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Running an online shop

Last Updated on Wednesday, 31 December 1969 15:59 Written by John McPherson Thursday, 07 January 2010 09:14

An ecommerce site is different from an information site - it has a different function or purpose altogether

An ecommerce site is different from an information site - it has a different function or purpose altogether

Its primary purpose it to allow people to buy on line.

Behind the scenes this software required to run such a site is a lot more involved and complex than would be required for a straight information site. But this doesn't mean it has to be much harder to build or maintain.

Here's a short list that will help you get started with your eCommerce site

There are Five Things You Will Need:

1. Products : you need something to sell! It can be a physical product like a CD or book or machinery. Or it can be a virtual product like an eBook, pictures or software. Sometime you don't even need to stock these items - you can use drop shipped products. This is where people buy from you but the order is fulfilled by a wholesaler who then delivers the product directly the customer without any further involvement from you.

2. Shopping Cart Software to run the site. If you google eCommerce software you will see there is no shortage of choices. Some software is better suited to certain types of sites than others. Some are free and some are very expensive. One thing you should always keep in mind is the level of technical support available.

Having built eCommerce sites using 3 or 4 different shopping cart programs - and having tested out many many more; the ones I recommend for 99% of all eCommerce sites are zencart and CS-cart.

3. SSL and Dedicated IP: An SSL certificate is needed to create the secure 'https' version of your website. This means the https page is encrypted and so sensitive financial data like credit card details are protected.

You don't need to know how to install an SSL certificate though - let your web host or web designer do it

4. Merchant Account and Payment Gateway. For most online stores a credit card processing service like PayPal or Paymate is used to accept payments. These work well and are widely used and are inexpensive

You can also set up a merchant facility through your bank. Just be aware there is usually a monthly fee involved but it can be cheaper if you can often can negotiate a lower transaction rate - usually only possible if you have a high volume of sales.

Otherwise stick with the online processors.

5. Shipping Provider. Ironically this can trip people up more than you might think. Getting the shipping right can be key to how competitive your prices are perceived to be.

The simplest way is to have the shopping cart link directly to your chosen shipping provider. The software tells the shipping company the weight, size, origin and destination of the item being sent and gets a shipping cost in return. This is then used by the software in the checkout process

Alternatively if you can try setting a flat rate for all deliveries. Or even free delivery within a specified region.

Just be sure your shopping cart lets you change between these options at will.

Putting it all together

Now you can do all of this yourself. ie set up a hosting account, order and map the domain name to it, have the SSL certificate installed and then upload and install the chosen shopping cart software.

This shopping cart software will need configuring for your desired payment gateway and shipping and probably will almost certainly need some code modifications and template modifications.

Then you will need to input of your privacy statement, trading terms, returns policy etc

Finally you'll need to set up your categories. And also input your products.

As you can see it's not an instant process. If you're doing it for the first time it might take 60 - 80 or so hours. But it would only have cost you a few hundred dollars.

Or you can get a web designer like myself to do it. Just supply me with the required data and I can have it all ready for you within 3 - 4 weeks. Ready for launch. It will cost more than $500 obviously. But not that much more... especially considering it will free up 80 hours of your time!

Now you have a shopping cart: what next?

Now you're online with your shopping cart that just the beginning. You're going to need some good traffic to make sales. But at least you have a solid foundation in place to start from.