In fact, in order to manage a mail order business, you need to start at the end! Yes,  sounds  ridiculous  doesn't  it,  but  what  we  mean  is  that  you  need  to consider how your customers are going to pay for their goods, and then work backwards from that! Very few consultants will tell you this, but let us explain. If customers are not standing in your shop, they have to find a way of getting their money into your 'till' and it is quite obvious that they will prefer to use a credit card especially if they are placing an order online. Unless your customers are  delightfully  old  fashioned,  few  are  willing  to  write  out  an  order  and  a cheque, and then go to the local post-box! In fact it is just this situation that drives  customers  whose  post-boxes  are  not  round  the  corner  to  use  online services.

In  our  remote  location  -  the  bank  van  only  came  once  a  week  so  making payments by credit card allowed us to have the money in the bank almost a week sooner on many occasions!

So how are you going to process their credit cards? This is one of those mind- boggling areas of mail order management when you are new to it. It will cost you money before a penny arrives in your 'till' and there are all sorts of "ifs and  buts"  -  one  place  which  will  give  you  some  idea  of  costs  is  the  DTI electronic payments website where you can create a possible scenario and be given the various amounts different payment service providers might charge.

If you are new  business,  a  bank  is  not  going  to  rush  to  provide  you  with  a  merchant  facility.  (We  will  discuss  some  solutions  to  this  problem  later).  So  you have a dilemma here - customers won't buy unless it is made very easy  for them - and they can do it now! Nevertheless you will still almost certainly  be handling other forms of payment processing from time to time - more on  this later, too.