The Five Steps of E-Commerce

You set up a retail business, you advertise in your local newspaper, you get customers coming into your store, and you receive payment at the cash register. Create an online store, and...how do you get customers? How do you receive payment?

The concept is the same, but the steps are different.

Step 1: Create your website

If you don't have web design skills, you can hire a qualified web designer to create a website for you, or you can use an online site builder. Think of it as hiring an architect and an interior decorator compared to setting up shop in an existing store.

Using a web designer

With the services of a web designer, you can have a unique website template and website customized to your specific needs. A web development team can also add features such as Flash headers or any programming needed for your site. If your company image is critical, a custom-designed site that conveys the right professional image is a must.

Using an online site builder

An online site builder is the budget way to go. With site builder programs such as Site Studio, your website can be online within minutes. A step-by-step menu allows you to choose a layout and colors, and then add a site description, a logo, and content. Your template may not be unique, but your content will.

Step 2: Set up an e-commerce store

Your customers will browse at your website, select some items, and then pay for them. When you set up an e-commerce shopping cart, you're providing a way for your customers to bring their purchases to the cash register. The program you choose will allow you to enter your products in the database and allow shoppers to choose products when they click on "Add to cart" or something similar.

Two well-known shopping carts, osCommerce and Miva Merchant, both allow you to do these tasks:

? Add, edit, and delete product categories and other information
? Set tax rates and charge tax
? Receive payment via numerous online and offline payment processing methods
? Bill customers
? And much more

osCommerce

osCommerce is an open source program. Store owners can set up their online stores using osCommerce with no costs involved. For small stores, it has all the features you need for an online store. Drawbacks of osCommerce are that customization is not easy, and online stores using osCommerce tend to look similar.

Miva Merchant

While Miva Merchant carries a price tag of $995, some web hosts offer Miva Merchant licenses with their hosting plans. If you choose Miva as your shopping cart, be sure to host your site with a host that provides Miva support. Its learning curve is steep, and it requires the support of people who know how to work with it.

With the price and the steep learning curve, you get more features, and you can customize the program more. Add-in modules can be bought that perform a number of tasks. In addition, a strong support community is available in the Miva user group forums.

Step 3: Get a merchant account and payment gateway

When customers arrive at the checkout counter, you need a way for their payments to be transferred from their credit card accounts to your bank account. The method you choose may depend on your sales volume.

For high-volume sales, an e-commerce merchant account plus a payment gateway will meet your needs. A merchant account provider authorizes the transfer of payments to your account, and a payment gateway transfers the information from your customers' financial institutions to yours.

Most merchant accounts have setup fees, transaction fees, monthly fees, and statement fees. The transaction fees are less than what you'd pay using a third party credit card processor such as PayPal. With all the fees, however, the overall cost is typically lower only if your monthly sales volume is over about a thousand dollars.

For medium and low volume sales, PayQuake and PayPal are viable options.

PayQuake

PayQuake offers three merchant account types to choose from. Although they all require payment gateways, the two smaller plans have no monthly minimums. You can upgrade to a higher or lower plan if your needs change.

PayPal

PayPal has become a household name. Customers can send payment through PayPal via credit card or via money that they transfer into their PayPal account. While the fees per transaction are higher than with merchant accounts, there are no setup or monthly fees, and you don't need a payment gateway. You pay only when you have financial transactions.

Step 4: Create a secure payment environment

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate enables you to receive credit card information securely from your customers. When a payment page is using SSL data to encrypt data, a small image of a lock appears at the bottom right of the screen.

Some web hosts offer SSL certificates as part of their hosting packages. If your web host package doesn't include SSL certificates, you can purchase one separately.

With PayPal, no SSL certificate is required.

Step 5: Generate traffic

Your products are on display in your newly designed store, your shopping cart is set up and ready to use, and you have everything in place to be able to receive payments securely. Now all you need are customers.

This is where marketing comes in.

? Submit your site to search engines.
? Advertise your site.
? Keep your company name in front of your customers with a regular email newsletter.
? Add more content to your website to keep it fresh.
? Monitor your website traffic to see where it's coming from and how you can increase traffic for key content areas.

For related information, see these pages:

? Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization
http://articles.websitesource.com/seo_do_it_yourself_8_16_2005.shtml
? Promote your Domain
http://www.websitesource.com/domains/domain_promotion.shtml

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Evaluating Vendors of Ecommerce Fulfillment Services

Once your website has secured an order, you have to fulfill it. While the fulfillment of digital goods is usually handled online, the delivery of physical goods... Read More

Web Store - Why Do You Need One?

Internet has opened a new era of business opportunities. Each day, thousands of new consumers are joining the Internet. More and more companies are adopting Internet as... Read More

E-marketplaces from Sellers Perspective

What is an E-marketplace anyway?E-marketplace is a business to business web based venue, where buyers and sellers meet online, generate business leads and conduct business transactions. The... Read More

6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online

by Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva"In the rush to keep up with technology, many African-American business owners are so busy trying to add the latest bells and... Read More

Online Customer Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Online Business

Online customer service is still one of the most frequently overlooked aspects of running a successful online business. Yet, in the highly competitive world of Internet business,... Read More

Getting Started in ECommerce ? Part Two

In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that,... Read More

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part One

The problem with most e-commerce marketing strategy today is that companies don't understand how they use things like web analytics. Most e-commerce directors or web marketers are... Read More

Managing Project Risks and Issues

Inherent (or Business) RiskInherent Risk is the risk that exists in the environment around your portal project. It will tend to be unique to your organisation; it's... Read More

Overcoming Frustration with Technology

For whatever reason, when we get a new boost in productivity, whether that be from a tool, technology or technique...we quickly forget how much more efficient it's... Read More

A Beginners Guide To Setting Up A Successful Online Store

A beginner's guide to setting up a successful online store Online selling is by no means a simple task. To sell products online not only requires making... Read More

Effective Management Of Your Customer Services

With a third party merchant account you will have a dedicated 24/7 support team to handle your credit card payment on your behalf as part of your... Read More

Getting Started: Creating a Business Plan

You're excited. You have a great idea for a profitable online business. Maybe it is an original idea that has not been marketed online before. Maybe you... Read More

The Lowdown On ECommerce: Making All The Pieces Fit Together

The Lowdown on EcommerceEcommerce is truly the most confusing aspect of purchasing web design services. This is unfortunate since most (if not all) businesses online would like... Read More

7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider

Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with disastrous results. I made the mistake of taking information at face value and relying on the ecommerce... Read More

Expand Your Local Business Through the Internet

To obtain more local customers for your business, consider expanding your local business through the Internet. Here are some ways of doing so.1. Online DirectoriesEven without a... Read More

Free Competition Analysis for E-Commerce Startup

For anyone who has completed research regarding e-commerce, there are some common catch phrases that we all come across. 'Competition Analysis' is one of those catch phrases.... Read More

Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace ? Part II

Selecting the right emarketplaceAlthough, IT spending has been staying flat for the last several years, corporate spending in e-business is gaining significant ground and at present surpasses... Read More

Shopping Carts For The Faint Of Heart

The chief criteria for judging an ecommerce shopping cart are the number of credit card processors and shipping services it supports, and the number of people that... Read More

Choosing An Internet Merchant Account

Surf to Google and perform a search on "Internet Merchant Account". The results are staggering (472,000 results!) If you have created a web based business and need... Read More

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part Three

The first article of this series discussed page views per session as a kind of early warning system key performance indicator (KPI) for your website. The second... Read More

Pitfalls of Doing Big International Brokerage Business Online

Nothing has helped international brokerage business more than the internet: it enables a businessperson to do business with little or no capital and to make quick contacts.... Read More

How e-business and e-Marketing are Changing

Internet now days became a real marketplace and many many companies using Internet as a online Selling and Customer Care or Support Tool for their Products and... Read More

eCommerce, How Much Does It cost?

Making profits with your existing website design or creating a new online store can be exciting, affordable and most of all; rewarding. Mmmm . . . that's... Read More

The Origins of E-Commerce

What is the Internet?In order to provide a discussion on the Internet it is essential to provide a short description on what the Internet actually is. Put... Read More

How Do You Make Money Online?

If you learn how other people make money online, I mean really study how it's done and ask a lot of questions, there is no reason in... Read More

E-Currency Exchange: The First Bonanza of the 21st Century?

The 21st century has introduced the world to a new way of doing business. It's now a foregone conclusion that global commerce will be as revolutionized by... Read More