LOW FEES  One of the most important aspects you always have to consider for your business are the costs. NorthStar Solutions offers an exceptionally low and very fair fee structure of just 3.9% + $.75 per order (default) or upon request we can set your account to have a flat rate of 7.5% per order (minimum fee of $0.75 per order).

We also have no monthly fees, chargeback fees, refund fees, or other hidden fees. Payments to you are sent twice a month (once at least $100 is owed to you).

FRIENDLY CHECKOUT  Our checkout process can be completed via just one page and is built on modern AJAX technology, which means our solutions can significantly reduce or eliminate any shopping cart abandoment other payment processing platforms experience. Our order forms conveniently provide customers with immediate feedback during their purchase -- without them having to submit multiple forms or use their browser's "back button" to correct and resubmit information. In fact, our checkout process is so simple and intuitive that most customers can complete the process in just 1-2 minutes. SEE EXAMPLE OF LINKS THAT POINT TO A CUSTOMIZED STORE ...

Moreover, we do not use unfriendly fraud protection mechanisms that can lead to customer frustration or even cancelled orders. Over 99% of the orders we receive are processed within seconds of receipt using our proprietary technology developed with over a decade of experience in the e-commerce industry. We make it a top priority to ensure the purchase process is as easy as possible for customers.

CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS  When you link to our store, you can either link to a particular product, link to the shopping cart with a product already added, or link to your store and let customers pick and choose the products they wish to add to their virtual shopping cart. You also have complete control over the look and feel of your store area.

You can use our clean, professional defaults that will be set up automatically for you, or customize your store area any way you would like by adding your own header/logo, customizing fonts, and colors, etc. Our control panel will enable you to do that yourself, or we will be glad to help you with any customizations you want at no extra charge (just point us to your site so we can capture some of the look for you). SEE EXAMPLE OF LINKS THAT POINT TO A CUSTOMIZED STORE ...

DISCOUNT COUPON OPTIONS   Everyone likes a good deal, and coupons are a nice way to offer items on sale without risking leakage from normal sales. In other words, rather than run a sale that each and every customer will know about and receive (even if they arrive at your store ready to pay full price), you can target specific customers (for example, ones that may have purchased something from you in the past) and entice them to make more purchases of other products or upgrade an existing product at a discount. This works equally well for reseller discounts, educational discounts, discounts you want to give to friends and family, etc.

Coupons can be set up to expire on a certain date, to only work for certain categories, to work only when a specific product is purchased, and/or only trigger once a certain amount has been purchased. You may also provide customers a coupon code within the URL you give them. This provides customers a much more seamless purchase experience with their coupon since it prevents them from having to remember or type the coupon code. No matter how the coupon discount is triggered, customers are immediately shown the discount in their cart total to help customers feel good about their purchase.

ON-DEMAND CD FULFILLMENT   Our system enables you to easily add the option of providing your customers on-demand CD's. In addition to offering you more profit, this feature helps reduce technical support for people that lose their "download", all the while providing a valuable service to the many customers that would like a backup CD for their purchase. You need only complete a few fields in your product details to take advantage of this feature.

The entire process, from capturing the order from the customer, to affixing an attractive color label with your product name on it, to packaging the CD in a heavy mailer, to mailing the CD is conveniently managed for you! Another valuable feature is that your product is retrieved via FTP from the URL you indicate so that you can always ensure you customers are getting the latest version of your product by simply keeping that download file current.

MULTIPLE CURRENCY QUOTES  Our store will automatically detect the preferred currency customers like to see by examining their browser settings and/or the IP Address where they are from and display the prices in their own currency. In addition to the currency options being displayed on the page the customer views, prices are displayed next to the original price quoted in U.S. dollars so the customer fully realizes the actual price. This feature accesses data from the European Central Bank in real time to ensure the exchange rate quoted is correct. Customers may also choose to override the suggested currency and display prices in one of many other currencies.

EASILY MANAGE QUANTITY DISCOUNTS Quantity discounts encourage more sales by enabling you to offer discounts when certain quantities are purchased. For example, you could have quantity discounts in ranges such as 2-4, 5-9, 10-20, 21-50, and 51-100 (or however you would like). Once you have set them up, our system will automatically apply the discounts to customer's shopping carts when they select a quantity in the range you specify to achieve a discount.

OFFER POST-SALE DOWNLOADS TO YOUR CUSTOMERS  You can give your customers the ability to download a fully functional version of your software program, e-book, etc. after their purchase. Moreover, we offer this feature at no extra charge. You need only complete the "E-goods Fulfillment (ESD)" field to activate the feature: if that field has been completed, it will prompt our system to e-mail customers a special, encrypted link that they can use for up to 24 hours after their purchase. The link will automatically direct them to the actual location of the file without compromising its location so that the link can not be shared with others or used indefinitely.

INSTANT PAYMENT NOTIFICATION (IPN)  Easily set up your account to use our Instant Payment Notification (IPN) feature. If you use a hosting solution that enables you to run scripts, such as php, then you can have our system POST order data to a script on your server (a sample php script is also provided to you). IPN can be used in addition to e-mail notifications so that you can automate processes on your own server/host: you can customize the script to generate custom e-mail messages, log order data to a file, load a database, etc.

CUSTOM E-MAIL TO YOUR CUSTOMERS  Immediately after their purchase is processed, customers will receive a professional invoice from our store detailing their purchase (what was purchased, the date of purchase, amount charged, etc.). The invoice is presented to them at the time of check out, and again via e-mail. The system will also send a separate e-mail on your behalf (with your e-mail address as the "reply to"), thanking them once again for their purchase and providing them with your contact information or, at your discretion, an unlock code, or some other type of special instructions related to their purchase. The e-mail is sent immediately and without any necessary work from you.

GIFT CERTIFICATE FEATURES  You or customers may also purchase gift certificates from our store and then give them to friends and family members. This feature would be especially useful during holidays and special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, mother's day, etc.).

PROFESSIONAL "LOOK AND FEEL"  Whether you work out of a big office downtown or a spare room in your house, all that matters is how professionally you present and conduct yourself online. So, the last thing you want to do is undermine your professional image when it comes to the critical point of accepting payments. Obvious examples might be if a business does not accept credit cards, or does not use a secure web site to do so.

Other equally important offenses that can turn away customers is when a business uses a "person-to-person" payment system (like what one might find to buy something at an online auction). While such systems are generally acceptable for non-professional use, they can cause customers to question doing business with a business that uses them for professional use.

When you work with NorthStar Solutions, we present to your customers the professional image they need to confidently place a purchase. When customers are ready to make a purchase, you simply guide them to your store area at our site so that when they arrive at our store, they are presented with a professional storefront to easily make their purchase. SEE EXAMPLE OF LINKS THAT POINT TO A CUSTOMIZED STORE ...

FLEXIBLE PAYMENT OPTIONS  We mail checks to you twice a month and they take only 2-4 days to arrive anywhere in the U.S. and about 10 days outside the U.S. If you live in a place where mail is delayed beyond that or you have a high volume of purchases (such as thousands of dollars in orders monthly), we can also send payments to you via PayPal at no extra charge upon your request. Another option available upon your request is that we hold checks until a higher minimum balance has been reached ($500, for example). Some of our clients combine these two features, which are completely optional and may be changed as needs change.

RELIABILITY  When you establish an important business relationship, one of the most critical questions you should ask is how long has that business been operating, what is their track record, and will they likely be around for you in the future. It should, therefore, give you considerable peace of mind knowing NorthStar Solutions has been in business since 1994. When you partner with us, you immediately become a valued client and we work with you to make sure that every sale from every customer is treated importantly.

FRIENDLY CONTROL PANEL  Once you sign up for our services, you will have access to a friendly control panel where you can add, modify, and delete products; view orders in real time; set up customer discounts; create coupon codes; customize the look and feel or your store; and much more.

To explore a "sandbox" area, use the following link with Username = sandbox and Password = playnice.

SANDBOX CONTROL PANEL

EASY, RISK-FREE TRIAL  Our signup process is fast and easy -- which means you can be selling products through our site within minutes of signing up. Also, you retain all rights to your products, to include the copyright, the right to distribute, marketing rights, and/or rights to receive compensation directly or from other sources. You have nothing to lose and much to gain by trying our services first hand!