARE cheaper than WorldPay and don't have the time delay aspect either, so if starting from scratch I don't see an advantage in WorldPay
They've been blooming helpful everytime I've popped into their branch to enquire further. just make it clear you want to speak to someone about business banking as most of their staff haven't got a clue! The ones who do are great
Igg - I tried emailing you but it bounced... try emailing me via my profile.
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