Archive for the ‘eCommerce’ Category

Have a Good Refund Policy

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

I’m not sure if this is the latest scam or not but it points out the value of a good return policy.

Your online store ships an item to a buyer using a credit card. A little while later, a lady calls up -your store-, hysterical, that someone stole her credit card and recently made a purchase. She asks if you could resolve it by refunding her money. Hopefully you do not.

First of all, if a credit card is stolen or misused, the correct place to call is the credit card company, not a store. Besides, how did the person know so quickly that a purchase was made? If you are like most people, you do not check your credit card purchases online every day. With the credit card company the buyer can dispute the purchase in which case the credit card company gets in touch with the vendor (your store).

One wise person has a return policy that no money is refunded unless they are contacted by the credit card company or the merchandise is returned. Crooks will back off contacting the credit card company. Of course, the credit card company may trump you and decide to issue a refund.

Regarding the original story, in case the item was shipped, you can try to stop the shipment or redirect it back to you if there is enough time. Contacting the police may help but I doubt they will break down the door and recover your merchandise.

Mals Parameter List

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

We have posted a Mals parameter list which is a collection of all the parameters used by the Mals shopping cart (as we find them). They exist in several help files on the Mals site, but now the parameters are in one place. As we find uses and restrictions for them, the information will be added to the list.

Need to Sell Online? Check out OptionCart

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

OptionCart, tied with Mals shopping cart, gives a high performance, low-cost solution to selling product online. It handles inventory, images, descriptions, and a host of other features.

OptionCart is a one-time purchase; no monthly fees or subscriptions. Anyone can easily add, delete, or modify products on their site. OptionCart can integrate into a site template or a template that is included. Inventory control is also included in OptionCart.

Mals shopping cart comes in two flavors: free and premium. The free version uses PayPal to handle payments while Mals premium interfaces with most merchant accounts. Not bad for only $8 per month.

Smartlab Software is an authorized reseller of OptionCart and SiteBuilder. We can set up OptionCart, SiteBuilder, and Mals if you wish.