In order to start selling your own software or any other digital products (ebooks, membership website, etc.) online, you need to get a real merchant account from the acquiring bank so that you could accept credit card payments on your website. Usually this process takes a lot of time:

1. You need to fill out the lengthy bank forms telling about your product, sales volumes, provide personal information about your company.
2. You need to scan and send your company’s documents to the bank. In addition to this you need to provide the notarized copies of your passport, identity and other documents.
3. You need to provide a professional business plan to the bank explaining how your software company operates and how you will sell your product online.
4. You will have to tell the bank everything about your customers: your target market and major countries.
5. Even more – you will have to provide your own payment processing history. The bank will ask about your sales volume, number of transactions processed per month and overall amounts.
6. Banks usually go for a long process of document and track record verifications. They will even check your credit scores and credibility ratings on credit score agencies.
7. The viability of the business lifecycle and the profitability is also verified before approving the merchant account.

These criteria might not be a problem for an already established and working companies, however… If you are just starting out with your first software product and your company is new – you have no business history, no credibility, nor turnover, payment processing history. Then it will be almost impossible for you to open a merchant account for your new online business, because the majority start up, small businesses fail to meet all the requirements. So it’s like a never ending circle: you’re new àyou don’t have payment processing history àyou can’t get a merchant account àcan’t start processing credit card payments àno turnover àno ability to get going, because no bank will talk to you.
However, there is still a solution for you…

1. Just register on Click2Sell and login to your account. Go to For Vendors page and
2. select the COMPLETE payment processing plan.
3. then visit For Vendor –> Add Product section and enter your product’s  description along with all the details.
4. Place the provided payment button code on your online shop! That’s all.

Once your product is activated, you will be able to accept credit card and Paypal payments on your online shop along with other multiple payment options. The whole process takes than a few minutes and you can start processing within 24 hours instead of waiting a couple of months.

Find out why customers use credit cards more often compared to other payment methods:

1. No need to register anywhere – there is no need for a customer to register or have an account on any of the websites to complete the purchase (unlike with e-wallet payments).
2. Fast and convenient – credit card transaction is processed within seconds once your customer enters card details on your checkout page. An order gets approved or declined instantly. Unlike with echecks or bank wire payments, the order can be shipped immediately after the payment, because the funds are deposited instantly to a vendors merchant account.
3. Fraud protection - credit card companies offer customers a better protection against fraud and it enables you to chargeback if the merchandise is not what you expected. So customers are more protected when they buy online and they feel safe when ordering a product.
4. Additional security layers - Visa and Mastercard have developed special Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode programs that add an additional security layer for all card purchases. Once this feature is implemented, the customer is asked to provide a certain password during a purchase. This ensures the safety of an order – that card is used only by the authorised person. Customers feel safe when they order your product. It is proved that having this feature working on your website will bring you more sales. At the same time you – as a vendor – are protected from the majority of possible chargebacks with ‘I didn’t do it’ reason.
5. Get rewarded - customers are also likely to get reward points from their credit card banks for using a card often, which can bring them benefits in the long run. So they prefer to use cards even more.
6. Pay in credit - your customers can pay you using their credit card limit – even if they don’t have enough funds at the moment by borrowing money from a bank. This increases your sales even more.
7. Get more international customers - if you sell online internationally then your foreign customers will be more likely to pay using their credit cards than any other payment method. So it is a must for you to accept card payments in order not to lose potential customers.

 Direct credit card payments account for around 50% to 85% of total online orders. This percentage depends on your industry and niche. If your product is more oriented towards the majority of people that don’t spend much time online, then you will get much more credit card orders compared to Paypal or any other payments. Moreover, US based buyers tend to use more e-wallet type of payments compared to international customers – from the Western Europe, etc.

If you are serious about online business, you should be offering as many convenient payment methods as possible. This way your customers will have a better choice to complete their payment and they will select the most suitable payment method. Offering credit card payments along with Paypal will definitely increase your sales compared to only credit card payment option, so make sure your online shop always offer the most popular payment methods. Then your customers will not have any problem placing an order on your website.

How to accept multiple payment methods on your website?

1. Just register on Click2Sell and login to your account. Go to For Vendors page and
2. select the COMPLETE payment processing plan.
3. then visit For Vendor –> Add Product section and enter your product’s  description along with all the details.
4. Place the provided payment button code on your online shop! That’s all.

Once your product is activated, you will be able to accept credit card and Paypal payments on your online shop along with other multiple payment options.

This problem is the same problem like starting your own business from scratch – no capital, no gains, no possibility to start. Never ending circle that you can't get into… In order to sell your software product online, you need to have a special online merchant account to accept direct credit card payments from your customers. However, applying for a merchant account on the bank is a real headache, because:

1. You’re just starting – you have a great software product that you would like to sell online, however your business is new, so you have no business history. All banks will say – sorry, the doors are closed for you.
2. Processing history: when you want to sell your software online, all banks ask you for a credit card processing history. You need to show the payment processing volumes that you do per month. But what can you show – only 0s everywhere, because you haven’t even started? Sorry, a bank will say – no merchant account for you.
3. Refund and chargeback rates should be low: all acquiring banks need to evaluate your processing risks and they need to see your chargeback levels (that they don’t exceed 0.5-1% of all sales) and evaluate your refund rates. Again, what would you show them when you are not processing payments at all. Again – banks show you a big finger.
4. Digital business risks: you have a great product and you are sure that it will sell online greatly, however all banks view your software selling business as a ‘very high risk’. You are exposed to many customers returning the product and asking for a refund. They don’t know how you manage your customers’ complaints and if you really return the funds for unsatisfied ones. Selling software products is viewed as a high risk online business by most banks. They can't be sure that you will deliver your product, etc. This doesn’t help you start processing payments online.
5. Show your business license: some banks might even ask you to show your business licenses and software registration documents, patents or other documents. They usually require your financial documents of the company – profit and loss statements, shareholder information and business activity records. This doesn’t help you when you are a single developer or a small company looking to start selling online your newly developed software program.
6. Time consuming process: you might have heard of merchant accounts getting approved within 24 hours! However, this is a total non-sense. Yes, you might get your software’s website checked within this time period, however, the problem is that after this you will be required to provide a ton of company documents, licenses, registration certificates, your personal details. Once the bank receives such documents they go over everything thoroughly, check your credit rating, query some credit agencies for your company’s financials or to check the validity of your provided documents. This approval process usually takes from 2-3 weeks up to 6 months. Usually it takes around 2 months to have everything signed and a merchant account working… Some products (especially software) has time sensitive offers. You can’t let yourself wait so much time…
7. Integration headache: even if you manage to go all this bureaucracy nightmare and you get a merchant account, then you need to hire developers to integrate your website directly to the bank’s raw payment gateways to accept your orders.

Getting a merchant account to accept credit cards online for your software product is a real time consuming and daunting task… However, the good news is that there is a simple solution for this problem. Instead of trying to get a merchant account, just signup on Click2Sell. We will sell your product and accept credit card and Paypal payments. You won’t need to open a merchant account, nor hire developers to integrate your website into the banks' payment gateways.

All you need to do is just to:

1. signup on Click2Sell, then login to your account and navigate to For Vendors section and
2. select the COMPLETE payment processing model.
3. then go to For Vendor –> Add Product section and enter your software program’s details – put your online software for sale on Click2Sell.
4. Place the provided payment button code on your product’s sales page and you are done!

You will be able to accept credit card and Paypal payments from your customers and sell software online. We will pay all your earnings to your Paypal, Moneybookers or direct wire-transfer bank account. Click2Sell affiliates will help you make even more sales and your business profits will soar!

Sometimes when you face a hurdle, you think that it’s over… Not! Never give up, because there is always a solution waiting for you – you just need to find it.

we still haven't told you about custom forms in product checkout pages, but let me rectify that right now. "Custom forms" is a very useful, flexible, yet simple to use feature.

Many of vendors need to get some information from their customers before allowing them to use their purchased products or services. Some vendors need buyers to specify their preferred usernames and passwords, others need phone numbers and preferred call hours, color/style choices and so on. Usually this "problem" is solved by using scripts which generate forms to be filled before purchasing products/services or by simply sending emails to customers asking about their preferences. Unfortunately, both ways are fairly inconvenient as they require special coding knowledge or a lot of manual work.

You can avoid all this hassle by clicking just a few times in "Custom Form" page at Click2Sell. This way you can have a form of several questions (or hundreds of questions, if you wish!) displayed in your product checkout page. Every single question can be made as mandatory or optional, be of very different types (not just text fields; see below for examples), they can also have symbols validation (e.g., it can check if a customer entered a real email address or numeric phone number). In just 5 minutes you can have a fully working, self-validating and unmissable form for getting additional information from your customers.

So what exactly question options are available in our "Custom Form" feature?

You can add such things to your form for asking various information from your customers:

• Checkbox (for questions like "Send me the additional tips");
• Multiple select box ("Select which things you want to be included in the package");
• Password ("Enter your password");
• Radio button ("Choose your preferred color");
• Single select box ("Size: S, M, L, XL");
• Text ("Enter your phone number"); Validation options:
  • accept any symbols;
  • accept only numeric symbols;
  • accept only dates (dd-MM-yyyy);
  • accept only email address;
  • accept only website URL address.
• Text area ("Additional comments")

Such a wide variety of question types will let you create any type of form you want, even the most complex one if there is a need. So you are fully covered in this area.

I'm sold, where can I get this stuff?

"Custom Form" is a product-level feature. This means that each of your products can have a unique form. You will find the page to create the form in this way:

1. Log in to your Click2Sell account;
2. Go to "For Vendor" section;
3. Click on your product name there;
4. Click on "Configure basic settings" link;
5. Go to Step 4: "Custom Form";
6. Start adding your questions!

There you will find full explanations about each option, so you will not get lost. Quick preview panes will help you to understand and see everything immediately, so it won't take long for you to set up the first question form for your customers.

Your customers' answers to your additional questions will be inserted into our sale notification emails and API notifications.

As always, if you need further explanations, have some questions or a feedback, please do not hesitate and contact us at any time!

New features for subscriptions module

• Trial period
  This feature was perhaps the most frequently requested thing by our users, so we are very glad to tell you that you can finally set up subscriptions with a trial period!

  So if you are selling some subscription or membership based product and want to let your customers taste the service you are providing, just set up a subscription with a trial period. All this takes only two additional clicks while configuring your subscription product in Click2Sell.

  Just check "Offer a trial period to your subscribers" checkbox once you are adding a new subscription service or editing an already existing one, and then you will be able to:

  1. offer a free trial period;
  2. charge a different amount of money for a trial period.

   

• Limited amount of rebill cycles
  This feature is particularly useful when your subscription or membership needs just a few payments from your customers instead of charging them endlessly until you or a customer stops his/her subscription.

  Do you sell some coaching program which lasts for 4 months for $79 s month? Or perhaps  you let your customers to purchase your product / service by several smaller payments instead of one large payment? Then this option is definitely for you.

  Once a customer fully pays for your service, his/her subscription will be automatically stopped and there will be no more rebillings for the customer in future.
   

• Subscriber page & notification emails
  Once a customer purchases a subscription from you, he/she will get a special secured page dedicated to him/her. There the customer will find all information about the subscription: its name, description, purchase time and method, vendor information and contact email, payments history, etc. If the customer wishes, he/she can cancel the subscription in that page or update expired credit card data to let his/her subscriptions continue.

  Furthermore, your customers will get email notifications from us upon every rebill. The notifications will contain all the information which is necessary to understand what the rebills were for and how to contact you if there is a need.

  All this will help you to save your subscriptions from needless cancelations or even chargebacks when people just simply forget about their ongoing subscriptions and mistakenly think that your rebills are fraudulent.

Subscription management improvements

There are more features related to subscriptions in Click2Sell system than the ones listed above. Let's review them in case you forgot them:

• Subscriptions module
  Well, this is obvious. In Click2Sell you can manage and sell subscription based products (memberships, services requiring several payments, etc.) by just adding your product / service in to Click2Sell (5-10 minutes tops) and placing a single order button code into your website. Everything else (rebillings, "unsubscribe links", retries after failed rebills, list of subscribers) will be done automatically for you.
   
• Very flexible re-billing periods
  You will not be restricted to just weekly, monthly or yearly rebilling periods as in some other software. In Click2Sell you can set up any duration of rebill cycles you want.
   
• Complete list of your subscribers
  How many active or canceled subscribers you have? What are their names, contact information and statuses? Which subscriptions are the most popular? How much are you going to earn this month? The list will answer all of your questions related to your subscribers. Furthermore, there you will be able to quickly search for a particular subscriber, review his/her subscription details or cancel the subscription.

Other useful things

All my mentioned features above are directly related to subscriptions. But there are many other features or functions in Click2Sell which will greatly help you in selling your subscriptions or memberships:

• Affiliates
  Don't be alone in selling your subscriptions, get help from others as well! Click2Sell will not only handle your subscription payments, but also reliably track promotions of your advertising partners (affiliates). So you will know exactly how many of your subscribers were referred by one or another affiliate.
   
• Real-time statistics
  Stay informed about how many, where and how your subscription offer was seen by various visitors. It is not enough to know that you got, let's say, 12 new subscribers today. Did these 12 subscribers come from 100 visitors? Or from just 10.000? Where visitors come from? Are there any fluctuations in new signups (maybe weekends are more profitable)? Click2Sell real-time reports will answer all your questions.
   
• Many different options where you can receive money from your sales to.
  It is up to you where you want to accept your money: Click2Sell account, PayPal (Website Payments PRO as well), Google Checkout, Moneybookers, Authorize.net, Ogone, eWay, First Data, Moneris, Worldpay, Sage Pay, PayPoint.
   
• Convenient mailer to reach all your subscribers at once.
  if you got some updates in your subscription or membership, just write a message and we will mail it to all your subscribers.
   
• API notifications
  Is your membership website based on user accounts? Or perhaps you create or send something to your new or existing subscribers upon their payments? API notifications are automatically sent on every subscription event (new subscription, rebill payment, failed payment, cancelation, etc.) and contain a lot of information for helping you to automate various things.

Subscription management free?!

All features, benefits and tools listed above are available for you without any additional price! Everything is included in to the same $1-$2-$3 for a sale fee. Thus you will not need to pay regular monthly fee or additional $50-$100 for every module to have all the benefits in place, no upgrade or activation fees as well. Sign up and see everything yourself!