Want to become a leader on the e-commerce market? It's as easy as ABC!
Dennis Michael Gannon
November 19, 2008
Entering into the ecommerce industry today has several different details to it but it is still easier than it was. So once you have decided on the product or service you will be selling online, you'll want to think about your website. Today, due to the large amount of website development tools, templates and flexible software programs available today it is relatively a small task. You can be as involved in the process as necessary, to ensure that the site comes out exactly the way you envisioned your business.
Choosing and Buying Your Domain
Choosing your domain name is a very important step in the construction of your site. There are some basic rules you should follow if you want to have a really effective name for your business. What is an effective name? It is one that will bring traffic to your site, not to your competitors, by being easy to remember, easy to spell, and easy to type. It's not as easy as it once was, because many people have simply made a business out of combining as many words as possible and buying the domain for cheap, so that when the time comes that someone wants to build a business with that particular name, they can sell it to them for a nice sum.
Building Your E-Commerce Website
When you're ready to build your site, you need to think about how capable you are of doing on your own, and how much of it you'll need to hire a web developer to do.
Today, building a website has become much easier, due to the large amount of website development tools, templates and flexible software programs available today.
If at any point it seems too difficult of a task, go ahead and hire a developer. Make sure to make it clear from the start that you want your site to be optimized (see SEO in Advertising and Bringing Traffic). You can be as involved in the process as necessary, to ensure that the site comes out exactly the way you envisioned your business. You'll also need a shopping cart solution, so that your shoppers can choose their goods for check-out.
Hosting Your Site
So, now that you have a site, you want to make it accessible on the internet to the public. That means that you need to find a web hosting company which will provide you with space on server, internet connectivity, e-mail management, and other services They usually charge a monthly fee, and it can be anywhere from $10 - a few hundreds a month. You should also make sure that you get a tracking tool for your site statistics. Sometimes, you can get an all-inclusive plan that would include the shopping card, but you can also do this separately as explained before.
Payment providers
We've now reached the most important part of your business, and that's the payment solution. Being one of our areas of expertise, there are many things to consider when choosing your Payment Service Provider (PSP), and of course, we recommend using our solution because it provides you with the major currencies and payment methods, and it is customized for each merchant.
Today's Payment Service Provider (PSP) should be chosen on behalf of several distinguishing factors. The first is reliability. Let's face it - profits are the main concern of all merchants, and he who handles those profits should have extensive experience, as well as a reputable history of financial expertise and punctual payments.
Along with the solutions needed to start an online business, more work is needed to keep the doors open. There are financial concerns, merchandise, staffing and of course all the paperwork and the reporting that is left to do.
Some of the services that you should look for:
Superior Security practices - You'll want to make sure that the payment provider is PCI certified and practices all available security methods.
Chargeback guarantee - You should have a guarantee against fraudulent chargebacks.
Merchant account required or Vendor account - Depending on your business you should know if you need to have a merchant account or if the provider will take care of this and give you a vendor account.
Multiple payment options - The more payment options that the provider offers, give you a wider and sounder customer base.
Rapid account processing - This shows you that the provider is serious and has the resources to get your payment processing up and running.
Superior Risk Management - These practices protect you against fraud and reduce the time you spend worrying about your business.
Multiple Partnership packages - This is a good practice to look for because of increased traffic and increased sales possibilities. A company with these types of solutions is more likely to take an invested interest on how your business is doing.
Most of the stand alone providers will not or do not provide platforms with all these feature so you have to continue your multi-vendor usage.
Choosing and Buying Your Domain
Choosing your domain name is a very important step in the construction of your site. There are some basic rules you should follow if you want to have a really effective name for your business. What is an effective name? It is one that will bring traffic to your site, not to your competitors, by being easy to remember, easy to spell, and easy to type. It's not as easy as it once was, because many people have simply made a business out of combining as many words as possible and buying the domain for cheap, so that when the time comes that someone wants to build a business with that particular name, they can sell it to them for a nice sum.
Building Your E-Commerce Website
When you're ready to build your site, you need to think about how capable you are of doing on your own, and how much of it you'll need to hire a web developer to do.
Today, building a website has become much easier, due to the large amount of website development tools, templates and flexible software programs available today.
If at any point it seems too difficult of a task, go ahead and hire a developer. Make sure to make it clear from the start that you want your site to be optimized (see SEO in Advertising and Bringing Traffic). You can be as involved in the process as necessary, to ensure that the site comes out exactly the way you envisioned your business. You'll also need a shopping cart solution, so that your shoppers can choose their goods for check-out.
Hosting Your Site
So, now that you have a site, you want to make it accessible on the internet to the public. That means that you need to find a web hosting company which will provide you with space on server, internet connectivity, e-mail management, and other services They usually charge a monthly fee, and it can be anywhere from $10 - a few hundreds a month. You should also make sure that you get a tracking tool for your site statistics. Sometimes, you can get an all-inclusive plan that would include the shopping card, but you can also do this separately as explained before.
Payment providers
We've now reached the most important part of your business, and that's the payment solution. Being one of our areas of expertise, there are many things to consider when choosing your Payment Service Provider (PSP), and of course, we recommend using our solution because it provides you with the major currencies and payment methods, and it is customized for each merchant.
Today's Payment Service Provider (PSP) should be chosen on behalf of several distinguishing factors. The first is reliability. Let's face it - profits are the main concern of all merchants, and he who handles those profits should have extensive experience, as well as a reputable history of financial expertise and punctual payments.
Along with the solutions needed to start an online business, more work is needed to keep the doors open. There are financial concerns, merchandise, staffing and of course all the paperwork and the reporting that is left to do.
Some of the services that you should look for:
Superior Security practices - You'll want to make sure that the payment provider is PCI certified and practices all available security methods.
Chargeback guarantee - You should have a guarantee against fraudulent chargebacks.
Merchant account required or Vendor account - Depending on your business you should know if you need to have a merchant account or if the provider will take care of this and give you a vendor account.
Multiple payment options - The more payment options that the provider offers, give you a wider and sounder customer base.
Rapid account processing - This shows you that the provider is serious and has the resources to get your payment processing up and running.
Superior Risk Management - These practices protect you against fraud and reduce the time you spend worrying about your business.
Multiple Partnership packages - This is a good practice to look for because of increased traffic and increased sales possibilities. A company with these types of solutions is more likely to take an invested interest on how your business is doing.
Most of the stand alone providers will not or do not provide platforms with all these feature so you have to continue your multi-vendor usage.