Frequent Questions and Answers (FAQ)
We are happy to answer any questions that
you may have regarding this service. For your
convenience, we have compiled a list of frequently
asked questions. Please review the list prior to
contacting us with your questions. You may find
that we have already provided an answer. If you
require further assistance please do not hesitate
to contact our staff.
Why does 123plaza.com offers this free online stores service?
Our mission is to promote regional and international trade, by
empowering world businesses with advanced marketing and
collaboration technologies. We want to make sure that every business
regardless of size or country location has access to these services.
The Internet was built on freely accessible technologies,
and continues to be today; there is no reason why businesses should
pay $400.00 or more for obtaining an online store with advanced
marketing technologies.
For this reason, we believe that many interesting products and
businesses are not getting the exposure they deserve. Some of the
most innovative products and services would never make it to market
without a service like 123plaza.com.
123plaza.com's world network of e-commerce portals comprises 250
countries, providing true global exposure and visibility to all
businesses hosted, at one of the Internet's largest commerce
centers.
Is 123plaza.com a not-for-profit organization?
No, but we are not trying to become millionaires either. We are a
family owned business. We are simply trying to fill a need in the
international community and rely on financial contributions from
our users to pay the bills, expand the service, build our audience
and keep the service online. If you would like to make a contribution
please click here
If you make a US$ 19.95 donation you will receive as a bonus The
Ultimate E-Book Package containing more than 6000 reports, ebooks, softwares,
and information resources.
Click Here to take a look at what is inside this package. Even
if you are not a user of our web site, you will not find a similar value
anywhere else in the Internet.
How long has 123plaza.com been offering this service?
We began in 1995 by helping many individuals and merchants creating
their custom online stores, after some time, we noticed that most web
stores failed to reach the expected results, mainly because merchants
could not keep up with the day to day maintenance of their products
listings, and did not have the necessary visibility to reach their
target audiences.
Additionally, as you are probably aware, the surprising discovery
was the fact that having your web store hosted under your own domain
name was no guarantee for success, on the contrary, on many cases it
yielded the opposite result.
Even more surprising, was the fact that the stores from our
customers hosted at our showcase and design web site were getting
far better results, without any apparent regard for type of shopping
cart system, promotion, or web design criteria used. This clearly
indicated to us that Internet users would prefer to visit web sites
where there is a concentration of stores, much for the same
reasons why they visit shopping centers in their cities.
Based on these experiences, we embarked on designing a system
that will include advanced ecommerce tools, facilitate maintenace of
products listing by enabling retailers to link to databases of suppliers,
allow retailers to create their own associates programs, all under highly
visible web site that could host many types of business from many
countries. Thus by mid 1997 123Plaza International Commerce Center
was born.
If you would like to see a detailed description of our E-commerce system
please click here
What makes 123plaza.com different from other store builder systems?
First and foremost, 123plaza.com you are our partner not our client, thus
we are always actively involved expanding the service, and in a day to day
promotion of your business as well as ours.
Our system is can easily catalog hundreds of thousand products, while
other systems experience severe performance degradation when listing
more that 200 products.
Your store is hosted at high end dedicated web servers, with 99% up time,
and constantly monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
123plaza.com's world network of e-commerce portals comprises 250
countries, providing true global exposure and visibility to all
businesses hosted, at one of the Internet's largest commerce
centers.
Unlike similar systems exclusively implemented for single retail
merchant transactions, our system meets supplier's commercial
requirements, and accepts simultaneous secure (SSL) sales
transactions from multiple vendors.
123plaza.com's Ecommerce hosting system implements inventory
integration tools that allow suppliers to deploy and synchronize
product databases to retail Internet businesses, retailers and
suppliers to establish real-time strategic alliances, and tools
that facilitate content management for the online stores hosted.
123plaza.com provides a true business-to-business and business-to-
consumer ecommerce solution (B2B2C).
123plaza.com's Store builder provides easy-to-use browser based
management functions that are not manpower intensive, and do not
require expert knowledge in computers, yet it features an array
of advanced and innovative ecommerce tools.
Do I qualify as a Retailer or Wholesaler?
To qualify as Retailer or Wholesaler on our ecommerce portal is only
necessary that you own a line of products to sell or re-sell, either
to the general public as is the case of retailers, or exclusively to
other businesses in bulk quantities at discount prices, as in the case
of wholesalers.
However be aware de you must comply with all local, state/province,
laws and regulations on your country, with regards to owning and operating
a retail or wholesale business. 123plaza.com is a neutral entity that limits
itself to provide Internet commerce tools, and in no way this limits or
evades legal responsibilities of merchants hosted.
In general you will have to obtain licenses issued by your state/province
or city. Needles to say that these licenses are not expensive or always
necessary, so you should seek professional help regarding these requirements.
HTML designers, your own domain name and other common lies.
Web sites under your own domain name are no guarantee of success!
It may come as a surprise but it's the truth. In fact, most
comercial web sites are nothing more than a brochure taped to a
wall on a random dark alley of a big city; no body sees them,
and most certainly they do not produce any results.
Neither is buying an expensive piece of ecommerce software to
sell products on your web site. Most, only offer features
commonly found in free (public domain) software at a hefty price
tag, and are not optimized for the Internet. Manufactures of these
softwares may claim that their product is powerful and fast, among
other things, sooner rather than later you will find out the hard
way, that they lack flexibility and can never be fully adapted to
your business needs, they are complicated and lack user friendly
features, for which you will have to hire a troop of their
"Trained Professionals", and product catalogs generated can not
be indexed by Internet spider robots.
Neither you will find success by investing $2000 to $10000 on web
site development; probably this is the worst decision you could ever
make. The truth is that most web developers and consultants, know
absolutely nothing about business...much less yours. They are all
well versed in technologies such as Java, HTML, and SQL databases, but
they do not have the slightest idea about marketing and generating business
profits using the Internet.
How do we know? For the last 6 years we've made our living straightening
out these costly mistakes. We do one thing and one thing only; Ecommerce.
We have seen it all, the good the bad and worst, and by now we can
honestly say that we have a fair idea of what works and what doesn't.
Dear Merchant Friend,
Do not be afraid of the competition; when it comes to comercial success,
"The competition" is your best friend. Concepts such as My Web Site, My Domain
Name, can easily give you a sense of security, but nothing can be so far
from the truth. Many times this only means that you will be hidding your business
in a remote cave... You will lead a very secure and peacefull life, but nobody
will be able to visit you.
Why do you think successful businesses group themselves in malls, commercial
centers, and specialized business districts?
The simple truth about the success of our ecommerce system, is that we group
vendors under a world network of country and regional Internet commerce centers,
and at the same time we provide them with the (easy-to-use) latest and most
advanced ecommerce technologies, all at no cost.
Proof of this success can be easily seen on the 600+ fully satisfied merchants
we are hosting and the fast growth we are experiencing.
Is 123plaza.com an MLM system (Multi Level Marketing system)?
MLM is for the birds... Only amateurs promote MLMs
Internet Wealth makers ALL generate the money they earn daily by
selling tangible goods or services, and only use MLM as an additional
marketing back-door technique. Tangible goods or services are things
you can touch and see, as a book or CD, or palpably use as an web hosting
service.
Make no mistake, MLM is a very good money generating tool when used
(Legally) for marketing your own products, but not when participating in
someone elses products and promotions; used this way it will only generate
"beer money", that is, it will barely earn you the money you will use for
drinking beer on weekends, that's all.
Do not confuse the data and profit sharing features we offer with MLM.
Direct Inventory linking for wholesalers, and Affiliates programs for
retailers although use similar principles are not the same. MLM earning
structures are constructed using a pyramidal scheme and members earn
commissions from the net earnings of the organization. Where as
Affiliates are a one level, and earn commissions for each sale of a
product they refer. In the case of Direct inventory linking there are no
commissions structures but earning is achieved by marking up product
prices over wholesale prices, and using traditional retailing methods.
Be careful out there. Do not fall prey to easy money MLM scams (aka:
Ponzy schemes and Pyramids schemes) not only you will be disposed off
from your money, but YOU could also be held financially AND criminally
liable. Unfortunately many Internet MLM offers these days do fall in the
above illegal categories. The financial and criminal risks you could
face by getting involved in one of these schemes could totally ruin
you life as you know it.
For more information please visit the following sites:
US Securities & Exchange Commission:
US Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alerts:
There are many genuine opportunities to earn a comfortable living from the Internet.
They do not happen overnight and 99% of them are achieved by selling tangible products
or services, BUT you will need to LEARN to EARN, and it will require you to WORK AT IT,
until you are able to develop credibility and trust from the Internet community.
I already have a store at another web site. Why should I need a
store at 123plaza.com?
There are many reasons, and we will only list some of the most important.
As you may know, the fact is that the Internet has some 20 million web
sites and growing, users have little or no chance of finding your
store even if your web site is listed in mayor search engines and
directories. By creating an additional online store at 123plaza.com
you will double or triple the chances of users finding out about
your products.
You should also consider that important Internet directories are
now charging a fee for listing your web site, and that relevance or
importance of listings on search engines are based on the number of
links from other web sites to your particular web site. Thus having a
web store at 123plaza.com will also improve recogniton of your site
by Search Engines.
123plaza is recognized as an importan International commerce
center, that focuses on giving visiblity and exposure to your products on
many countries, not just a particular locality or country as it may be
the case with isolated web sites.
The economy in my country is not ready for ecommerce, why
should I have a store?
Your country may not be ready, but the world is, and so are you.
If you have interesting products to sell, there are more than 60
millions Internet users worldwide waiting to hear from you.
Given the current globalization trends, international marketing
is the way to go for businesses to survive in this century.
Even if some countries are experiencing little or no economic growth,
means of communications such as the Internet are becoming
widely available, and ecommerce transactions are experiencing a
growth per year estimated in billions of dollars.
Be ready, be there, because sooner or later conditions in your country
will change, and in the meanwhile there is no reason why you should not
be selling your products to clients in other countries. To find out how to
create your free online store
click here
Do I need to register my business with the local authorities,
before obtaining an On-line store?
If your local authorities or government requiere it by law or
regulations, you will need to register a business with your local
authorities in order to legally be able to sell products, or start
a wholesale, retail or reselling business. It is recommended that
you seek professional help ragarding business requirements in your
country or locality. 123plaza.com is a neutral entity, that only
provides ecommerce tools for you to sell products over the Internet.
I have heard that there is a lot of fraud in the Internet, is
this true?
This is a myth. The fact is that in the Internet there is very little
fraud, and as very little there is, it is mainly commited by unscrupulous
users, not by merchants. According to a vicepresident of Visa International,
fraud on the Internet is virtually non existent, and there is more risk
of fraud when giving out your credit card numbers in a local restaurant,
that when purchasing services or products over the Internet.
Additionally at 123plaza.com we enforce one of the most tight security
systems available to protect your valuable information, and that of your
customers.
Click here to view a detailed description of the security
measures implemented at 123plaza.com
Does 123plaza.com ever rejects online stores?
Yes, we do. Each application passes through a brief review process.
We also remove stores when reasonable complaints are received from users.
Additionally we periodically review established online stores to
make sure the information, content, and products offered fall within
the guidelines and policies we have established. Online stores that
do not meet these requirements are immediately removed.
We do not proofread the content for grammar or spelling errors.
That's the responsibility of the store owner. After all please remember
that your online store is a representation of your business to the
outside world.
Does 123plaza.com accepts online stores promoting or selling adult products?
No, we don't
To create your retail shop, click here now!
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