Over the years, a number of our eCommerce clients have been vehement about not accepting American Express. This is one of the more costly mistakes a merchant can make in business, because it's difficult (if not impossible) to measure the lost revenues from loyal Amex customers.

When we develop an eCommerce system, it is user based, meaning that our priority is to built it from the perspective of our client's customers first, because they are ultimately the bottom line between eCommerce success and failure. The two arguments that client's have presented for not accepting Amex are:

1. The higher percentage that Amex charges merchants
2. Amex's no-questions asked consumer-sided chargeback policy

Yes, American Express charges a higher percentage to merchants. However, consider this: a potential customer visits your website and is motivated and prepared to make a purchase. Then they notice that you don't accept Amex -and so they leave without making a comment, asking questions or making a suggestion. They just leave, gone forever, period. Why? Because American Express is the only card they trust and use.

A few thoughts on the American Express no-questions asked consumer-sided chargeback policy: It's the fear of retailers that they will not only incur losses -but have absolutely no right to defend themselves. This is understandable. However, the purpose of this Amex policy is to protect the consumer. We suggest not sweating the small stuff by creating an old fashioned satisfaction guaranteed and return policy. If a customer is not satisfied within a reasonable period of time - then refund their money.

What's been most interesting to us, is that in 5 out of the 6 cases where a client has refused to accept American Express, it was their method of choice for paying us. Ironic, isn't it?

Happy 4th of July America!

For big merchants, the 4th of July is actually a little late to start planning for Christmas and Hanukkah but for small or medium sized eCommerce companies, it's time to start thinking about the upcoming holiday season.

Some suggestions for being prepared:

• Beef up your inventory early: small to medium sized merchants typically have a harder time competing for popular items, especially if buying from a distribution house.
• Plan your sale strategy: we suggest running your biggest sale during the pre-holiday season (October and early November).
• Figure out your last day to ship before Christmas and Hanukkah.
• Plan your online marketing budget.
• Finally, call us this summer, so that we can create your holiday graphics, banner ads and coordinate those on your affiliate sites / programs and other online marketing venues.

We had a problem today with one of our SpellBy.com orders: it arrived at our customer's house with the glass broken in 3 places. (It was delivered ground - and sometimes I think "Ground Service" means a package is kicked across the country on the ground - but that's another story.)

First, our customer was exceedingly pleased with the quality of our frame. Besides the broken glass, there was another more pressing problem: she's getting married this Friday - and the frame was supposed to be a gift for her husband. While our frames take a minimum of 3 days to manufacture, I didn't want to disappoint a bride-to-be, so I had to rush this one though production and ship it out overnight -and that included a trip to our framing warehouse to deliver the prints, which I carefully produce and inspect for quality.

In the mean time, my business partner, Kevin, sent an email to our master framer, Jose, so that he could begin assembly on the frame in advance of my arrival (Jose is a fine craftsman - and perfectionist). I promise I'm getting to the point -right now: When I arrived, Jose told me that he was initially shocked when he received the email from Kevin because it was titled, "FYI," which he thought meant, "F$@K-YOU-IDIOT."

Okay, first of all my business partner and I never use that kind of language in business and second, Jose did learn the meaning of FYI ("for your information"), just prior to my arrival by asking someone else at the warehouse.

Anyway, all this got me thinking about the dynamic nature of language and communication - and how we can't assume that what we take for granted will be understood by someone else. In fact, as a consultant, I recall numerous emails that were misunderstood -from sentence structure, typos to a perceived harsh tone (even when there was none).

My advice: don't assume that everyone will understand your grammar, rhetoric, composition, diction or vernacular. Kevin's opinion is: "This is scary," and I'd have to agree.