Hi Singingwhale ~
Setting up an ecommerce Website can be daunting, especially the first
time you try it. But if you take it one step at a time, it's not quite
so bad, although there are some important considerations and planning
to get it going.
Since you said "money is an issue", I'll take you through some steps
that a lot of small office/home office (SOHO) owners start with - with
similar budgetary considerations in mind. I'll give you some resources
to take a look at to make the job a bit easier.
After we look at the 'steps', I'll give you a recommendation on free
or low-cost usage which you may want to start with until such time as
your customer gets his business established.
1. The Product or Service -
===========================
Although it seems obvious, start with the basic product or service you
are going to be offering. Decide how you will be setting up the
shopping cart, pricing structure, etc., to handle it.
Planning an ecommerce website is much easier to design and work with
if you have a better understanding of how you want each of the
commerce pages to look. It's a lot harder to decide to add products or
services later that you haven't taken into account.
If you're selling a product, remember to including "options"
associated with your product, such as color/size/grade, etc., and how
this may affect pricing. This enables you to include numbering scheme,
etc., as you set up pages.
2. Currencies & Languages -
===========================
If you are selling your product or service to an international market
- will accommodations need to be made for other currencies and
languages? If so, will your merchant account accommodate payment in
those currencies, and can you design to other languages?
3. Shipping & Shipping Charges -
================================
If you are selling a service, how is it delivered?
If you are selling a product (such as software or music) which can be
"delivered" online, how will you arrange for that?
If you are selling a tangible product:
A. Who ships it? Does your customer ship it? or is the order shipped
by a fulfillment house.
B. How is it shipped, and is there a choice?
Most of the popular shippers, such as the United States Postal Service
(USPS), UPS, Fedex, etc., have their rates/account information online,
and some have software which can be integrated into shopping cart
software to either add the charge at the time of processing the order
by weight, item, etc.
* USPS Postage by Weight Calculator -
- http://www.usps.com/tools/calculatepostage/welcome.htm?from=global&page=0061calculatepostage
* USPS Postage Rates -
- http://www.usps.com/common/category/postage.htm
* Fedex Information -
- http://www.fedex.com/us/
* UPS Information -
- http://ups.com/content/us/en/index.jsx
*** Note ***
Whatever your decision regarding shipping charges, it should be
CLEARLY STATED on every page your products are listed. Nobody likes to
get a nasty surprise that the shipping charges are huge, compared to
the price of an item.
If you add shipping charges based on weight at the end of the order
form, then each individual listing should list the weight of the item
plus the range of shipping costs (ie., UPS 2 day ground rate versus
overnight rate - or the lowest to highest prices, depending on their
method of shipping).
A great many people factor shipping costs into the price of the item
and then announce "free shipping". They fool no one, but customers
will balk at shipping costs if they seem large, and in some cases,
customers will abandon a shopping cart when they encounter shipping
costs.
There is a plethora of articles regarding this phenomenon, but it is
summed up pretty well by Barb Gomolski in her InfoWorld article,
"Shipping and handling costs leave a bad taste on the lips of
e-shoppers".
- http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/01/22/010122opgartner.xml
4. Merchant Account -
=====================
A merchant account allows a business to accept credit cards. Existing
businesses that already have an established merchant account with
their bank need to need to ensure it includes Internet transactions.
You will also have to establish the gateways over which the bank
conducts its transactions.
5. Payment Gateways -
=====================
Payment Gateways process the credut card purchases in real-time. The
most popular gateways are:
* Verisign
http://www.verisign.com/products/payment.html
* AuthorizeNet
http://authorizenet.com/
There is a setup fee and monthly or yearly service charges involved
with using these gateways for real time credit card purchases.
6. Shopping Cart Service -
==========================
There are many important things to look for when deciding on a
shopping cart for your online store. Some of the options you may want
your shopping cart to provide are as follows:
* Ability to calculate shipping & handling
* Ability to calculate sales tax
* Credit card authorization (only if you are using a real time
authorization service such as AuthorizeNet)
* Database integration/compatibility (if you plan on using a
database driven shopping cart)
* Secure Server access - check with your webhost.
* Ease of use, adding, changing or deleting products and
information when needed.
* Ease of Navigation for your customers
* Customization - so your store doesn't look exactly like everyone
else's
You said you have the Agora Cart available to you via your host.
WLK115-ga gave a pretty apt description of the Agora Cart and its
drawbacks in the Comments section below. If you're comfortable working
with it, then do so, but there are other carts available, most for a
small amount, which you may find much easier for you, and ultimately -
your customer - to work with.
Some are:
* Automated Shops
http://www.automatedshops.com
* Easy Cart
http://www.easycart.com
* Click Cart Pro
http://www.clickcartpro.com
* Dansie Cart
http://www.dansie.net
At this time, it is appropriate to mention that many store owners also
have and use both Yahoo! Stores and E-Bay, (with some items for
sale/auction in the case of E-Bay, with links to the actual Website
and ecommerce store), because of their high visibility and ease of
marketing using those tools. It might be worth looking into as an
alternative.
7. Secure Server -
==================
All forms that accept credit cards must use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
to encrypt credit card information.
If you use a payment gateway, the gateway will usually provide the SSL
certificates.
In addition, most web hosts have an SSL certificate they share with
their customers. You may want to check if your host offers the
certificate.
And you can always purchase and install your own certificate on the
host server. (The most costly way to obtain a certificate).
8. Setup, Testing, Testing, Testing & Marketing -
=================================================
Once you have the major decisions out of the way and an idea of how
you wish to proceed, it's time for your website to reach out and grab
potential clients.
Guy Clapperton wrote a good article for Vnunet on setting up an
ecommerce site with the emphasis on design, usability and marketing.
This article is well worth the read and incorporating the salient
points into your own design. You can find it here:
- http://www.vnunet.com/Features/1112923
9. Low Cost Alternatives -
=========================
* Merchant Account -
Paypal.com ( http://www.paypal.com )-
Paypal started out as a great idea for small businesses just starting
out and who couldn't afford the high charges for a Merchant Account
and/or gateway accounts. Paypal also worked as a great method of
payment for buyers who didn't have credit cards.
During its growth years, there were some who made claims about Paypal
"freezing" accounts and other gripes, but it boasts 25 million users
in 38 countries. Now owned by E-bay, even large businesses offer
buyers the alternative to purchase using Paypal.
The obvious benefit is its own SSL for credit card processing and a
shopping cart, with easy to understand instructions for setting up an
online business.
There is a slight fee per puchase involved with using Paypal.com, but
for businesses just starting out, there is less up-front costs than a
merchant account
* Third Party Credit Card Processors -
There are also some reputable third-party processors which offer
seamless integration to a website and process credit card purchases
for a fee.
Be aware there is usually a setup fee involved and transaction fees
vary (usually a percentage of the total).
NoMerchantAccount.com offers a comparison of reputable third party
processors here:
- http://nomerchantacct.com/merchant5.shtml
* Shopping Cart -
One of the easiest (and there's a free and a fee-based) shopping carts
is Mals ECommerce site.
- http://mals-e.com/
The nice thing about mals-e is that the transactions are totally off a
merchant's hosted site and on his secure servers. Mals-e boasts over
55,000 users, which are mostly smaller businesses that want one cart
to handle the transaction from start to finish, and can tie into
multiple payment options.
Mals-e handles that, with ties into Authorize Net and other gateways
(for merchant accounts), directs to Paypal and other third party
credit card processors, and has its own SSL. Many feel that there is a
benefit to having sales information on a server other than the hosted
website.
And simply put, Mals-e has about the easiest shopping cart to code for
use, whether it's a simple "buy now" or complicated variables (such as
size, color, etc.).
10. My Recommendation -
=======================
If money is a consideration, I'd start out with a small ecommerce site
using Paypal as at least one of the payment methods available and look
into a third party credit card processor, such as 2checkout.com, and
use Mals-e to build the shopping cart.
There are many automatic choices involved with Mals-e, which includes
easy setup of shipping rate decisions, handling some of the
multi-currencies in Paypal, direct gateway access for merchant
accounts, all with relative ease of use.
Possibly the best plus is that its easier to use than the free
shopping cart at your disposal (as stated by WLK115 in the comments
below).
Search terms used -
===================
- SSL Certificates
- Shopping cart software
- Shipping & Handling Costs
- Merchant shipping
- UPS rates
- USPS rates
- Fedex rates
- third party credit card processors
Hope this helps in getting your ecommerce site set up.
Serenata |
