How do you set a discount coupon code percentage for the retail order purchase page.

First, login to your account

Next, Click the cart button (located across the top of the page):

Then, enter a discount coupon code and percentages:

Small Transaction Fee

To accept your credit card or Paypal payment, we charge a small transaction fee to cover some of our costs. TrepStar is charged a $0.49 transaction fee PLUS 3% to 5% of the payment amount just to accept your online payment. The industry keeps raising these transaction fees which makes small payments very expensive to us.  

There are a few reasons why we charge a transaction fee:   

• You created your TrepStar account on or after January of 2022.
• If you submit payments of  around $10 - $15 or less most of the time.
• Or, within a single session or day, you submit an order, then pay, then go back in and submit another order, then pay again etc...   The system was designed so you submit all of your orders first, then pay at the end which helps us avoid transaction fees that we have to pay.  

TrepStar incurs a transaction fee for each credit card, or PayPal payment we accept.   Because of this fee, small payments cost us a lot more in terms of percentages and wipes out most of any profit.  

We pay 49 cents per transaction plus an average* of 3.7% of the total cost.  If all payments we received were $100.00 for example, it's not too bad.  That would be $3.70 (3.7%) plus a 49 cent transaction fee for a total of $4.19.  This is 4.2% of the total money collected.  We have roughly a 10% profit margin.  This means even with high payment amounts, we pay nearly half of our potential profit just to accept your credit card or paypal payment.  This is very frustrating as it is... but it gets worse.

Unfortunately, if the payments are small, most if not all profit is used up just to pay the fees we are charged by the credit card processor companies (visa/mc/amex and paypal).

For example, if your payment is around $10.00,  we pay  $0.49 + 3.7%.    That is 37 cents plus 49 cents for a total of ($0.86).  That's nearly 9% in fees and most of our profit. 

For small payments, we profit almost nothing, and can't keep competitive that way. We are trying to find ways to keep prices low while still making enough money to continue. 

Remember, assuming you plan to use TrepStar for future orders, when you make a payment, choose to pay more than you owe.  This extra amount funds future orders so they will not be on hold but will be produced right away.   For example, instead of paying the minimum amount owed, pay $50 or $100 extra.  This reduces the amount of time you have to spend making payments and helps reduce transaction fees for both of us.

* The average blended credit card fees we pay is about 3.5% to 3.7%.  While some visa debit cards from the USA are at 2.9%, most others are over 2.9%.  We pay 4.4% to 5.4% to accept international credit cards.  For all payments TrepStar receives, we see about a 3.7% average rate.  These percentages continue to go up as more and more credit cards promise cash back and rewards.  These rewards are paid by merchants like TrepStar and ultimately are factored into all consumer prices.  Prior to 8/1/2021, we were billed $0.30 per transaction.  This has been raised to $0.49 per transaction plus a processing fee of around 3.7%  of  the payment amount.

More than one PayPal IPN notification URL

You may be looking to integrate TrepStar with PayPal if you're already using PayPal for order processing.   However, some publishers already have PayPal IPN turned on with a notification URL to a website other than ours.   There is not a way to add a 2nd PayPal IPN Notification URL but there is a workaround.

9/1/18:  We have been informed that Paypal no longer does linked accounts.  The following no longer works, but you can call Paypal and see if they will change their policy.

No longer valid:
You can easily add a 2nd PayPal linked account for your TrepStar orders.  This will not interfere with your current PayPal account and it will use your existing bank account.   

Please call PayPal's new account setup group at 888 - 847 - 2747 and ask them to help you set up a 2nd account that is linked to your existing account.  This linked account will deposit money to your existing bank account.   All you need is a new email account for this 2nd linked account.

Computing Retail order page costs

If you use the TrepStar retail order page buy now buttons, we handle collecting money from your customer.  We give them shipping/handling options and they pay that extra amount. Click here for detailed information.

For example, if you wanted to sell your product for $20.00, the following table shows you how much you would receive in net proceeds:

Example TrepStar Retail Order Page Net Proceeds Calculation:
Your currently set retail price for this product is $20.00. Based on this price, your retail order net proceeds will be:
Retail Price:	$20.00				The retail price you set from within your project. We charge the customer this plus shipping/handling.
Shipping/Handling:	n/a				Your customer chooses a shipping method during the purchase process. We add that amount to your retail price to cover our shipping/handling costs so you don't pay them (your customer does).
Manufacture Cost:	($1.75)				The amount we charge you, the publisher, to manufacture this product (as currently configured).
Process Fee:	($1.00)				5.00% of $20.00. This covers the fees we are charged by our merchant provider.
Net Proceeds:	$17.25				This is the amount TrepStar will owe you. You pay manufacture cost, and process fee. Your customer is charged extra to cover all shipping & handling.

 

When your customer is purchasing the product, the 2nd screen asks them to pick a shipping method.  They will pay this amount in addition to the retail price of 20.00

On the next page, it shows a summary of charges.  Notice how the customer is charged for s/h

In the end, the customer pays $23.23 for this product which covers shipping/handling.  As the publisher, you pay the manufacturing cost plus transaction fees (which we are charged as well and are passing on to you).

Drop ship to Amazon. Restock for Amazon Advantage

On the TrepStar order form, there is a section where you can email an attached document to TrepStar.  We will print that document with your order for a small fee.  Login, click the order form, and scroll near the bottom.

Otherwise, Amazon will accept your package if you follow these instructions:

Amazon will ask you to print and include a special label and enclosure when sending product for amazon advantage fulfillment services.  We can do that for you (see above).   In actuality, it's what they would prefer but it is not actually required.  They do accept packages from us.  Just be sure to include your PO#.

Many of our customers send product to Amazon.  None of these packages have been returned to us!

Simply list your PO# as part of the address and include the PO# and any other information in the "special Text" area of the order form.   As long as you order with tracking, you can show that the package was delivered.  Order standard + delivery confirmation, Priority, or Priority-Express  to get tracking.

11/15/19: On our order form, there is a new way to request TrepStar to print your invoice document on that order.  Please open the order form and click on this new section for details.   We will print your document and include it with your order for a fee.

Example:

Amazon advantage PO # V1155xxx
Amazon.com, LLC Inventory
710 S. Girls School Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46231
US

Fill out the TrepStar order form which will look similar to this:   Put the PO# in the Name field:

Error #11611, saying "Transaction was blocked by your settings in FMF

If one of your customers is trying to use the trepstar retail order purchase.asp page and they receive the error Error #11611, saying "Transaction was blocked by your settings in FMF it means we can't accept the card for security reasons.  To avoid fraud, we have to limit some foreign cards and also in cases where the zip/postal code does not match the billing address.   The user needs to use a different card, or open a paypal account and purchase via Paypal.

Configure your web server to serve .iso and/or .gi files

We accept .iso and .gi DVD and CD disc image files for download.  However, your web server may not serve these by default.  If you plan to load your .iso file to your server, you may need to set your MIME type

.iso and .gi files are of type application/octet-stream

The following example explains how to set this within IIS.  You can also right click to get properties of your web site and click the HTTP Headers tab where you can add mime types to just a single web site.

IIS 6 Example.

To add a new MIME type, please follow these steps:

1. Log into your server through Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Connection.
2. Click Start, select Programs, and then click Administrative Tools. 
   
   • For IIS 6.0 click Internet Information Services.
3. In the left column you will see the Server Name.
   • In IIS 6.0, expand the Server Name and then Web Sites to find the domain name.
4. If you would like to add the MIME type to a specific website, right-click on the domain name and select Properties. If you would like to add MIME types globally to all websites on the server, right-click Web Sites and select Properties.
5.  

1. On the HTTP Headers tab click MIME Types. 
2. Click New
3. . 
4. Enter the appropriate information:
   • Extension - the file type extension.
   • MIME type - the type of file this extension refers to (view a list of common MIME types).
   • .gi and .iso both application/octet-stream 
   
   
   

You may need to restart the IIS service for the MIME type to begin working.

To restart the IIS service, please follow these steps:

1. Click Start, select Run, type command to open a command prompt.
2. Type iisreset and press Enter. This will stop the IIS service and then restart it.

Note: Restarting the IIS service will temporarily suspend the web service and prevent websites from working. The reset should only take around 10 - 30 seconds to complete.

Delete multi product orders

You may delete orders within 15 minutes of placing the order.  You may also delete orders that are on hold.  Login, click recent orders, and you will see a delete button and/or a modify button.  If you do not see those buttons, it's too late.

Order page enhancements.

Export Order report including tracking data and date range inputs

You now can use the search feature to export tabular data based on your search settings including a new date range. This data now includes tracking data when available.

 Until now, you had to click on each tracking link to check tracking data status.

Login to TrepStar.com and click the recent orders button, or the search button. The search form as been enhanced.

1) You may now enter a date range

2) You may now check a box to "Export search results in tabular form...". You may pick only the fields you wish to export such as invoice and tracking data. The export report looks up current tracking data in real time so you do NOT have to click each tracking link to find current tracking status.

Click Order from Order Preview Screen

There is a new 'Order' button on the order preview screen. Normally, when filling out customer orders from the order form, you have the choice of previewing the order, or simply ordering at that point. If you click preview, and liked what you saw, you would have to click back, then click order to submit the order. Now, there is an order button right on the order preview screen so you do not have to click back. This is important for users that have browser settings that may clear out form data. In other words, some users complained that they clicked preview, then back, and all of their form data was lost. This new feature allows users to order directly from the preview order page.