Hello kaka,
Thanks for the question.
It's rather funny that I had just been to the bank today discussing
similar issues about setting up an online business. One of the things
I was very dead against was the use of Loans, much like yourself. I
think it really depends on the kind of budget that you have but it is
still perfectly possible to create a full-featured e-commerce site.
It’s very difficult to build e-commerce applications without some
small investment, but you won’t a need dot-com style venture capital
investment either.
One of the things that the bank was keen to mention, was their service
which allowed transactions to be conducted over the web using credit
cards, which is important for any e-commerce business. People could go
to the website, enter the secured area and make a transaction like
buying goods and pay with their credit cards. Then this money would be
deposited into your bank account – Should be noted that there is
usually a handling charge for any transaction to and from a business
bank account.
The system they used is managed by the company World Pay. There is a
one of setup fee to set up the system and then after that there is a
monthly charge. Worldpay also accepts direct customers to their system
and their website is at:
[ http://www.worldpay.com ]
There pricing structure is a set-up fee of $399 and a monthly charge
of $50 - It should be noted that the other regions of the world have
slightly different pricing structures. This is for their
Click-And-Build system which you can view at:
[ http://www.clickandbuild.com/ ]
Essentially for $50 a month you have a fully secure transaction system
which will allow people to use credits cards to purchase goods on your
e-commerce site. The e-commerce site you build on their system can be
seamlessly blended into your existing site.
Alternatively you have the option of building your own e-commerce
solution depending on your skills in various internet languages and
tools. For security you probably would need to use a secure server
certificate with the SSL technology obtainable from such places as
Verisign:
[ http://www.verisign.com/ ]
Again Verisign also provides a range of services that can suit a whole
series of budgets and needs. To get a SSL Certificate can cost from
$349 - $1,495. Other issues you have to consider is how do you protect
the persons data that they have just inputted. You will also need to
be able to process credit card transactions yourself (And this will
cost money to set-up as well as charges made by the bank). Finally it
may require further infrastructure costs like a secure database and
ordering system for the back end of the server.
Verisign also provide a wide range of services similar to worldpay to
create a secure online e-commerce site which will suit a whole range
of needs and budgets. For example one of the services they have is
Payflow Pro and Payflow link which is very similar to the World Pay
click-and-build service. The pricing is similar, a set-up fee and a
monthly charge – For Payflow Link it is a $179 set-up fee, then $19.95
a month, there is also a maximum number of transactions per month of
500, after which you need to pay 10 cents per transaction:
[ http://www.verisign.com/products/payflow/link/index.html ]
[ http://www.verisign.com/products/payflow/pro/index.html ]
Another possible option to look into is Paypal. This could be a cheap
way of setting up the ability to accept online transactions.
[ http://www.paypal.com ]
You could for example build your e-commerce site around this payment
method. They have a variety of tools which can help you build a
e-commerce system into your site. People would send money to you via
Paypal using your email address as ID. The drawback is that people
need to have their own paypal account to pay money to you.
Other issues related to setting up your e-commerce site that you may
have to consider are whether you intend to host the website yourself
on some kind of lease line - Which can be expensive but also has the
benefit of giving you greater flexibility. Or a hosting company, here
you won't get the flexibility but it’s cheaper - There is no need to
buy your own hardware and software. Some hosting companies even
provide a way to create a secure e-commerce site which again could cut
down some of the costs.
Open Source software such as Linux, PHP and Perl can all be useful in
cutting down costs for your e-commerce applications. It also means
that when you move from an ISP to hosting your site yourself, you have
the benefit of reducing your software purchases.
To conclude I would say that it is indeed possible to get an
e-commerce site with plenty of features. It will all depend on what is
your budget. Maybe look into trying one of services like World Pay or
packages from Verisign. This can get your e-commerce site up and
running quickly, hopefully generating revenue that can give a return
on investment on the payment system.
I hope I have been able to answer your question and give you a few
pointers to look at. Good luck with your endeavour.
Best regards
aziphirael |
