Grahams Quick Guide to E-commerce:
Domain NameA Domain Name is the address that people type into their web browser e.g. www.catholicbookshop.org to access your site. You must register a Domain Name with a Domain Registry. Once you have registered your domain name, you must configure the domain name so that it points to a Web Hosting company. If you have opted to purchase a Shopping Cart that provides hosting as part of the package, you will need to point your domain name to the Shopping Cart's servers.
Web HostingBefore anyone can see what your company has to offer, you must elect a Web Hosting company to host your website. Everything you see on the Internet is stored on web servers around the world. There are many thousands of companies who provide this service and their prices all vary depending on your requirements.
Types of Websites Websites come in many different shapes and forms. They can be static or dynamic. They can integrate with databases, or simply display basic information such as contact details and other company (or personal) information. They can be strictly based on your information, or can display links to, and ads for, other websites.
They can also incorporate third-party controls/services such as:
Shopping Cart Facilities
Real-Time Credit Card Processing
Content Management System(s)
Telephone SMSing / calling
Your WebsiteObviously, you will need an actual website to point your domain name to. Depending on your level of programming experience, you can either attempt to create this yourself, or employ a professional web developer to create it for you. In either case, remember that this is a virtual presence of your business and should reflect the quality of your products and organization.
Some suggested sections, which you may wish to include in your website, are;
Home page (the starting point of your website)
Contacts page (the numerous ways you can be contacted, eg. Email address, phone numbers)
About Us page (a general overview of your business)
Products / Services page (outline of your products / services)
Shopping Cart (the area of your website that allows products / services to be purchased.
Shopping CartsTo provide effective eCommerce services to your customers, you will need a Shopping Cart service attached to your website. A Shopping Cart, in its basic form, exposes a list of all your products and provides a facility to purchase them online.
Much like web hosts, Shopping Carts come in various different shapes and forms. Some carts allow you to manage your stock levels and update pictures, while other carts integrate complete Content Management System (CMS) facilities, which allow you to modify how your site looks, manage categories for products, adjust postage levels, set your own payment options and much more. A Shopping Cart can usually also be configured as a complete website, including the sections outlined above, or it can simply be used as an additional 'plug-in' to your existing site.
Shopping Carts basically provide you with the means to setup a complete online shop, with minimal effort or programming knowledge.
Since every Shopping Cart is different, here are some points you should consider when choosing the right Shopping Cart for your business.
ProductsThe more options you are given for your product, the better. You need to ensure that the software will provide you with the features you need. Such features to consider are Inventory Control, Stock-On-Hand (SOH) Warnings, Sales Reports and ease of use.
If were to adopt a Shopping Cart and then find that it's missing a core ingredient, such as SOH Warnings, you may be missing out on key elements, which are crucial to the automated stock-management environment. It's all about making your life easier.
ImagesPictures of products are one of the most important aspects when trying to sell online. Pictures re-assure customers and give them confidence in knowing exactly what they are paying for.
Shopping Carts should all incorporate images with their products. Desirable features of Image Management in Shopping Carts include (but may not be limited to):
Multiple images per product.
The option of using the same image for multiple products (as opposed to having to upload additional images every time).
Automatic Image-Resizing will save you time in having to adjust images manually, before uploading them to your website.
Straight-forward Image Management.
PostageEvery Shopping Cart tends to have a different method for calculating Postage Rates. Some opt to provide a per-product flat rate, while others give you the option of adding a percentage or flat rate across the board. Some Shopping Carts provide you with fields for product dimensions and calculate the postage "on-the-fly", based on rates from an online source (such as Australia Post). Other Shopping Carts have different methods and some prefer to give you free reign on how you would like to apply postage fees to your products. You should decide what would work best for you before choosing a Shopping Cart for your business. Payment Gateways
Some Shopping Carts only provide Credit Card processing through one particular Payment Gateway. Others will give you multiple options at setup time. You need to compare prices and features before making a decision on this topic. See Section 5 (Real-Time Payments) for more information on Payment Gateways.
Most shopping carts will also provide the option to accept payments by methods other than credit card, such as payment in invoice. If you choose to accept this method, you should be aware that payments are not necessarily in real-time, and to be wary of shipping goods, before payment is received.
SecurityAny reputable Shopping Cart should have adequate security measures in place, or information on how best to secure your website if they do not.
If you have an SSL Certificate in place, or if the Shopping Cart provides one, you should check the characteristics of the certificate and make sure it has adequate encryption. You should also ensure that the certificate has not expired. See Section 6 (Secure Sockets Layer Certificates) for more information.
Marketing ToolsMarketing from a Shopping Cart can be of great benefit to your company. Marketing tools can differ greatly in functionality depending on the Shopping Cart you choose.
Tracking customers via Customer Accounts and Newsletters can be extremely useful and will assist in keeping your customers happy. It also helps to remind them that you are still operating. Furthermore, recording useful information from customers allows you target particular audiences (eg. Customers within ACT only; or Customers over the age of 40; etc) and will greatly improve your control over customers' interest in special deals, offers and products.
You should also consider whether or not your chosen Shopping Cart will allow you to add advertising banners and/or AdSense-type advertising on your site - these will assist your income.
Real-Time (Credit Card) PaymentsIn this day and age, Real-Time Payments are the fastest, most useful way to do business over the Internet - and they are quite safe, so long as you read and understand the remainder of this guide.
Real-Time Payments, for the purposes of this guide, are defined as Credit Card purchases made over the Internet. There are several ways of accomplishing this and you must be vigilant when choosing a suitable provider for this kind of service.
A Payment Gateway is a provider of such services. Once again, there are several Payment Gateways, around the world, who offer Real-Time Payment facilities.
eWAY is Australia's leading payment gateway.
Once you delve into the realm of Real-Time Payments, you must be aware that security is your greatest concern when passing Credit Card numbers and other sensitive information to your chosen Payment Gateway. This is where Secure Sockets Layer Certificates (SSL) are a necessity.
If you've opted to use a Shopping Cart to sell your products/services online, then you should check what the Third-Party provider can offer you in terms of Real-Time Payments and the security that it demands
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates
Since you will be passing sensitive information from your website, you will require an SSL Certificate. As mentioned previously, some Shopping Cart solutions will provide SSL as part of their services. If they do not, however, you will need to apply SSL to your website. This also applies if you opt not to use a commerical Shopping Cart solution.
SSL Certificates have an encryption value showed in bits. You should ensure that the certificate you plan on acquiring is of adequate encryption (eg. 128bit, 256bit, etc).
Certificates also have an expiry date and must be renewed at the end of this period. You should not let your certificate expire before you renew it, so as to ensure it does not reflect poorly on your company.
MarketingNow that you have the necessary information to set up your online business, you will need to start marketing your website. There are a number of ways to do this. Some methods are free and some cost money. The right marketing tool will be different for every company, but there are a few that make your life easy and some that even pay you for advertising for other businesses.
Submit to a Search EngineThere are many good Search Engines in cyber space and you should submit to as many free ones as you can. Depending on the expected revenue of your business, you may choose to pay particular Search Engines (such as Google, or Yahoo!) a sum of money to prioritise your website and essentially make your website appear above the others in search results - unless, of course, they've paid more money than you.
Advertising On WebsitesThere are a number of ways to advertise on the Internet. You could contact a company you wish to partner with and trade banners (small ads placed on a web page). Perhaps you could also negotiate newsletter content and include your partner's services in yours (and vice-versa). That is entirely up to you and them.
There is another form of advertising on the Internet, which has grown to be quite well known and very simple to use. This form of advertising has been adopted by a number of Internet businesses world-wide and is based on a per-click scheme. Here's how it works: You setup your website and sign-up for the advertising scheme The advertising company finds your website and provides you with links that are appropriate to the content of your website (these links may change on a regular basis) You receive money every time somebody clicks on one or more of these links. Similarly, certain advertising companies will pay you, per-click, to put their banner on your site. Afterall, you're advertising for them - why shouldn't you get paid for it? Two companies who adopt this advertising methodology are Google (AdSense) and ClixGalore Affiliate Network.
shamelessly stolen from EWAY
