Traditionally, small businesses had a pretty straight forward business proposition in relation to getting people to purchase from their website. If you drive traffic through the traditional channels of marketing, you simply needed to do the best you can to convert site traffic to sales. This is still the case for about 95% of active small businesses today. In the coming months and years, transactions occurring in an off-site commerce concept will increase and eventually replace the traditional website as the primary sales channel.

Let me explain what we believe off-site commerce is and why it will be a fundamental shift in how consumers purchase products.

In the simplest of forms, off-site commerce is exactly what it sounds like – transactions and purchases occurring off your traditional e-commerce website. Most of the top shopping cart platforms today have already been unknowingly building and integrating the concept of “off-site commerce.” The real difference is having a few features vs. committing to the concept and looking for new ways to expand the sales outlets for merchants. Here are a few examples:

Of the top 10 platforms, we all have features that create a sense of extending sales beyond the website. Data feeds to Amazon, Ebay, Google Base, Facebook apps and stores, mobile stores, etc.

All the options above were developed as part of this over reaching idea of a feature war that for some reason this industry continues to thrive on. Is there really that much difference between Cart A with 473 features and Cart B with 479 features? I could continue the rant about the ridiculous nature of our industry, but let me get back on topic.

Transactions are starting to occur directly on Facebook and on our merchants mobile sites. Everywhere you look, you can see the “giant” increases in Facebook transactions and mobile activity. Just remember to keep it all in perspective as a 250% increase in growth from .00001 is still pretty small!

Anyway, let me introduce the game changer.

Ladies and gentleman, Mr. QR Code. I know a large portion of the readers won’t even understand what a QR code is so pause here for a minute and read this link and come back – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

Ok, done reading? Great.

It is hard to paint a picture with words about how QR codes will change buying habits, so I’ll provide you a few examples that bring it all home. For many of you that have scanned a QR code, you probably were yawning a bit and have yet to see the true value. I can certainly attest to the boring nature of most QR code delivery. Almost all of companies using it today just don’t get it yet. Please quit wasting my time by having some bland, boring information on your QR code. For the early adopters like myself who scan often, you actually do your brand a disservice by attaching junk messaging to something as tech-forward as this.

But before we get into how it will be a game changer, let’s talk about why it’s the game changer.

1. Fast food society – Without any question, our society is looking for instant gratification and ways to make our life as easy (you could insert lazy for easy) as possible.
2. Smart phones – All the rage and rightfully so. The growth percentage on smart phones is a big number and this number does matter.
3. Mobile payments by phone – The who’s who in the money game are currently in the mobile payment space. I don’t have a pony in the race and don’t really care who wins, but I want my phone to be my wallet, yesterday.

Consumerism is driving the concept of faster and easier; QR codes shorten the buying cycle and deliver on faster and easier in almost every way imaginable. For all the direct marketers that think they are hot shots, QR codes will be your best friend and give you a pure scenario of a call to action. No more worrying about who called, who clicked, who used a promo code. Tomorrow it will simply be scan & buy.

Here is a link to a quick video we created for QR codes that can paint a picture better than I can explain. We created this video because today, we’re the first shopping cart platform to be announcing and delivering on QR codes as a core feature in our software! Pinnacle Cart now allows you to auto-generate QR codes in a print or web format for your entire product catalog!

Below are a few images that also paint the picture and hopefully create your “ah ha” moment.

Morning commuters in Korea scanning & buying groceries to be delivered to their home at night when they return from work.

Morning commuters in Korea scanning & buying groceries to be delivered to their home at night when they return from work.

Here is another story. My family is driving up to Flagstaff for the weekend. Wife is reading a magazine or two on the way up and finds a product she likes and wants to buy. Traditionally, she would probably fold over the corner of the page and hope she remembers it when she gets home so she can fire up the iPad and buy it. Today she just scans the QR code from the magazine, makes the purchase in 30 seconds and the product is at our doorstep when we arrive home. Fast, easy and impulsive! Isn’t that the exact the definition of our consumer society today?

Off-site commerce is here to stay and Pinnacle Cart will be the leader in offering features & services to support the growing trend.

Feedback and comments to mike @ pinnaclecart.com

Mike Auger
President & CEO
Pinnaclecart.com

Here’s our list of the top 3 things to look for in a shopping cart provider:

1) Is it secure?

This is the most simple, but often overlooked, selection criteria. To avoid fines, fees and possible legal action, make sure the software you are using is both PA DSS and PCI certified and compliant. If the eCommerce company you’re looking at isn’t bragging about their certifications, odds are it’s not compliant. Compliant solutions don’t cost any more than non-compliant solutions so if you don’t see “PA-DSS / PCI Compliant” it’s best to move on.

2) Is it scalable?

When searching for an ecommerce provider, many merchants think too short term. Sure a “hosted only” solution will be able to get you started, but once the sales start rolling in do you have the ability to scale without being charged astronomical fees? Having your provider host your store does have its advantages. For example, maintenance and support is typically easier in the hosted model, but stores with high transaction volumes need dedicated and distributed solutions to ensure high accessibility. Once your store is clicking, odds are you’ll rarely need to contact your provider for issues outside of hosting. Some providers prey on successful stores knowing they have no choice but to pay them whatever “hosting” fees they ask. They also understand moving to another solution can be time consuming and difficult so they tend to charge higher rates to stores making more sales. Make sure when the sales start rolling in, you can move your store and scale to the needs of YOUR business, not the needs of theirs.

3) Do they offer support?

Most ecommerce providers offer little to no support. Even worse, some providers offer only “pay-per-incident” support. Think about this for a second…why would you trust your business to a company that has a financial incentive to provide you an inferior product? Under the “pay-per-incident” model, the more tickets and support calls they get, the more money they make. Bottom line, stay away from any company that doesn’t give you access to free support resources.

Your entire mobile storefront is completely integrated into your existing Pinnacle Cart control panel and we’ve provided you a number of different tools that allow you to control and manage your customers’ mCommerce experience. Best of all, this new and powerful feature is included for the low cost of FREE in Pinnacle Cart version 3.7.9!

3.7.9 is very close to being released to the wild. Watch for additional updates very soon!

Click here to view our webinar schedule.

McAfee PCI Compliance Service is designed for Level 2-4 merchants that need to successfully and confidently complete the steps necessary for PCI certification. Originally developed for Visa International, the service includes automated state-of-the-art scanning, an online self-assessment questionnaire, McAfee Technical Assist (extensive technical support, such as vulnerability remediation assistance), and the PCI Wizard to help manage compliance activities. Tens of thousands of organizations around the world—from government agencies and online retailers, to nonprofits and manufacturers—trust McAfee to audit their initial and ongoing PCI compliance status.

Click here for more information about our compliance services.

We are migrating our LIVE Payflow Database to a newer facility during the maintenance window listed below. As a result, various Payflow services will undergo a planned downtime during this migration.

Maintenance start time: July 16, 11:30 PM PDT (Jun 26, 6:30 AM GMT)
Maintenance end time: July 17, 4:00 AM PDT (Jun 26, 11:00 AM GMT)

Payflow Pro merchants and Website Payments Pro merchants using Payflow integration/SDK will experience service interruptions during this time. This outage is expected to impact a number of different processors including:

a. Australia Thrid Party Processor
b. (MAPP) Global Payments – Central
c. (MONE) Moneris
d. (CSIN) Citibank Singapore
e. (NORW) Norwest

Merchants utilizing a processor other than those listed above will be able to process Non-Reference Authorization and Sale transactions.

If you continue to experience issues outside of the specificed maintenance timeframes, please contact PayFlow Support at 888-883-9770 from 8AM CST to 10PM CST or file an MTS ticket at www.paypal.com/mts.

As always, we STRONGLY recommend you create a back-up of your cart before applying any updates. Also, please use caution when attempting to update a live store as updates have the potential to affect some customizations. If you have ANY questions, please give a call to our knowledgeable and friendly technical support team at 800-506-0398.

For detailed information about this release, direct your browser to http://www.cartmanual.com/update-378-R800.shtml

Thank you for being a valued Pinnacle Cart customer!

I wanted to personally apologize and send you an email acknowledging some of our shortcomings related to our customer support department in the recent months. While the New Year has been extremely promising for our business, unfortunately the beginning of 2011 has overwhelmed our company and we have been unable to provide the high level of support you have come to expect. I take full responsibility for these temporary issues and wanted to communicate the steps our organization is taking to improve our commitment to you.

1) New Support Team – We have doubled our staff since the first of the year and will continue to have an open job listing in an effort to get the best of the best in the Phoenix market. As you can imagine, training on an application of our size is time consuming but the experience our new hires bring to the table have allowed them make an immediate impact in our support department.

2) One-Touch Resolution – We implemented a policy goal of one-touch resolution in relation to support-related questions. The goal is to answer your questions with just one interaction with one of our support representatives. The goal is to have 85% of your questions answered in “one touch” by the end of July.

3) Customer Feedback – We want more feedback from you! Moving forward, we will be reaching out to you on a regular basis to better understand your needs as a small business owner. Additionally, we want to impart our knowledge of our application to assist you in growing your business by providing ideas and recommendations on how to use the software to get you maximum results.

4) Improvements to our Knowledge Base – In just 2 months, we have added over 145 articles, revised 35 and added just over 115 new training videos to our knowledge base. Additionally, we are consistently reviewing your search queries into the knowledge base and creating new articles. Please take the time to give us feedback and rate our answers. The more feedback you provide, the better our knowledge base will become and the quicker you can get your answer.

5) Free Phone Support – All customers who host their store with us now have free phone support.

6) Dedication - Due to the huge jump in new business, our support / sales team were multi-tasking too often. Their roles have now been simplified into very specific job duties throughout a given day. Combined with one-touch resolution, this focus allows our team to spend the necessary time with each customer to get the results you need and expect.

In just a short period of time, here is what we’ve been able to accomplish.

1. Support tickets have been reduced from a high of almost 200 open tickets to just 16 as I write this email – a 90+% drop and we have been under 20 tickets for the last nine days.

2. Our new videos in our knowledge base have been viewed over 1,400 times in less than one week.

3. Our outbound communication efforts have resulted in a new appreciation for issues you face as a business owner. Our goal is to continue to connect and communicate with you in an ongoing effort to provide you the best e-commerce platform on the market.

As an Entrepreneur myself, I can appreciate and understand the level of frustration some of you have felt over the last couple of months. Our team is committed to insuring we never face these issues again and as we help you build your business. We aren’t perfect, but we are committed to being the best we can every day.

I welcome your feedback.

Mike Auger

President / CEO.

mike @ pinnaclecart.com