CHOOSING THE RIGHT ECOMMERCE PLAN
Thus far, you have seen how simple it can be for you to set up your ecommerce site using Yahoo! Store. However, what you may not realize is that setting up this site is not as clear-cut. In other words, you do have to make some decisions about what options are available to you.
Thus far in this book, we have provided information about how to set up the ecommerce site and some of the benefits and features of the plans. However, the information may be different from one plan to the next. The company still provides these highly easy to use wizards and tools for the entire process, but some plans offer more than others do.
Here we will discuss the variations in the various plans offered by Yahoo! Store. Keep in mind that no prices are included since these do change from time to time. In addition, the company may change what each plan offers at any time, too. Therefore, always verify this information on the website before you actually start using it.
In this portion of the book, we will compare the three plans that Yahoo! Store offers. Their plans include:
The company charges you a monthly rate. This monthly rate is based on the services that you choose to have access to and to use to set up and maintain your ecommerce business. Here, let's talk about what you need and what you should consider for your business.
There is a set up fee for each of the plans. This fee is the same throughout.
This fee is a percentage of the purchases made. The starter plan offers the highest price. The larger the company is, the more customers it is likely to get and therefore the lower the per- transaction cost needs to be.
Here, Yahoo! Store gives you a bit of a recommendation based on the amount of sales volume you except. However, keep in mind that this is not all you should take into consideration. You also need to factor in the overall services you need. If you have a business making less than $18,000 per month, the starter plan may be a good choice. If your business is making up to $68, 000 per month, Yahoo! Store suggests the standard plan. For those businesses at a higher level of monthly income, the professional level may be the best choice.
Across the board, this number does not change. When you work with Yahoo! Store, you are able to sell 50,000 products or less, no matter what size plan that you have. If your business has more than this, consider other options or consider setting up more than one Yahoo! Store based on the types of products you have.
All of the service plans provide you with the following features:
So, where do the plans differ? They do a few ways:
Cross selling is the process of suggesting other items for sale on your site that may actually benefit the buyer. This tool automatically suggests other products to the customer based on what they have already put into their cart. If they choose one Dr. Seuss Book, for example, the system may suggest another. This service is only offered through the standard and the professional plan. It is recommended, though, since it will raise your average order total.
Gift certificates are not available through the starter plan, but they are available on both other plans. If you plan to offer gift certificates, this is important but for many online businesses, this is not a necessary feature.
The starter plan does not provide for real time integration with the use of backend systems. What this means is quite simply that the software program will go and check the available inventory you have once the customer places this in their cart. It is recommended that you have this feature if you are selling products that continuously run out or have a very limited quantity.
This feature, which is not available in the starter plan, really is an excellent one for larger businesses who will have numerous orders on a daily basis. This product allows for you to batch send products to UPS WorldShip to help minimize your costs and to speed up your processing time.
As you can see, there is not a lot of difference between the standard and the professional plan in terms of what they offer. However, if you believe that you will have $68,000 or more in transactions per month, upgrading to the higher cost of the professional plan is well worth the investment. It will decrease the amount of money you spend per month on the monthly fees.
Keep in mind that products and services do change often. You do need to verify this information as accurate before agreeing to the program. Of course, you can always contact customer support to find out more information about the plans as well as get guidance regarding the current offerings.