Setting an ecommerce website up can be a daunting task, especially for someone who is not the most computer savvy person. Online business is great and can be manageable for most. It's not as easy as some people make it out to be, but then with the help of the right software you would be surprised at how much the task can be eased. In order to make this an easier process for you, there are 6 things you should know before choosing a shopping cart for your website.
The first thing that you should recognize is that no two shopping carts are created exactly alike. These are meant to be customized for the site that they are going to be used on. The providers for these can offer lots of bells and whistles to make them more appealing, or they go to offering the bare minimum to decrease the cost. It all depends on the software and provider that you end up going with. Needless to say you will need to do some careful homework.
Secondly, you need to realize that many of these require a server for hosting, Many of the providers that you come across will offer this as part of the package, however, not all of them will. Be sure to ask before you settle on something. In the end the more questions that you ask upfront will save you lots of headaches.
Third, you should examine the level of personalization available to you. While on the surface you would think that the more customized it is, the better it will be for your business. You might even have something very nice already worked out in your mind, however, there is a downside to this. The more customization available also means the more skilled you need to be with the computer. This is definitely an item that you want to be simple to start with. As you build your own skills, you can always upgrade or revamp it later on.
Fourth is inventory tracking. You should not have to watch your website constantly or update it continually to keep up with the inventory. As you site gains more business this could really get dicey. You would never be able to sleep!
If you are selling shippable items ( not digital ) there should be a record keeping component to it that is related to inventory. It needs to know to list something as out of stock for you when someone orders the last of something. It should also be able to keep track of your sales for you. This should help you get to a point where your records almost take care of themselves. You can do without this to start but I know one very large, very dumb UK jewellery retailer whose website never reflected what was truly available in his stock. Many, many of you in the UK would order from his web page then get a phone call later saying the item ordered wasn't available.
Because this jewellery dealer was so very extraordinarily successful at selling wholesale to the big name brands, he was not nearly interested enough in the online retailing to even begin discussing the problem even when consultants gave him suggestions and possible fixes.
Last but not least is PCI compliance with VISA and MasterCard. The rules on this tighten again mid 2010. You can not put a form on your hosted shoppingcart that asks for the users visa/mastercard information.
No, you can't even do this anymore using SSL ( Secure Sockets Layer ) or HTTPS. If your merchant bank catches you doing this, according to Visa rules they can at their discretion revoke your merchant account. With no merchant account you would have no way to get money online except through paypal which while a growing alternative is not yet widely accepted enough for non digital business transactions.
Finally, if you find yourself wondering what one of them looks like in action, you can always check them out on other people's websites. This is by far the best way to judge how user friendly they are, and how they look to the customer. You could visit some of your favorite sites, then contact the person or company that runs it and ask them what they use.
Setting up your own ecommerce website is not an overnight thing, despite what some people may have you believe. To really make it work you need to do some research and homework beforehand. The more time and effort you put into it the better it will work out in the end.
Since most customers require 7 contacts with your website in order to purchase ( Don't ask me why - these are just the stats as they exist ) - you must have a sales funnel and it should be integrated with your shoppingcart such that after the sale is made you automatically stop sending those "info/sales oriented messages" and switch off to the "Thanks for joining an elite group of knowledgeable customers. Now here's what you need to know to use this product successfully"
Unfortunately at this time, only one PCI compliant hosted shopping cart solution has the sales funnel integration built right in.
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