During our second day at the IRCE 2009 (or as Volusion enterprise consultant Justin Manning has dubbed it “the 10 hour marathon”) we met a number of interesting people. From first thing this morning when doors opened right up until the end when people started leaving in search of Boston’s famed “clam chowda” we had people stopping by the booth to get more information about Volusion. We even got a picture with “The Question Mark Guy” Matthew Lesko!

Around lunchtime we almost had a crisis after Terra inflicted a pretty serious berry stain on James’ white shirt but luckily there was a Tide stain remover pen in our supplies! We’re still not sure how it happened exactly but thankfully the crisis was averted!

In between greeting booth visitors and removing stains we have been closely following (more…)

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Today’s economic climate stresses the importance of a cost effective marketing strategy in order to achieve the most gain with the least expense. Blogs fit this bill because they allow you to reach a vast global audience with very little monetary cost. Free blog software has made blogs accessible to even the smallest companies, and the movement away from structured formal writing to a more conversational dialogue has made the average person well equipped to maintain a blog. With the explosion of the “blogosphere” your business can fall behind quickly without a regularly updated quality blog. This is why it’s important to know (more…)

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The IRCE 2009 opened today in Boston, Massachusetts and we were on the exhibit floor in booth 530. “Day one went really well” said Volusion business development coordinator James Booker “There was a lot going on even though the floor was only open for a few hours.” After meeting some current customers and a few promising new start-ups the Volusion team is (more…)

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Lately we seem to be getting a lot of questions about merchant accounts here at Volusion. This week I sat down with members of our merchant account team to get more information about merchant account basics. Here is what I learned:

Q: What is a “merchant account” exactly?
A: A merchant account is how online stores accept credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express); it requires a payment gateway and payment processor. The payment gateway encrypts customer data to send it securely from the online store to the payment processor. A payment processor then gives the transaction information to the card provider, which approves or declines the transaction. The processor then moves the money from the customer’s account to the seller’s account and voila you’ve been paid!

Q: Does an online store owner really need a merchant account or can he/she just use Pay Pal or Google Checkout?
A: When you are using Pay Pal/Google Checkout, the customer shops on your site but when they’re ready to purchase they have to leave your site so they can put in their personal information and payment details to complete their order. When this happens customers can get scared off and abandon the cart because (more…)

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Entrepreneur Magazine recently rolled out their list of “100 Brilliant Companies,” which included Jitterbug, Volcom, and Volusion just to name a few! As Entrepreneur Magazine puts it, “Booze, Whoppers and lottery tickets are the only recession-proof commodities out there, but we’d add one more to the list: brilliant ideas. The 100 companies featured here are evidence that a little brainpower, determination and good timing can trump even the worst Pepto-Bismol market.”

Owners Kevin and Clay were notified that Volusion had been chosen for the distinction from Entrepreneur Magazine, but it was not until (more…)

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