Becoming a merchant

[stuwils2000]

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Right i am just about to take the first step into becoming a merchant.

Firstly if you could have a look at the site, ay feedback would be great (http://www.ksjaudio.co.uk )

We have the capabilities to develop our own affiliate system as we do noy wish to pay to join programmes, is this wise? what will be the impact from missing out on the traffic that the large networks have?

As for the insentives we are thinking of using a sliding scale

0-5 sales in a month 7%
5-10 sales in a month 8.5%
10+ sales in a month 10%

Probably will offer 30 day cookies.
Do these terms seem at all interesting / competative?

A question about cookies, if a customer comes from an Affiliate today (gets their cookie) then arrives again from a different affiliate tomorrow and buys, who gets the sale? the original affiliate or the most recent?

Hope someone can help.

Cheers Stuart

[SillyJokes]

Just a quick glance at the site made me think affiliates won't like the prominent phone number.

Also I thought, "Car audio equipment, that's a brave choice," but I expect you are prepared for the high level of fraud these sites attract.

If you are just starting out please be extra careful about accepting orders that seem too good to be true or look like supermarket sweeps. As a newbie merchant they will fall on you like ravenous wolves.

[stuwils2000]

What do u mean by high levels of fraud?
This is not somthing that i am aware of?

The phone number will be dynamically removed when the visit is from an affiliate or has the affiliates cookie

[SillyJokes]

You are joking right?

Some products attract more fraud than others.

Car audio systems etc have a very high resale value on the black market, therefore are likely to be a target of credit card fraudsters who can easily pass them on.

If a product is often the target of theft in real life it leads on that it will be subject to a higher level of fraud online.

I'm sure I have talked to someone else who has a similar business and fraud is a big problem for him. Don't send anything to any address other than a confirmed card holder address.

In your case I would think it will be well worth buying WorldPays merchant insurance that means if they have verified the address you will not get a chargeback on that order even if it is charged back.

Good work on the telephone number thing though.

[Graham@Buyagift]

Hi Stuart,

I just tried putting a test order through - when clicking 'proceed to secure checkout' I just get a blank HTML page (not secure). Using Firefox and XP SP2

Please see the thread in the Affiliate Lounge http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread...threadid=29967 regarding setting up a new program.

The commission you offer should be based on what is sustainable from your business - and only you know this. Don't set commission levels purely to impress affiliates - they'll be a lot less impressed if there comes a time when you can't pay them!

Graham

[stuwils2000]

Just to let you know any technical issues above are now fixed and the affiliate scheme is now live http://affiliates.ksjaudio.co.uk

[accelerator]

Hi Stu

I like the site design but feel it is let down by the key fob image in the top left corner. It's not a big image so can't it be of higher quality/sharper?

Rgds

accelerator
navito.co.uk