Comments on: OpenSRS Storefront FAQ

By: Liam

Liam — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:06:32 +0000

@ jude @10: Thanks for your question regarding the 6% payment processing fee. I’ll dig into a few things that we considered when determining this fee:

1) Maintaining your own merchant account is costly. Processing fees are typically in the range of 2.5% (high volume) – 4.5+% for a small-medium online merchant. Now add in fixed transaction fees of $0.25 (high volume) – $0.50+ per transaction. Add another $10 – $20 for a monthly statement fee and don’t forget to factor in the one-time setup-fee you paid to apply for a merchant account.

If you don’t have a merchant account and want to sell our domains services right away, our Storefront offering is a practical solution with a predictable cost of conducting business online.

If you have your own merchant account, our API is a probably a better fit for your needs.

2) There is no yearly subscription fee to use Storefront (unlike other turn-key solutions). Storefront is free to existing OpenSRS resellers. We don’t make money until you make money reselling our services.

If you are a new reseller, you pay a one-time $95 fee to create your OpenSRS Reseller account, giving you a choice of reselling our services via Storefront, API or manually through the Reseller Web Interface.

3) The OpenSRS Storefront payment processing fee is straightforward. We don’t levy a % + fixed fee on transactions like other reseller solutions. This approach is favorable to you, the reseller, on transactions USD$35 and less.

-Liam

By: James McNally

James McNally — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:45:00 +0000

@jude: We are exploring the feasibility of adding different currencies at some point, but for now the US dollar will be currency of choice for Storefront. As well, it will only support new registrations until January, when we plan to allow pulling in domains previously registered through the RWI or API. Also, as outlined in the FAQ, ccTLDs will be added by December 1st.

By: jude

jude — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:53:46 +0000

6% is too much (4% would be a good compromise I think), but when is it going to be fully operational? At the moment you can’t get past the new customer registration page.
Also we can’t use it until charges are in UK Sterling and there is access to all ccTLDs – when will this be happening?

By: Liam

Liam — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:10:07 +0000

@Mike @8: If you have an OpenSRS Reseller, log into the RWI and provision your Storefront. The setup guide is available here: http://opensrs.com/resources/documentation/storefront_reseller.pdf.

Or, visit our live demo site (for the end-user experience) at: http://domainstore.bostoncityinternet.com/.

Liam

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:37:39 +0000

Where can we see a sample of the store?

By: Ken Schafer

Ken Schafer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:56:06 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone. Most appreciated.

I think we’ve covered most of your questions over at the main blog post introducing Storefront (http://opensrs.com/blog/2008/11/a-sneak-peek-at-the-new-opensrs-storefront/) but I did want to point out that the service charge on Storefront purchases is the cost of the credit card processing and the cost of using an (otherwise) free storefront. I think you’ll find that this is very competitive for domain storefronts.

Of course you can always develop to the API if you feel you can build better for cheaper and get a good price on payment processing. We’re happy either way. This is just another option for you to consider.

Cheers,

Ken.

By: James

James — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:37:36 +0000

In the past 10-years or so that I’ve been with you you’ve seen my account see-saw up and down.

With server issues, writing and re-writing scripts, costs and constant maintenance of over a dozen sites on top of network admin and everyday life, everything was just taking up way too much time … so piece by piece I let things slide. In fact I just finished “down-sizing” again.

That said, I obviously see this is a real help; and vs. a low volume merchant account, I doubt that I’ll miss a couple percent. There’s another pain I can throw in the trash.

You have no idea how much this storefront should take off of my hands. With this I will definately start taking an interest again and revive domains and SSL certs an active part of my setup.

Thank you!

James W.

By: Paul Axford

Paul Axford — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:30:42 +0000

I am currently developing an integrated site using the API together with my other services – payment through my own merchant account.
Just about to go live to be greeted by news of this free storefront – suddenly online competition will multiply gigantically as anyone anywhere can open an online domain shop at zero cost and zero experience.
Wow – thanks.

By: Ben W

Ben W — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:34:38 +0000

I agree that 6% is a whopping big fee, even if you take into account the cost of hosting, keeping the software up to date etc.

A couple of questions:
1. Can the currency be to sterling (GBP) or is it only in dollars?
2. Can the colours etc be changed on the templates, or is it just one of four colour sets and you can upload a logo?

By: Tom Diehl

Tom Diehl — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:27:45 +0000

I agree with the above. The cc commission is more than double even the highest cc processors. In addition why can’t the parked pages revenue sharing programs be accessed. What happens If a domain is purchased through that program and later we want to move the domain to the revenue sharing plan?

Honestly, as long as the processing fees are as high as they are, I am not interested.