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Overview
What is a eCommerce?
eCommerce refers to the sale and purchase of products
on the Internet, encompassing auctions like eBay
as well as online shopping carts. Although eCommerce
is becoming more prevalent on the Internet, there
is no guarantee that it will be a profitable investment
for everyone. As we've seen over the years, dot
coms have come and gone, while others like Amazon
have flourished.
The main benefits of eCommerce are that you can
reach a wider range of customers as well as making
ordering more efficient for existing customers.
The drawbacks are the startup costs, the fact
that you'll have more competition online, and
less personal assistance for your customers.
How can I sell products online?
If you are offering wholesale products or a large
number of products for purchase online, you should
use a shopping cart (see below). If you are looking
to sell a smaller number of products at a higher
cost (for example, hard to find, specialty items),
then eBay or other online auctions might be the
way to go. If you are unsure about the effectiveness
of selling your products online and are leery
of making the initial investment in a shopping
cart, you can try selling your products by offering
a printable order form for customers to fill out
and mail in. This will allow you to either request
payment with order, invoice the customer later
or to use existing business credit card processing
for payments. This option works well for companies
that offer wholesale accounts. You can also use
services such as PayPal (note: at this time, eStudio
is not offering PayPal support).
What is a shopping cart?
A shopping cart is a program that allows users
to look through your inventory and to select items
for purchase. The product information is stored
in a database for easy retrieval. Also included
are pages for cart modification (modifying quantities
and deleting items) and a "check out" page where
billing information can be added.
What shopping carts does eStudio Design support?
eStudio Design can either custom design a shopping
cart for you, or we can use any number of prepackaged
carts that are available. Our preferred prepackaged
cart is osCommerce.
Will my products sell well?
Unfortunately, this is one question we cannot
answer with certainty. There are many factors
that will determine whether or not your products
will sell, namely how the economy is doing and
what type of competition you'll have online. For
example, if you are selling books, it may be hard
to develop a strong customer base since there
are already well-established online companies
such as Amazon.com. It's important to know your
competition before you make the decision of whether
or not to develop an online store.
What do I need to accept payments online?
In addition to a shopping cart, you need 2 things:
an Internet Merchant Account and a Payment Gateway.
Both are described below. Certain banks may offer
a combination of the two to their customers. It
is IMPORTANT that you check with your financial
institution prior to eCommerce development to
see if they support specific types.
What is a Internet Merchant Account?
These are bank accounts that are set up for merchants
who are able to receive credit cart payments from
credit card providers. These accounts generally
"hold" the funds for a short period
of time and then payments received are normally
transferred to another bank account on a daily
basis.
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is the "go-between"
for you website, the credit card companies and
the Internet Merchant Account. The gateway received
credit card info via your website and then connects
to appropriate credit card company to verify the
request. Information about the transaction is
then passed to the Internet Merchant Account for
transfer of funds.
What is a secure server?
A secure server is a web server that has been
set up for retrieving encrypted information from
a website, such as credit card numbers from a
shopping cart. In order for your server to be
secure, you must have a secure server certificate
installed -- which is done by your web server
administrator. After the certificate is installed,
your website can be designed to utilize this feature
and you can start sending and retrieving sensitive
information over the 'Net. See below for pricing
on secure server certificates.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH ECOMMERCE:
Determine your budget
It is important to first determine your budget
for your eCommerce development. An expected cost
of $1000 greatly differs from an expected cost
of $10,000. Your budget will determine the level
of design that will be available to you, and will
help you determine whether or not a shopping cart
is available in your price range.
Determine your needs
Everyone hopes that their eCommerce site will
take off and show instant returns. But in the
fickle world of dot coms, this isn't always true.
That's why it's VERY important for businesses
to evaluate their needs (as well as their expectations)
prior to investing in eCommerce. It may be more
feasible to offer simple, non-credit card processing
sites for those unsure of how their site will
do. For example: is your eCommerce site going
to be an extension of your existing, well-established
business? Or is it going to be a new business
that will only exist online? You may find that
your needs will change depending on your answer.
Check out the competition
The best gauge for determining what you need is
to take a look at what your competition is doing.
Most likely, you will at least need to match the
usability of the competitors' sites. You can also
learn from their mistakes - be sure to make notes
of the things you don't like or that you think
make their eCommerce difficult to navigate and
use.
Get quotes
When contacting design companies for quotes, be
sure to find out whether your shopping cart will
be prepackaged or "custom built". We encourage
you to shop around and find what works for your
needs and budget.
ECOMMERCE PRICING:
Formatting costs:
Shopping cart design and eCommerce development
is normally quoted based on the type of application
that will be used, the number of items that will
be included in the database and whether your cart
is prepackaged or custom designed. Cart development
is more costly than static HTML because the developer
is dealing with programming and coding issues
that are not a part of basic design (i.e. dynamic
information). It is more time intensive for the
web designer to construct an eCommerce website
and there are many more issues involved beyond
straight HTML formatting.
Prepackaged software can be installed on the web
server in a fairly short amount of time at little
cost. However, it is often difficult to customize
the software so you may end up being limited by
what it can provide. Some programs are free and
are included in your hosting (we provide osCommerce
for our hosting customers). These carts can be
up and running and selling products within a few
hours.
Custom Designed shopping carts are generally more
expensive because they are designed for each specific
customer. The carts generally include an admin
area to manage the products, the inventory page
which display the products, the cart area for
checkout as well as additional order processing
pages to track and manage your orders. Custom
designed carts give the designer complete control
over how the cart looks and functions. However,
they do take longer to set up because of the specification.
Credit card processing:
In order to do online credit card processing,
a secure server certificate is required. This
certificate indicates that you are a legitimate
company and verifies that your site is secure
for credit card information. The cost of the certificate
can vary but can be as low as $80/year. These
certificate must be purchased through your domain
hosting company. This is because they must create
and install the encrypted information on the server.
Most hosting companies also charge a fee for setting
up the secure server certificate, as well a yearly
charge for hosting an eCommerce site.
Also for credit card transactions you will need
to set up an Internet Merchant Account and a Payment
Gateway Account. The fee for these services varies
from company to company; some charge a flat monthly
fee while others charge a percentage of your monthly
transactions. Some charge both. |
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ECOMMERCE PRICING
Because of the complexity of shopping carts, we
are unable to provide a breakdown of project costs
without first discussing your needs with you.
However, as a general rule shopping cart costs
start at $1000 (not including other website design
costs).
Click here
for complete cost info. |
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ADDITIONAL SERVICES
Based on the type of website you're looking for,
you may need to learn more about our additional
services:
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GETTING STARTED
Ready to get started with your website design
project? Here are a few suggestions on what you
can do to make your website design experience
more efficient:
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look
for our logo on Sturgis-area websites