Sales is an essential part of business growth. Ecommerce is a big part of sales. The Zibster platform includes Ecommerce tools that allow you to easily connect to one of our preferred merchants, set up products and services, and make money. 

There are multiple ways to sell online! You can sell directly on your website through a traditional online store. You can collect payment when people book a service through forms or the Scheduler, or by sending out invoices.

So how do you get your business's ecommerce up and running? In this guide, we’ve outlined all your options and collected resources to help you ready your business to take payments online.

Setting up your ecommerce tools involves:

Setting Up a Merchant

Setting Up Taxes and Shipping Options

Setting Up Products, Packages, and Services

Setting Up a Store

Take Payments With a Form

Set Up Payment for Booking Appointments

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To set up payment methods, head to the merchant section of the PhotoBiz Ecommerce tool. We have several options to accept both online and offline payments. 

• Stripe

• Square

• PayPal

• PayJunction

• Payflow Pro

• iTransact

• Authorize.net

• Offline payment (good for cash or check payments or third party apps)

From the Ecommerce section of your PhotoBiz account, mouse over payments in the top menu, and click merchants. Then select new merchant. Choose one of the merchants or set up an offline payment method.

Depending on the merchant you select, you will either be prompted to sign up/complete an application or to enter your merchant identification information. You can sign up for and connect to both Stripe and iTransact directly through the Zibster Ecommerce control panel.

Learn more about setting up a merchant.

You can collect sales tax based on your local requirements for online sales. Because tax requirements vary widely, it is important to check with a tax advisor to ensure that you are collecting the appropriate tax rates for online sales.

To set up tax options, navigate to the Ecommerce tool, mouse over payment (in the top menu), and click taxes.

Here you’ll be able to set up tax rates for different locations (country, state), descriptions, and more.

Additionally, you can set up shipping options you want to provide your customers. You can offer a flat shipping cost or percentage-based shipping, and even set up additional shipping options for specific items you sell (such as if something is particularly large or fragile and requires something more custom).

Learn more about setting up taxes and shipping methods.

Now you’re ready to set up items to sell. You can sell virtually anything. Zibster has options to sell products, services, digital downloads, and much more. Our Ecommerce tools are really robust, there are multiple ways to sell online.

For example, there are a few different ways you can sell services. You can (1) sell them through an online store, similar to a product, (2) allow people to book a time with you using the Scheduler and pay for the service (and any available add-ons) in a single transaction (see more details below), (3) enable payment on an online form to have people sign an agreement for a service at the same time as they pay (see more details below), or (4) send them an invoice for a service. Which you choose, depends on what’s best for your business. 

To learn more about setting up each item you can sell online, check out these support articles:

How to Set Up Products

How to Set Up Services

How to Create an Invoice 

You may also have products and services you’d like to sell through a more traditional online store. Once you have the Ecommerce tool set up (merchant, taxes, shipping, products), you can add your products and services to the pages of your website for anyone to purchase.

You can control what products are displayed on which page, manage inventory (how many of each item you have), and even set up additional options and sub-options (with up-charges). Product options can come in handy if you are selling apparel to allow people to select a size or color, or if you are selling gallery art you can use options to have people select a print size and frame. 

To learn more about creating an online store, explore our comprehensive multi-part online store guide:

Setting Up an Online Store Part 1

Setting Up an Online Store Part 2

Setting Up an Online Store Part 3

Another tool you can take payments through is forms. Once you have a merchant set up (in the Ecommerce section), then you can add payment options to your forms.

Payments collected through forms can be flat fees or conditional, based on items selected in the form. Forms offer a very unique way to give your customer exactly what they want while being paid the way you like.

Ecommerce can also enhance your online appointment booking. You can use the Scheduler to take payments when people book appointments. It is very simple to enable. Once a merchant is set up in the Ecommerce tool, you can set payment options for your services in the Scheduler.

Scheduler services include options to display descriptions and images, and sell add-ons (paid or not). Consider add-ons beyond your specific services too, you could collect money for complementary services from your partners or affiliates. Collecting payment as people book appointments can be really helpful. You can collect payment in full, or have people pay a deposit, it's up to you.

Check out these resources to see how the Scheduler can enhance your business:

3 Great Ways to Use the Zibster Scheduler

How to Use the Zibster Scheduler

We hope this ecommerce guide and the additional resources it refers to will help you. This guide will continue to grow as the Zibster platform toolset continues to be enhanced. We look forward to making updates to the guide in the near future!

Need help getting started with selling online? Sign up today and start selling online right away.

Already a customer? Reach out to our support team by calling us at 844.353.3412 or logging in to chat with us.