Online Selling

Hello Everyone,
I just launched a new website on Shopify. Relative to my old Paypal only
method, I now have much better control over payment and shipping
options. I’m sure I’ll come up with more, but I have two questions some
of you might have thoughts on-

  1. Shopify’s International shipping defaults to 240 different
    countries. In the past, I’ve successfully sold product to about 10
    (non controversial) countries without incident. Given that all
    payments will be verified (so I shouldn’t need to worry about
    fraud?), are there countries I should stay away from for some reason?
  2. In addition to Paypal and Amazon Pay, there is an option for 13
    different “Alternative Payments” (cryptocurrencies). Anyone out
    there have any experience going down this admittedly speculative
    path? I can tolerate some risk, so as long as it remains a smaller
    portion of my sales (and no one tries to place an obscenely large
    order), I’m curious.

I thank you in advance :-).
Jeff

Regarding cryptocurrencies in our circumstances, it is only useful if you convert it back to fiat currency immediately to remove the risk of volatility. Until more of our own suppliers take these types of coins, we still have to do all of our business using traditional money.

Realize that conversions between coin and fiat will cost you an additional fee, so you will not be getting the same amount of money back when the transaction is complete. Compare all the fees relative to what Shopify charges you for credit card transactions and see if there is any additional cost to you to make your decision.

Regards,
Ron

Exactly as you are saying, Ron. In addition, anyone taking whatever cryptocurrency will need a secure wallet. All of this takes research. I believe blockchain is the beginning of a new era of transaction, so it’s important that we all learn about it as soon as possible. If we wait, it’s just going to be harder, feeling pressured to catch up. It’s not going away. Now the banks have realized this, which is why they’re getting in after years of dismissing it. Next is the government. They want control, and they want a cut. Blockchain was devised specifically to offer an alternative to that control and cut.

Basically, my advice to Jeff and the rest of us is to fully research blockchain and the various cryptos before we take crypto payments.
Conni

Regarding payment
I have used Square which takes major credit cards.
However I switched to Shopify web hosting and they sent me the Shopify card scanner. I downloaded the Shopify app and Shopify POS to my phone and tablet. It takes just about any form of payment AND the BEST part is it syncs with my webpage. Whenever I list a new item to my store, it, along with its photos get automatically added to my POS for super easy checkouts. I love Shopify. You can also easily limit sales to certain countries, and their CS department is a great help in just about anything you ask. I’m sure they’d help with you questions herein!