E-Commerce Articles

Article / Updated 10-05-2021

Venmo is a PayPal service that allows you to easily purchase items and split checks without using a credit card. Think of it as a social app for paying. You can even send money to friends and family without needing cash or checks. How does it work? Follow these steps to use Venmo: Set up your Venmo account. Choose a funding source by linking a credit card, bank account, or using your Venmo balance. Request money or pay others with your Venmo account. Add a recipient, a balance, and a note. Send to recipient. Transfer funds to your bank account or keep in your Venmo account for future purchases. It’s that simple! Venmo is free to use. However, transactions made with a credit card will incur a 3 percent fee. How to set up your Venmo account Signing up for a Venmo account is simple. Just follow these steps. Download the appropriate app for your smartphone.Venmo is only available on iOS and Android. Choose your preferred method of signup.You can choose to sign up with Facebook or email. Verify your account by entering your phone number.You will receive a 4-digit code. Enter the code into the specified box to verify your account. Once verified, Venmo will prompt you to add a photo.You can add a picture or use your current Facebook profile picture. Adding a picture helps others recognize you when they receive money or a charge request. Venmo will assign you a username based on the information you have given. Click Done in the right-hand corner. Venmo will allow you to sync your Facebook account so that you can see which of your friends use Venmo. If you choose to do this, click Allow when prompted.Allowing Facebook to sync also gives Venmo access to your Facebook profile information. Next, Venmo will attempt to sync to your contacts. Choose Allow if you’d like to sync your contacts.Syncing will allow Venmo to access your contact information. You can also use Siri to interact with Venmo. Select your choice. Next, choose whether you’d like Venmo to send you notifications regarding your account. Congratulations! Get ready to spend or receive money. How to use the money in your Venmo account Venmo makes it easy to receive payments and request money from others. If others have paid you via Venmo, you have a few choices about what to do with the money. You can Keep it as a Venmo balance for future payments. Transfer the balance to your bank account. Currently, Venmo does not allow you to transfer a balance to a card. It can only be used to transfer funds to a bank account. Before you can transfer funds from Venmo to your bank, you will need to sync your bank account with Venmo. Once complete, you can transfer money from your Venmo at any time. Normally, requests take one full business day to complete.

Article / Updated 01-15-2020

You might think that you already know everything about eBay and the services you can use to win or list your desired item, but there are a few other platforms to make your life easier on the site as a buyer … and as a seller. Sniping with BidRobot When it comes to buying fixed-price items on eBay, there’s really no magic formula other than knowing how to use eBay’s search. Using some searching tricks can help you ferret out the best of deals. But what about auctions? There is very little more frustrating than losing an auction by a dollar or so. When I first started writing about eBay, I began to use the word “snipe” — loosely (and generally) defined as “to shoot at individuals as opportunity offers from a concealed or distant position.” So, to snipe at an auction (metaphorically speaking), you lie in wait and catch the competition off-guard. Sniping is a favorite way to win an auction. It makes the entire auction experience even more entertaining. When I have the time, I enjoy battling it out in the last few moments of an auction, bidding fiercely, even if (often) unsuccessfully. There are quite a few auction sniping services on the web. With BidRobot.com (shown in the following figure), you can quickly get responses to questions and queries. When you find an auction that you're serious about, go to the BidRobot website, log in, and place your future snipe bids. All you have to do is type the item number and your high bid, and that’s it. You can shut off your computer knowing that BidRobot will do your bidding for you. Nobody on eBay will know what item you're desperate to have, because the magical BidRobot doesn’t place your bid until a few seconds before the auction closes. If you're the high bidder, no one will have the chance to bid against you! Bwah-ha-haaa! It’s easy to use BidRobot to snipe single auctions. For single auctions, just type the item number and bid by using only the yellow top section under the BidForm title. You can ignore the entry forms in all other sections. But what happens when you find that a bunch of sellers have auctions for the same item at low bid amounts? You’d like to take a chance on each item — and only win one. That’s where the BidGroups feature comes into play. It will allow you to bid on multiple eBay auctions for the same type of item. When you win any one auction that you’ve put into a BidGroup, BidRobot cancels the remaining bids in that specific group automatically. BidRobot’s services are reasonably priced, based on the amount of time that you want to use the service. As of this writing, BidRobot has placed bids for hundreds of thousands of eBay users since 1998! You pay a flat rate for all the snipes you can handle. You don’t pay any extra charges for the service. For a free trial, visit BidRobot’s website at this special URL for my readers. Find out what it’s worth at Worthpoint Have you ever watched a show on the History Channel, American Pickers? If you have, you’ve no doubt marveled at the stars’ (pickers’) talents to recognize value in the most common items. I wish I had their breadth of knowledge because so many great items appear at estate sales, but I never know which is the best to purchase for resale. Enter the online collectible database Worthpoint, the brainchild of William Seippel. After seeing his family members sell heirloom-quality antiques for a pittance, William decided to put his economics degree to work and develop a tool so that no one will (hopefully) be taken advantage of again. Will has been an avid collector since 1974 and dealer of just about all things antique since 1984. In 2006, he began to build what most consider to be the world’s largest database of over 500 million items — and their sold prices online. This database, the Worthopedia, gives subscribers a chance to discover prices, descriptions, pictures, and sale dates from hundreds of auction houses. Genius, right? Worthpoint also has a mobile app so you can check out items you might want to buy for resale directly from your smartphone at an estate sale or auction. If you’re going to buy or sell collectibles, the cost of a subscription will pay for itself many times over. There’s so much value to this site that I could spend hours on it. You can go to the site for a 7-day trial (or seven price lookups). Buying a warranty through SquareTrade The people who founded SquareTrade were friends of mine back in the day. They founded the company in 1999, selling a trust seal that would appear in eBay listings after they had vetted the seller. They performed online negotiation and dispute resolution long before eBay integrated these services into the site. Perhaps they had bigger ideas. In 2006, they began selling consumer protection plans on electronics and devices. I’ve been buying SquareTrade warranties ever since. You can purchase their extended warranties for far less than retailers’ warranties as well as warranties for eBay and online purchases. They’ve covered my purchases for phones, computers, washers, dryers, and my refrigerator. The one time I actually needed service, they performed immediately and my washer was fixed within a few days. In 2016, they were acquired by Allstate, who added other services to their site. They offer a Standard policy or a Standard Warranty that includes accidents. The Standard SquareTrade Warranty protects eBay purchases from mechanical and electrical failures during normal use. One to four years of coverage, as indicated at the time that you purchase your warranty 100 percent parts and labor coverage Item repairs, or the full item price paid back to you if SquareTrade can’t fix it Covers new, refurbished, and used items — even if there’s no USA manufacturer’s warranty on your item Before you buy anything online (or in a brick and mortar store), visit SquareTrade and check out the deals on warranties. Check out more information on SquareTrade and eBay. eBay fee calculator: Salecalc Prior to listing anything on eBay, I run the numbers through a fee calculator. Knowing your fees and expenses ahead of time is a best practice that leads to profitable sales. Air-balling your selling price may cost you money when the item sells. eBay no longer has a calculator in the site. Knowing a pure picture of your bottom line in advance will help you price your items so that your profit is built in. (You can also estimate how low you can go with a Make Offer option on your listing.) I’ve found a site that will do the calculations for you (not only for eBay sales but also for other online venues) with a few clicks of your mouse (or taps on an app). Simple to use, Salecalc allows you to run different pricing scenarios and will help you decide on the best format for your sale; see the following figure. I like using this because I can work to figure out gross profits or just see the fee breakdowns. There’s a lot of options here, and I’ve found it to be very reliable. Salecalc also has an iOS mobile app, available in the iTunes app store. Kabbage: Working capital Do you need cash to grow your online business? Since I’m a fan of bootstrapping a startup, I don’t recommend you go into debt until you have a positive cash flow and know what you’re doing with your online business. So, after you’re up and rolling, you might come across a great deal on the latest hot-selling gizmos, but find yourself short of cash because they are sold only in lots of 50. All businesses need capital to grow. Kabbage provides working capital to online merchants through a short application process that can take under ten minutes (see the following figure). Kabbage provides funding only to online sellers. Online sellers are generally misunderstood by banks and financial services because traditional underwriting and funding criteria do not account for a virtual-commerce (e-commerce) business model or the value of recently sold inventory. When you apply, they look at many factors (other than your credit score) to determine how much they can advance, including your seller rating, time in business, transaction volume, and other feedback measurements.

Article / Updated 06-12-2017

Venmo is a mobile app that lets you easily pay your friends and family. How does it work? By syncing your bank account or a credit card, you can use this PayPal service to split an Uber or a meal without needing cash or checks. Syncing a bank account to your Venmo account Before you can transfer funds from Venmo into your bank, you need to add a bank account. Follow these steps: Tap the icon in the top left corner.This appears as three horizontal lines (☰). Choose Transfer to Bank from the menu. Tap the Link Bank Account button. Choose your bank from the existing list. Enter your login credentials. If your bank does not appear, choose Other at the bottom. If you choose this option, you will need to add your routing number, and account number. Verify your bank account. Some banks are approved for instant verification. If your bank qualifies, simply enter your bank credentials and it will verify your account. If your bank is not approved for instant verification, you can verify by confirming microtransfers. Simply add your account information, then visit Venmo’s Bank Verification page and enter the amounts of the transfer. Now you can transfer money to your bank from Venmo. If you have verified your identity, you can transfer up to $19,999 each week with Venmo. Transfers to your bank account normally take one full business day to fulfill and are usually appear in your account as a deposit by something similar to “VENMO-0 CASHOUT.” When making purchases, Venmo will automatically use your Venmo balance unless otherwise specified. If the amount does not fully cover your purchase, Venmo will withdraw the full amount from your connected account. Transferring money from your Venmo account To transfer money, follow these steps: Tap the icon in the top left corner. This appears as three horizontal lines (☰). Choose Transfer to Bank from the menu. Choose the amount that you want to transfer. Tap the Transfer button. Once completed, select the Confirm Transfer to Bank button. Look for the amount to appear in your bank account within one full business day. Now, for the fun part. Time to spend!

Article / Updated 04-11-2017

Joining PayPal is just the beginning, and the benefits far outweigh any fees charged to eBay sellers. There’s no charge to the buyer to pay for an online purchase — or to send money to anyone. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Prykhodov Payment methods supported by PayPal You have several ways to fund the money you send to another party through PayPal: Instant transfer: Sending money this way means the money is immediately credited to the recipient’s account. That person can then immediately transfer the money to his or her personal bank account. If you want to send a transfer, you must have a credit or debit card registered with PayPal as a backup for your funds. It’s just like writing a secure check — without exposing any of your personal information. eCheck: Sending an eCheck isn’t as “instant” as an instant transfer. It’s just like writing a check from your checking account; it can take from three to five days for an eCheck to clear. You don’t need a backup source of funds when you use eCheck. PayPal balance: If someone sent you money through PayPal or you’ve sold something on eBay, you have a balance in your PayPal account. This balance is first applied to any purchases you’ve made. Then, when your account has no balance, you can choose to pay by credit card. It’s simplest to keep your books balanced if you withdraw any PayPal balance to your business account before making a purchase. Credit card: Charge it! Putting your PayPal purchases on a credit card is a good idea. Not only are you protected by PayPal, but your credit card company also backs you up in case of fraud. You can register multiple credit cards on your PayPal account and select a different one for different types of purchases. That way, you can place personal purchases on one account and business purchases on another. It makes end-of-year bookkeeping a lot easier! How to send money PayPal breaks types of payments into categories based on what you’re paying for. You can pay for almost anything in the world on the PayPal system (as long as the recipient has an e-mail address). A few things that you can’t pay for with PayPal include most items related to gambling, adult content or services, and buying or selling prescription drugs from noncertified sellers. If you’re planning to send payments for something that may be a tad questionable, you probably want to visit the Acceptable Use Policy for the United States in PayPal’s help area. After you sign into your PayPal account and click the Send Money tab, you can send money from PayPal in the following ways: Paying for eBay items: When you buy an eBay item on eBay, you need to pay through the eBay Checkout system. Goods (other): By clicking this radio button, you can send money to anyone in the world for goods purchased anywhere other than eBay. Services: You can send payment for a service performed for you or your business, such as web design, bookkeeping, psychic readings — your imagination can get carried away here. Personal: Use this when you need to send money to your kid in college or pay back your roommate for saving you from great embarrassment when you left your wallet at home on a double date. When you’re using the cash-advance feature for the Send Money→Personal payment type, consider using a payment method other than credit card to avoid possible credit card fees for a cash advance.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

When someone uses PayPal to pay for an item from your Etsy shop, the funds for that transaction land in your PayPal account. Although you're free to leave them there, at some point, you'll likely want to transfer them to your bank account, especially as your Etsy business grows. Fortunately, doing so is easy. Plus, PayPal charges you zilch to process the transaction (although your bank may hit you with a charge). To transfer money from your PayPal account to your bank account, log in to your PayPal account and follow these steps: If you aren't already there, click the My Account tab. Place your mouse pointer over the Withdraw link at the top of the page and choose Transfer to Bank Account from the menu that appears. The Withdraw Funds by Electronic Transfer page opens. In the Amount field, enter the amount of money that you want to transfer. Click the To drop-down list and choose the account to which you want to transfer the funds, and then click the Continue button. The Review Withdraw Funds page opens. Review the details of your transaction; assuming that everything is in order, click the Submit button. PayPal processes the transaction. It may take three to four business days for your funds to appear in your bank account. Especially if you plan to grow your Etsy business into a full-time operation, do yourself a favor: Open a business bank account for your Etsy shop, preferably with a credit or debit card. Then use that account to handle all expenses related to your Etsy shop. At tax time, you won't have to cull your business transactions from your personal ones to report your business expenses. Plus, if you ever need to verify your income — say, if you're taking out a loan to make a major purchase — you'll be able to provide the lending authority with everything it needs.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

PayPal is a safe method of payment on eBay. No service can make a slow or lazy seller into the picture of efficiency. The advantage of PayPal, though, is that you don’t have to get your hands dirty. The folks at eBay know a good thing when they see it, so they acquired PayPal late in 2002. Now PayPal payments are integrated into eBay’s checkout process. Register at PayPal When you register to use PayPal, you have to give your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. You also have to make up a password. Make your password more than six characters, and use numbers and letters. You have to select a security question. The safest is your first pet’s name, your city of birth, or the last four digits of your Social Security number. You have to click to put a check mark next to the paragraph that says you have read and agree to PayPal’s User Agreement and Privacy policy. When you understand what PayPal’s about and what it expects of you, click Sign Up. PayPal sends you an e-mail confirming your registration. The e-mail arrives, almost instantaneously, at the e-mail address you used at registration, and the message contains a link. When you receive the e-mail, click the link to visit the PayPal site. Enter the password that was used to create your account. Bingo — you’re in. Give PayPal credit card or checking account information Of course, you also have to add a credit card number to your PayPal account if you want to pay for anything with a credit card (or plan to sell on eBay). If you don’t have a credit card — or would like to occasionally pay for things directly from your bank account — you have to register your checking account. This may make you squirm; you’re not comfortable giving that type of information to anyone, much less putting it out on the Internet. Relax. PayPal uses military-strength encryption technology to keep your account information safe, so don’t be afraid to give up your data. To register your credit card, you’ll have to input the name on the card, the expiration date, and the card verification number — the three-digit number on the back of the card, imprinted next to the last few digits of the card number in the area where you sign. PayPal also asks you to supply a billing address. On an American Express card, the card verification number is the four-digit number on the right side of the face of the card. When you enter all the information PayPal needs, click the Add button. PayPal submits your information to your credit card company for confirmation. This process may take a minute or so, but eventually your credit card company says you are who you say you are, and the card is added to your PayPal account. You can register four active credit cards. Registering your checking account is just as easy. You supply the information from the bottom of one of your checks. Get PayPal-verified For your account to get verified, PayPal must be able to confirm that your bank account is really yours. If you bank online, you can usually confirm your account in a few minutes. When PayPal has the information it needs, it makes two small deposits into that account. After a week or so, call your bank or check your account online and find out the amount of these two deposits. When you have the amounts, sign on to the PayPal website with your password, and type the amounts in the appropriate place. Voilà! Your account is registered — and, not coincidentally, you’re verified! PayPal has confirmed that you hold an active account with your bank. All banks are required to screen their account holders, and verification authenticates your identity to anyone who does business with you. Here are some benefits of being PayPal verified: You can spend up to $10,000 through PayPal in a single transaction. You gain a higher level of account security. You present a confident image as a buyer or seller. Verified status shows other PayPal members that you have passed PayPal's security checks. If you don’t want to give up your bank account number, you can become verified by applying for and being accepted for a PayPal Plus credit card or PayPal Buyer Credit. When you first sign up, there are limits on the amount of money you can withdraw from PayPal, you may only be able to withdraw $500.00 per month. Luckily, you can remedy this feature by confirming your bank account and linking your credit cards. After you complete the steps shown here, you’re in the clear. The only limit is that any one withdrawal transfer to a bank can't exceed $100,000.00 USD. Here's how you can view and lift your withdrawal limit: Go to PayPal.com and sign in to your account. 2,In your Account Overview, click the link near your name that reads View Limits. On the resulting page, find the link that reads Lift Limit and click it. You are now ready to roll with the “big guys.”

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Enabling your website to accept PayPal payments is as simple as placing the PayPal button on your site. To create a payment button on your site, first sign in to your PayPal account. From there, follow these steps: Click the Merchant Services tab, at the top of the page. You arrive at the Merchant Services area. Click the Create Payment Buttons for Your website link. On the resulting page, click the Create Buttons button. You see the page where you create buttons for the items you’re selling on your site. From the drop-down list, select the type of button you want to use to accept payments. PayPal enables you to customize the buttons by clicking the Customize Text or Appearance link under Customize Button on the left. Enter your item information, including the item name, ID, price, currency, shipping amount, and tax. Here’s a list of all the items you’re asked to enter: Item name: Type in the name of the product (or service) you will sell with this button. Item ID (optional): Give your item an ID number or use the standard SKU for the product. Price: Enter the item price here. Currency: Decide what currency you’re accepting for your purchases. (If you’re in the United States, go for the dollars.) Customize Button options: If your item has options (if, for example, it comes in different sizes or colors), you can create a custom drop-down list for your payment page so the customer can choose. Shipping: Enter the amount you charge to ship the item. Tax: Select your state and enter the appropriate sales tax to be applied to your in-state purchases. If you already have a sales-tax provision in your PayPal profile, you see it listed here. PayPal automatically applies the sales tax for sales shipped within your state. If you don’t like the button you chose as it’s pictured, click the Customize Text or Appearance link in the Customize Button section to see more options. Click the Step 2 tab for the option to track inventory. Unless you want to update your button every time you receive new merchandise, leave this option blank. If you want to add custom features, click the Step 3: Customize Advanced Features (Optional) tab. On this tab, you can add extended options for your button. Included (definitely use these!) are the following: Quantity: If you’d like your customers to be able to purchase more than one of your item at a time, you may indicate that here by giving the buyers a quantity field to fill in. Allow customer to add special instructions: If you’d like your buyers to be able to write you a note (40 character limit), select the Yes check box. Shipping address: Select the Yes check box if you’d like the customer’s shipping address. Insert your logo: To add a logo to your payment page, type the URL where the file is stored. PayPal will place the logo on your payment page. The logo you use must be sized at 150 x 50 pixels or PayPal won’t accept it. Checkout landing page: If you want your customers to land on a specific page after they’ve purchased an item — setting up a thank-you page on your website is a nice idea, for example — enter that URL here. Cancel Transaction page: If you want to include a page where people are taken if they cancel the transaction before completing it, you can insert that address here. If you don’t specify a page, they will land at a PayPal web page that allows cancellation of the transaction. Click Preview. You see a sample of the page your customer will see after making a web payment to you. If the page is okay, click the Create Button Now button. If you want to go back and edit, click the Edit button. That’s all there is to creating your first Buy Now button and the payment page that appears when it’s clicked. When you get the hang of it for one item, you can reuse many of the settings for other items that you sell.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If you plan to use the ever-popular United States Postal Service to ship your eBay merchandise, printing your postage and labels through PayPal gives you a free delivery confirmation with Priority Mail. A delivery confirmation is available also for Media Mail, Parcel Post, and First Class mail for a minimal charge. After you’ve chosen USPS as your shipper, you’ll see a confirmation page. At the side of the page, your mailing address and the ship-to address are listed. After you’ve confirmed that this information is correct, fill out the details of the form, including Service type: Choose the level of mailing service you want for your package from this drop-down list. Priority Mail is usually the standard. Package size: From this drop-down list, select the type of package you’re sending. Keep the following in mind: Package/thick envelope: Your package or envelope qualifies for this status if the length and girth (all the way around) is no more than 84 inches. Large package: Your package is larger than the preceding category, but doesn’t exceed 108 inches in combined length and girth. USPS flat-rate envelope: These are handy Express and Priority Mail envelopes (available free from the USPS). They allow you to ship whatever fits into the envelopes at a flat rate, no matter how much the package weighs. (If you really stuff them, you can always reinforce your envelope with clear shipping tape.) Weight: Here you enter the weight of your package. Tracking Number: Confirmation and Tracking is free with Priority Mail. Signature confirmation: Signature confirmation provides you a signature and date of delivery and is available for many levels of service. If you’d like a signature confirmation for your package, it will add $2.20 to the postage cost. You can track the progress of your package as it travels through the USPS online. Don’t forget that if you ship an item with a value over $250, PayPal requires signature confirmation for the item to be covered under the PayPal Seller Protection program. Display postage value on label: If you’d prefer not to show the amount of the postage on the label, do not check this box. That way, whatever handling fees you charge your customer are transparent. On the other side of the coin, if you’re trying to be a good seller (so you can receive great DSR ratings), you might not want to hide how much you actually pay for shipping. That way, the customer can see that you haven’t padded the shipping fees to pad your wallet. Add message to buyer e-mail: Customer service to the fore! Put a check mark in the box and type a short note to let your customers know you appreciate their business. Item(s) purchased by: In this area you see the name of the item you’re shipping and the buyer’s eBay ID. When you’ve finished filling in the form and everything looks okay, complete your USPS shipping with these steps: Click Review. The PayPal Shipping Center review page appears. All the information from the previous page is listed. If you’ve made a mistake at any entry, click Change next to the erroneous entry. Or if you prefer, you may click Cancel and start over. If everything looks okay, click Purchase Postage. Unless you’ve agreed to automatic payment, you’ll have to sign in to your PayPal account once again. Select your method of payment by clicking the arrow next to payment methods. If you’ve withdrawn your PayPal balance to your bank, prior to printing your labels, you may select a credit card or bank account with which to pay for the postage. Click the Pay Now button. Your preferred payment method is charged for the postage amount, and a new window opens to allow you to print postage on your printer. Print the label by clicking Print Label. You can now request a pickup from the post office by clicking the Request Pickup link, which takes you directly to the USPS site.