Google Small Business

The most common solution that people think about when selling products through website development enterprises online, is that the actual product gets delivered to the front door of the buyer by the Post Office or courier. However, online businesses do more than just sell tangible products. These days, digital products are a hot commodity in the eCommerce market.

You have to do a lot to get your website ready if you plan on selling physical items, and apply real online business management skills. You will need to create graphics to show what they look like, set up appropriate landing pages, engage in comprehensive marketing and establish a working shopping cart, so that the customer’s demands are met. This process is quite a bit different when it comes to selling digital products.

Digital products can be delivered in two different ways, via the mail or as an instant download to the buyer’s desktop. Most online businesses opt to offer downloads since they are easy to receive and require no inventory other than the initial files containing the products.

However, how can you ensure that the customer receives the products in a secure fashion, and that you don’t get “scammed” in the process?

These are some of the things you need to think about:

Methods of Payment

The issue of e-payments is still an issue with digital products. Customers pay at the time of purchase just like for any other product. If you want to accept credit card payments, you will need:

• An Internet Merchant Account
• Merchant Bank Account
• A Payment Gateway Account

A payment receipt still needs to be generated for your records and also for the customer, in case something should go wrong with the download process. Don’t forget that charge backs can be initiated by credit card companies, when digital products are purchased using their cards.

A “person-to-person” payment solution, also known as third party P2P is common for digital situations. Look at PayPal as an example. All you need to set up an account in this way is an e-mail address to link to the account and a verifiable bank account. To initiate and authenticate the transaction, an e-mail address is specified on your website. The customer is directed to their PayPal account where they securely sign-in. At this point they will be asked if they want to make the transaction, or not. When this is all over, they go back to the product website during the confirmation process.

You can opt to store your digital products in a special directory online which is protected by a password system. If you do this, unauthorised individuals will not be able to gain access. In simple terms, you would just give the customer the login and password details after they have paid, together with the appropriate link to the product they’re interested in. Ask your customers not to share the link with anyone else. There are additional security measures however and if you’re willing to put in more time and effort, or get an expert online business management firm to do this for you, attaching a timer of some kind to the download link will help you out.

If you don’t want to organise it this way, you can use digital download systems that offer you everything you need to conduct your digital product business for a monthly fee. Head to ClickBank at www.clickbank.com or PayLoadz at www.payloadz.com, for more information.

Digital products are hot right now. Setting up a digital product eCommerce business means low overhead and more profit. The ultimate system should allow people to access your product easily and quickly, so that they can get their money to you, fast!