Being a Merchant with Direct-Choice

Key Functionality Snapshot

Turnkey ecommerce solution Multi domain product representation Promotion and campaigns Multi store/warehouses Multi delivery areas Hospital marketing Delivery methods, charges, discounts Gift presentation Catalogue build and browsing Product set up, edit and browsing Product detail Cart and checkout Payment methods Order and inventory management Merchant site management Direct-Choice merchant relationship Merchant Info Centre

Whether you have already a web presence or not, Direct-Choice offers an additional distribution channel to drive your sales. As a turnkey solution, Direct-Choice provides you with 'ease of use functionality' to set up your virtual business and your products. When your products are active, they will have greatest exposure to the market as Direct-Choice will actively market the site and the products on offer. Our fees are modest and appropriate for the service we provide. The merchant representation fee covers our costs for providing and maintaining your virtual business instance, the product representation fee covers our costs for storing and presenting your products to potential buyers, with the transaction fee covering the cost of sale, order management and post-sale customer care. There is no need to wait. Register now. Your first product could be on sale in less than 30 minutes! Unsure? Please call our merchant customer service centre on 1800EasyDC (1800 327 932) Direct-Choice offers access to premium online markets through specifically focused domains: the Product Domain for the volume buyer and 'specials hunter'; the Gift Domain for the purchaser of quality, unique and differentiated gifts; the Hospital Domain for the many people who care and who want choice in what to give; and the Good Cause Domain for the many, many people that want to contribute to a good cause whilst purchasing online. Making your product(s) available for promotional shopping will greatly enhance your business and your products exposure to potential buyers. Direct-Choice will run many promotional activities and campaigns at any point in time thus driving overall site traffic and encouraging a stronger product uptake. Setting appropriate promotional discounts for promotional activities is straight forward and can be adjusted at any point in time. The multi store/warehouses merchant level functionality allows the setup of one or many warehouse(s). A warehouse is defined as a physical or virtual place to store goods. There is no limit to the number of warehouses you can set up. With warehouse(s) being associated to your products, your delivery areas and your delivery methods, you can set up your distribution to be as cost effective as you want. You even can set up your suppliers as a 'virtual warehouse' and arrange orders to be fulfilled at the source. Simple to use, the solution caters for the needs of the smallest business and also scales for the multi store franchise. In Direct-Choice, product browsing requires a user to nominate the delivery area first to avoid products being shown that are not delivered to a desired location. The multi-delivery areas functionality allows the set up of one or many delivery areas in which a merchant may want to market a product(s). A delivery area can be defined on a post code, state or countrywide basis. The number of delivery areas a merchant may want to define will depend on the number and location of any warehouses, adopted delivery methods and the delivery charges approach. Simple to use, the solution provides flexibility to cater for any area, small or large. Traditionally, access to this market has been somewhat restricted. The hospital marketing functionality allows the easy nomination of one or many hospital(s) a merchant may want to market to in regards to a specific product. There are over 1000 hospitals available to provide this service with many people waiting for more 'choice' to show their 'loved ones' they care. Systems functionality allows the setup of unlimited delivery methods. Delivery charges can be defined for 'normal', 'express', 'courier' and 'same day delivery'. The delivery discount functionality allows the definition of delivery discounts for multiple product purchases and/or order value. Discounts can be set up on a merchant level and/or product level. Site users will be informed throughout the site what discounts are available. Changes can be made at any time. The merchant defined add-on(s) are a unique way to differentiate your offering from any other merchants offering. Add-on(s) are gift wrapping, card, balloon or any other merchant defined item. There are no limits to the number of add ons a merchant can define. For marketing within the Gift Domain and Hospital Domain, the gift wrapping add-on is mandatory. Card and balloon add-on(s) are optional, however, highly recommended for a complete 'gift service' to potential purchasers/members. Easy to administer, this unique add on feature has the potential to increase your overall dollar ($) turnover significantly. Associating your products with the appropriate category is entirely in your hands. Categories can be identified over 3 levels with the product being easily linked. Additional associations can be made with other category structures including 'By Recipient' (his, her...), 'By Occasion' (Birthday Easter....) and 'By Brand'. Brand shopping is an important aspect for healthy sales and is fully supported within Direct-Choice. The product catalogue(s) can be easily extended in collaboration with Direct-Choice Merchant Services staff. The definition of products is simple and 'fool proof'. The product set up process involves 11 steps; 6 are mandatory, 5 are optional. The steps are 'work flowed', guiding you through the set up process in a structured way. When completed, a 'traffic light' type indicator will show you whether your product has been correctly set up. A 'green light' is shown when the product is set up correctly and is available in the Direct-Choice shop front. A 'red light' indicates a problem. An 'Act Now' link will be shown which will lead you to the appropriate screen where the problem has been identified. Products are show in the shop front in a standard fashion providing additional comfort for potential purchasers. Availability of sufficient and appropriate product detail is important for today's online shopper as they want to be fully informed before committing their money for a purchase. As a merchant with Direct-Choice you have ample space to describe your products and its features. A total of 7 pictures can be uploaded. Information can also be presented via PDF for access by a potential purchaser. You as a merchant will always be identified with your logo prominently displayed supplemented by the business name, business location and ABN. The Direct-Choice cart and checkout process is unique as purchases for quite different products (eg. flowers, car tyres, and computers) from an unlimited number of merchants to an unlimited number of recipients can be processed at the one time. The checkout process is workflow supported and facilitates the selection of desired add-ons (eg. wrapping paper) and appropriate delivery types (depending on what you support). The payment step will facilitate the transfer of funds between you and the purchaser. An invoice and receipt in your companies name will be generated with an order booked within the order management functionality of your site. Not all payment methods are equally embraced by potential purchasers when shopping online. To increase the potential for sales, Direct-Choice accommodates many payment methods. As part of your merchant sign up you have the option to be set up for POLi (Internet Banking) and EasyDC Pay (Credit Cards, assuming you have a merchant facility from your bank) at no additional costs. Other methods supported include PayPal and EFT. When a purchase is progressed, Direct-Choice will cover POLI and Easy DC Pay transaction costs as part of their transactions fees. A complete and comprehensive order and inventory management functionality is available within your merchant site. Orders can be easily accessed and printed with status updates communicated to the purchaser. Completed orders can be archived for future reference. Inventory is updated at the point of purchase. Inventory quantity can be updated at any time, effective immediately or at a future date. Next to the usual ability to update all the information about your business, Direct-Choice provides you with complete flexibility 'who' has 'what' access to your virtual business. Settings can be set on a functional group level and include 'Full Access', 'No Access' or 'Read Only'. An administration message management functionality is available to facilitate communications between yourself and Direct-Choice merchant support staff. Other information includes a contracts section, where a copy of current contract is held, an account section. where we keep record of our services fees and an account settlements section where you nominate whether you would like to pay us by Direct-Debit or Credit Card for our services in relation to your online business. Payment for our services is in arrears (yes, we trust you!) at months end. At Direct Choice we try to make things easy for you. Our Merchant Information Centre contains a comprehensive overview of all merchant functionality. Page sensitive help is also available with each data field's purpose being described in quite some detail. ... and of cause, if you are still unclear about something, you can always use the Administration Message Management system and contact our friendly merchant support staff.

What are the benefits for a participating Merchant?

Direct-Choice offers access to premium e-commerce online markets through multiple domains:

Product Domain : The product domain is the center piece of the Direct-Choice site, listing all of your available products. You can use this domain to offer specials or quantity discounts for your products. Members can easily search for and browse through your products in this domain.

Gift Domain: Gain from this premium market through your unique range of quality gifts! Items in the Gift Domain need to be offered at a minimum with a wrapping service. Cards, balloons and other ‘Add Ons’ such as chocolate, flowers, or even a ‘life tree’.… may be added as an additional service to allow you to differentiate yourself and drive additional sales.

Hospital Domain: Tap into the lucrative “Gift Market’ of over 1000 Hospitals, Nursing Homes etc. Direct-Choice facilitates convenient selection of gifts for Hospital patients across Australia. As a merchant you can opt to become a supplier of this lucrative market segment by associating your products to the relevant Hospitals. Items in the Hospital domain need to be offered with wrapping service, however, cards, balloons and other ‘Add Ons’ such as chocolate, flowers, or even a ‘life tree’.… may be added as an additional service. With hundreds of hospitals in our system, the choice to deliver to this market is as simple as one click.

Good Cause Domain: Items in the Good Cause Domain support an approved and genuine cause. Products that are made available for promotions are made available within this domain. Significant exposure for you the merchant and your products will flow from this association as appropriate marketing campaigns are usually associated with a Good Cause listing. Items in the Good Cause domain can be offered with wrapping service at the merchant’s discretion, or any other ‘Add Ons’

Service Domain: The Services domain provides a list of relevant Service Providers or allows a job to be advertised with 'ready and keen' providers. The Service domain adds further value to Direct-Choice members as they do not need to access other directories for their requirements. As a merchant you will benefit from increased traffic to the site from consumers looking for a one stop shop for all their needs.

Inexpensive Representation / Sales Commission

Increased Sales Opportunities through uniform Product Presentation and targeted Marketing

Increased Business Opportunities through the ability to tap into the local market

Superior Customer/Member Service through Call Centre and Online Assistance

Member support through prestigious 1800 Number

Secure and flexible Money Flows and Options

Multi-Store Support

Little Computer Knowledge required

An established, turnkey, hosted solution

More about the Direct-Choice Concept...

Unlike other web sites, Direct-Choice is ‘product and service’ centric. This allows the customer ‘Direct’ access to thousands of products without wasting time, searching, opening and reading through a large number of often badly designed & confusing web sites of individual merchants.

Direct-Choice provides uniform online representation for all associated merchants making a customer's/member's shopping experience a familiar and easy event, time after time after time.

At Direct-Choice, our customers/members have ‘Choice’ as the products come from a large number of merchants across the country whether operating as Individuals, as Retail or Wholesale Business, as Producer or Retailer or as small or large Business.

Finally, Buying and Selling is safe for both the merchant and you the customer/member as we have created a secure transaction environment for e-commerce on the Internet. Our e-commerce system uses Secure Sockets Layer technology (SSL) that encrypts information passed from all participants to Direct-Choice. This makes it almost impossible to be intercepted by an unauthorized party as long as your browser and local network support the use of encrypted data transmission. The SSL industry standard is compatible with Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL, Web TV and most other browsers.

Payment processes are standardized. Payment methods include Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Diners, EFT, PayPal and Credit Card Payments (subject to individual merchant offering).

Terms and Conditions

Merchant Agreement
Privacy Policy
Merchant Conditions of Sale for Product
Return Policy