Merchant Account or 3rd Party Credit Card Processing.
While arguments for both sides can be made, most online retail services use a 3rd party integration for their ecommerce credit card processing. While a merchant account allows a more direct relationship with the bank, 3rd party credit card processing companies usually are easier to integrate with, charge a lower transaction fee and provide support for the customers they serve.
Measure twice, keyword once.
Choosing keywords for your website is not an easy task and a well-thought strategy will require research on your part. You should choose keywords that reflect not only the nature of your site, but are highly-ranked keywords that will bring a good web site roi. Some good free tools are out there such as the Google Keyword Sandbox (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox) and Overture (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/), but each of these will only give you insight into a single search engine. For a broader research view, WordTracker (http://wordtracker.com) is a great tool. There is a fee for using wordtracker, but choosing the right universal keywords can be the difference in your internet business web site traffic.
Backlinks and how they can affect your traffic.
About web site optimization: SEO has many facets, and one of them is called backlinks, or link backs. The general rule for web site optimization when it comes to backlinks is getting quality, authoritative websites to link to your site. While it doesn't hurt to have smaller, less known sites link to yours, the real impact can be found in these authority sites. If your site is a niche site, there is a cadre of search engine directories you can submit to both free and low-cost that can help you out. Check out DMOZ, Joe Ant and Chiff for the low-end link strategies. Remember, though, that backlinks are just one factor in determining where you come up on search engines. For a more definitive and complete overhaul, you should consult with a company that specializes in web site optimization services. Your internet business will benefit from the search engine friendly design, and most SEO services include baclkinks as part of their overall strategy.
Inventory Management for internet novices
If you are building an inventory management solution from scratch, you will need an extraordinary amount of skill for database design, coding and implementation. However, if you choose an inventory management solution as part of your ecommerce hosting package, most inventory control management can be accomplished with a couple of clicks and maybe one to two pages of instruction text. The beauty of pre-packaged inventory management is it allows novice internet users and online retail shops to have all the power of an enterprise-level inventory management system without knowing too much about how it works. In general, it's a great idea to go with an inventory management solution that has already been built and tested. Large-scale vendors test their software with many users to make sure it's easy to use and you benefit from all their research without having to do it on your own.
Safely testing new ideas on your website audience.
The dilemma is this: Whether you want to make a better customer experience get a better click through rate, you definitely do not want to disrupt a user experience. Try split testing on your webstore. Split testing allows users to follow different paths you want to test. Say, for example, you want to try a new navigation scheme to get better site click through. You can split test your traffic down two paths, the old navigation and the new one, at a 50/50 random split. Any idea is worth running a split test on. It costs very little in time and effort and can save you a lot of mistakes.