Learn How to Start E-commerce and What is Needed to Start an E-commerce Site
1.Product
First of all, you obviously need a product or service to sell. This can be hard goods (physical) or soft goods (downloadable).
2. Hosting Service
After that, you need a place to host your website called a hosting server. There are many hosting companies you can use, but you need to make sure your shopping cart software is compatible with the hosting server.
3. Website
Then you need a Website. This can either be an existing Website to which you can add e-commerce capabilities, or you can build the site from scratch. Some shopping carts come with website wizards that let you create a website with no html skills. Others offer to build the site with their design professionals.
4. Shopping Cart
A Web based shopping cart is similar to the original grocery store shopping cart. Basically it is a means by which a customer can read a list of products and mark off the selections they want. When finished ordering, the customer indicates that they are ready to check out. This is where the total order is placed and confirmed. Also the customer will enter their shipping, and tax information at the check out. Shopping cart software is the programming that allows a website to build a catalog of products and its database and integrate it into the website pages.
The shopping cart is one of the most important parts to having a smooth e-commerce transition. Elements that are critical to a shopping cart should be, website wizards, Merchant tools, Shopping features, Payment options, Shipping and Taxes configurations, Statistics, and Security. There are literally hundreds of shopping carts available. They range from simple scripts to complete e-commerce solutions. A truly great shopping cart is considered an e-commerce solution.
5. Credit Card Processing
Next you need some way of accepting on-line payments. This normally means credit cards. There are also other types of payments that the shopping cart should handle, checks, E-checks, cod, phone orders, and person-to-person.
6. Merchant Account
Merchant accounts aren’t the same as ordinary bank accounts, even though ordinary banks provide them. These accounts allow a business to accept credit cards as payment for goods and services. In a way, merchant accounts act as a contract between the business owner and the bank. Rules defining how products will be bought, sold and paid for are set; any violation of these rules is considered fraud.
7. Payment Gateway
A customer enters credit card information to purchase your product or service. This data is passed to the merchant web server and a payment gateway through a secure socket layer (SSL)*. Once the payment gateway receives the transaction data, their software verifies all of the credit card information and then accepts or declines the credit card. The payment gateway sends an email receipt to the merchant web server and to the customer. Along with the email receipt, the payment gateway sends the order to the merchant bank. The money is subtracted from the purchaser’s credit card account and placed in a 30-day holding merchant account owned by your business.
8. Marketing
Last, but most important, you need to have a strategy for marketing your site and attracting customers. The old saying, “build it and they will come”, does not apply to websites. You need to have a good marketing strategy. Which should include search engine optimization; pay per clicks, pop-under’s, banner ads, and affiliates just to name a few.
