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StefanGr

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Business Profile Idea - extended
« on: January 22, 2022, 09:15:33 PM »
Hey.
Is it possible to extend the functionality of business profile in the following way :

Ad the ability for the business user to have his own payment method set.
Ad the ability for the business user to directly charge the product ( not into admin account )

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Also :

As i see there is an option to monetize it. We have several packs, but i want some hidden. How would i do that ?
;) nothing here, move on.

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Tango

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2022, 12:16:18 PM »
The hidden groups part, already got a design proposition here: https://forums.osclasspoint.com/osclass-pay-plugin/idea-for-user-groups/msg31373/#msg31373

Hope it gets implemented.

Also, I don't think you'd want company users to be able to setup their own payment solutions, as it would open your website to a lot of pain and drama, when they will start scammig people of their money, and you as an admin, won't be able to do anything about it.
People will start contacting you (the website) with: "hey, I didn't receive the product/service, give me my money back!!!"
And you'll be like: contact the seller.
Seller doesn't respond = your site is trash.

My opinion is for you to stay away from this idea like hell! ;)
Never tie your image to someone else's business practices, withouth having signed a B2B contract first, and NEVER trust your users money to be safe in the hands of 3rd parties!
« Last Edit: January 23, 2022, 12:43:56 PM by Tango »

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StefanGr

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2022, 03:06:32 PM »

Never tie your image to someone else's business practices, withouth having signed a B2B contract first, and NEVER trust your users money to be safe in the hands of 3rd parties!

The idea is to sign a b2b contract before :) and do a "marketplace" where a seller can sell his own item, but doesn't want to go trough a hassle with a website.
;) nothing here, move on.

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Tango

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2022, 03:35:33 PM »
The idea is to sign a b2b contract before :) and do a "marketplace" where a seller can sell his own item, but doesn't want to go trough a hassle with a website.
The Pay Plugin already lets you do this.
However, like on any respectable marketplace (Amazon, eMag, Cel etc.) the money goes into the marketplace owner account, and it's his job to pay the vendors, based on what sales they had (this feature is not fully available yet, it has a design proposition here).
This way you have control over your marketplace and you can "force" sellers to do legit business.

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osclassic

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2022, 11:21:17 PM »
Hello,

Quote
Ad the ability for the business user to have his own payment method set.
Ad the ability for the business user to directly charge the product ( not into admin account )

I also like Stefangr suggestions and in fact I have thought about suggesting this before, that let the seller collect the payment and let the users deal with sellers directly for merchandise.  If there are going to be any improvements in the payment plugin then make it an option so the admin can decide/select who collects the payment (admin or the seller) and then we can put a clause on the site saying that buyers and sellers are responsible for any payment/item delivery issues and they can deal with each other (not the site).  This is coming from my experience of running small marketplaces for several years. Here is why:

I don't know how long Tango has run marketplaces, but regardless of who collects the payment (marketplace or the seller) you will always have users who will say "I did not get the item" or "it was not as described" and these users (most of them are there in the first place to scam and not pay for the item or they are not legitimate buyers (stolen credit cards, etc., which will result in a refund a month later from credit card company).

The only difference is that as a small marketplace (you are not Amazon with endless supply of printed money), with all the other things you have to deal with regards to marketing the business, it makes no sense to spend so much time on disputes and payment processing (it does not pay for the time) dealing with these issues, and sooner or later he/she it will start resulting in losses - the bigger the scam or item price or the bigger the scammer, more will be lost and a few credit card scams and disputes will be enough to shut down your payment processing service. I have run marketplaces (10-15 years ago) and I pretty much abandoned them because after a while it was a lot of stress dealing with these issues and not enough profit. I am telling you this from experience and I have seen competitors fold and go away - only investor backed marketplaces can survive and they don't make a profit or a small profit, others are built to be flipped or they (mot of them) will eventually lose money. 

I have been wanting to start small marketplace again and this is exactly (ability to let the seller and buyer deal with the issues) is what has been stopping me and if you can implement Stefangr suggestions, it would help.

Others who are new to marketplace type business, trust me you will lose a lot of money with scams, payment and credit card fraud and buyer/seller  disputes and deal with a lot of stress (especially if you are in a developed countries where lawyers are gunning for you) and it is not worth it as a small business.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2022, 11:42:20 PM by osclassic »

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Tango

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2022, 10:11:21 AM »
@osclassic
Your idea make sense, only if you have the type of "marketplace" with 3-4 sellers, a few customers, and you don't really care about your site's image.
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we can put a clause on the site saying that buyers and sellers are responsible for any payment/item delivery issues and they can deal with each other (not the site)
I don't know how long you have run/worked with marketplaces, but I currently run my own store that functions on 2 big marketplaces, I have a 10 year experience in eCommerce and a wife which is an Operations Manager at an online payment processing company.
From my humble experience above, I can tell you that only about 30% of the customers will read the infos on a website, and from that 30%, around 15% will actually care...
Every time a transaction occurs on YOUR platform, it's between your platform and the customer (this is what happens in the mind of a customer).

If you get mugged on the streets, what do you do? You go to the Police.
Now this is what the customer will do. Contact YOU and ask for his money back.
And when you start having a bunch of bad sellers that scam people, guess what will happen? The customers will go online and start writing reviews like: don't go to thatwebsite.com because it's full of scammers and you'll lose your money!
And also from experience, I know that in 2022, reviews can make or break a business.

The second part of the story, is that by liberalizing the payment system for everyone, you lose control of the quality aspect of your website (quality sellers, quality products etc.), because holding money = LEVERAGE.
Basically you are like an Escrow system between the customer and the seller.
Also, in the civilized world, you have to sign a contract between your company and the seller, and if you perform due diligence the right way before signing the contract, you can prevent actual issues with future disputes from bad sellers.

Third part is that by using your suggestion, you won't be able to commission a seller's transactions, and because of reverse LEVERAGE - you'll wait on him to pay you, if he wants, and if not, your only tool will be to disable his account, which will make him laugh and keep the money...

Fourth part is the CODING aspect of this feature. Here I won't enter into too many details for obvious reasons, but I'll just give you a couple hints like:
  • Separate payment settings for every seller: new database tables, functions etc.
    Plus the sellers will start contacting you with: Hey, I don't want to use that payment company, because for X reason I can't sign a contract with them. Give me the Y company!
  • Separate transaction history for every seller: new database tables, functions etc.
So like I said, this makes sense if you don't really care about growing and just want to make some bucks regardless of what happens.
No professional marketplace I've ever seen, has opened the payment system to everyone. :-\
« Last Edit: January 27, 2022, 12:11:49 PM by Tango »

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MB Themes

Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2022, 08:14:54 PM »
Thank you guys for sharing your experience  8)
  To get fast support, we need following details: Detail description, URL to reproduce problem, Screenshots

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osclassic

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2022, 11:38:01 PM »
First thing is that you have misunderstood - I am not saying that every seller will create a payment setup in our database, and more records to store, manage, etc., but I am suggesting that during checkout (if the site admin wants it that way) the buyer will be redirected to the payment link of the seller (like paypal or some other processor) and then it is between the buyer and the seller. The second thing is that I mentioned "the site admin will have a choice whether to collect and deal with payments or redirect the buyer to the seller's payment platform". So, if you are big marketplace or if you want to deal with all the payment issues and more importantly disputes then you have the choice to do so.

That said, this osclass platform is not meant for a big marketplace and I guess chances are that you are not either despite what you may think, otherwise you would not be here on this platform or in these forums in the first place.

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Your idea make sense, only if you have the type of "marketplace" with 3-4 sellers, a few customers, and you don't really care about your site's image.
For the sake of this platform and it users, here I am talking about a hundred+ thousand dollars in sales or profits and a few thousand(s) customers but certainly not millions of customers or millions of dollars in revenues.  There are literally millions of websites with "image building and all the flash" but they don't succeed because of image. At the end of the day, month, year and a few years in business it all comes down to how much profit you make.

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I don't know how long you have run/worked with marketplaces, but I currently run my own store that functions on 2 big marketplaces, I have a 10 year experience in eCommerce and a wife which is an Operations Manager at an online payment processing company.
I am also sharing my experience based on 22 years - I started marketplaces in 2000 but kept them small enough to manage, once I learnt the issues and consequences and it was about keeping it a profitable and not creating image or a large marketplace because for that you need free money and investors or else you or I (definitely) would not be here in this forum.  Again, for the sake of this discussion and platform, my definition of a big marketplace is millions of dollars or equivalent in revenues and in that case you can absorb enough losses due to scams or hire several employees to deal with disputes and of course pay hundreds of dollars per hour to lawyers just to send a letter or something when the time comes. Most users of this platform do not have 10+ years experience and are just starting or small.

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If you get mugged on the streets, what do you do? You go to the Police.
Yeah, at best you can file a complaint and go home and you are not getting any valuables back. My idea is being proactive, not to get mugged in the first place by taking necessary precautions - avoid the area, be ready to defend, have a group, etc., That is the difference between your thinking and mine - I am not saying one is better but I am saying that is the choice I make.

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Basically you are like an Escrow system between the customer and the seller.
No, we don't want to be an Escrow and that is the idea - if you want to be one then it is your choice as I mentioned and you can collect the payments and deal with disputes - hence, I am just suggesting a choice for the site admin so if the site does not want to deal with payments, then redirect the buyer to the payment processor of the seller.

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Also, in the civilized world, you have to sign a contract between your company and the seller, and if you perform due diligence the right way before signing the contract, you can prevent actual issues with future disputes from bad sellers.
It costs $350+ dollars per hour for average lawyers in my civilized world and most small businesses cannot afford that. You can make all sort of contracts. patents, trademarks, etc., but when it comes to defending it, tiny percentage of businesses can afford the costs. Even larger companies like Apple or Samsung can't defend their intellectual property because the cost of defending is so large and settle out of court, forget about small businesses and many small businesses fail for these reasons.

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So like I said, this makes sense if you don't really care about growing and just want to make some bucks regardless of what happens.
No professional marketplace I've ever seen, has opened the payment system to everyone.
It is such a nonsensical comment because if you are here in the first place using osclass for building a marketplace, you are small and you are going to be small thinking or pretending to be otherwise - nonsensical comment again because no one starts or runs a business not caring about growing but at the end of the day as a business  everyone does it to make some bucks because there are bills to pay and unless there are investors and free money to fend off losses and I think most or none of the osclass users are not in that category.

Quote
Third part is that by using your suggestion, you won't be able to commission a seller's transactions, and because of reverse LEVERAGE - you'll wait on him to pay you, if he wants, and if not, your only tool will be to disable his account, which will make him laugh and keep the money...
 
Well, looks like you care about making some buck too ;-)
« Last Edit: January 28, 2022, 12:11:41 AM by osclassic »

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Tango

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Re: Business Profile Idea - extended
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2022, 01:48:03 AM »
I am suggesting that during checkout (if the site admin wants it that way) the buyer will be redirected to the payment link of the seller (like paypal or some other processor) and then it is between the buyer and the seller. The second thing is that I mentioned "the site admin will have a choice whether to collect and deal with payments or redirect the buyer to the seller's payment platform".
Such a thing is impossible to code, as I've never encountered a payment processor that enables external payments with a public API that you can just connect to remotely, in order to push and pull payment info.

All solutions are hosted, and need to be integrated into the plugin itself.
Stripe structure example:


The above has me believing you either don't really know what you are talking about, or you are just new to the whole eCommerce website management space... :(

You guys really have a nice fairy dust idea, which like I said, would make sense for small websites in developing countries outside the EU, where contracts, tax declarations, transaction history, IRS audits etc., don't really matter. :'(

Best of luck!
« Last Edit: January 28, 2022, 05:32:59 PM by Tango »