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kjc1111

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Payment processing for stand-alone application

Hi Experts,

I am researching payment processing options for the product I described when asking this question:  http://tinyurl.com/37m2zew.  

To summarize:  I have a product with 10 features and would like customers to be able to buy 1 or more features.  Ideally, after purchase they would be provided a single registration key which would allow them to activate all purchased features at the same time.

Can anyone recommend a reliable and cost-effective e-commerce site for distributing this product?  

Thanks,
Kevin
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coreybryant
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Have you looks at Share-It - they specialize in issuing software registration keys, etc.  Payloadz might have an option as well
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kjc1111

ASKER

Hi Corey,

Thanks for the response.  I had a look at the sites and it seems like they charge around 5% plus a transaction fee.  This seems a little steep but I haven't done this before so maybe it is to be expected.  If I wanted to handle downloading and registration key generation separately do you know of any sites that would charge less?

Thanks,
Kevin
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ASKER

It seems like SWREG might meet my needs and it is only 2.9% + , does anyone have experience with their services?

Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin,

The price is more than reasonable.  The credit card alone will cost you 2.5% to 4.5% even if you have your own merchant account. Their e-commerce site takes care of all security issues (you do NOT want to handle any credit card information yourself!)  They manage multiple currencies. They handle numerous payment systems, including many international systems that most Americans have never heard of. They have customer service people handling routine customer questions. They have a 24 hour 800 number that customers can call to order verbally. They handle wire transfers and purchase orders.

They also handle affiliate relationships, which can be worth a significant amount of money if you handle your affiliate network properly. Affiliate costs are automatically subtracted from your sale and automatically paid to the appropriate affiliates. You don't have to lift a finger.

They handle chargebacks and refunds, often without charging you extra. They provide automatic fraud protection. Chargebacks can be very expensive.

They provide order pages and receipts in numerous languages, the better to make international customers feel at home.

In other words, don't get greedy. The few percent that you are paying them is more than worth it. I've been doing ecommerce software sales for twelve years and these online stores are worth every penny.

The only problem you may run into is trying to find an online store that can handle all of your features.  If your software sells for under $500/copy, features/choices are bad. Do a Silver/Gold/Platinum version, use ShareIt/RegNow to offer an upsell at checkout and be done with it. Ten choices is *way* too many.

My product has two choices, standard and plus, and I still routinely get support questions about the difference, despite the fact that the difference is documented in the text, the icons, the comparison chart, and the price list.
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ASKER

Hi Jim,

Some very good points, thanks.  I definitely don't want to handle the credit card processing.  However, being new to this I didn't see a difference between SWREG at 2.9% and the others at 5%.  Are you recommending one of the higher-end products over SWREG?  

I've been working on the pricing model and am planning to offer two bundles - free and not-free  :-).  Not-free would include all of the individual features as you suggest.  However, I want to price out the individual features since many of the different features are targeted towards different industries, and certain users definitely wouldn't need all of the features in the bundle.  That way I can offer them the single feature they might need at a lower price.  But point taken and I'll ask for more feedback about this.

Thanks again,
Kevin
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JimBeveridge
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ASKER

Hi Jim,

Great, you've more than answered my questions.  I'll do the research and see what is the best fit, and I'll revisit the pricing model with your points in mind.

Kevin