Many business owners who want to set up an ecommerce site get so involved with finding the right web developer but rarely know the right questions to ask. When you ask the right questions, you're more capable of selecting the right web developer for your ecommerce web site. Below is a list of four items to consider when starting your ecommerce business.
1. A shopping cart - There are many software shopping cart programs available today that empower you to add in your own products and manipulate the pricing, discounts, inventory, etc. without relying on your web developer. Especially if you plan to have over 20 products on your site, you'll want to select an easy to use shopping cart that has all the tools you need to manage your products. Consider the following when selecting your shopping cart:
a. Can I upload my product images easily?
b. Can I change my prices and offer discounts or promo codes?
c. Do I need to integrate directly with UPS or another shipping company to calculate my shipping information?
d. Does the software help me calculate sales tax?
e. Can I group my products into categories?
f. Can I select some products as featured products to show in a special section?
g. Can I add features to products such as a size or color?
h. Can I manage my product inventory through the software?
i. Can I set up an auto responder email to send an email confirmation to all online customers?
j. Does the shopping cart have a way of saving all customer data for my records?
2. Merchant Account - To sell anything online you'll need to consider how you'll collect money into your business bank account. Start by first contacting your bank to check their set up fees and prices for using their merchant account provider. Listen for a merchant account set up fee and payment gateway or online set up fee. Also listen for the per transaction fee and the discount rates. Decide whether you want to accept American Express and check the setup fee for accepting these cards. Some merchant accounts will charge more for credit cards with rewards programs, and apparently around 50% of cards these days have rewards programs. So make sure to ask about the discount rate for these kinds of cards. Check for monthly fees and make sure to ask for monthly minimum amounts. If you don't ask the questions, your provider will leave out important costly details. So if you don't like your bank's merchant account solution check with PayPal (which tends to be light on the set up fees but heavy on the discount rate), Charge.com, and providers who work with First Data. You have tons of options but not all are long standing companies. Choose your merchant account provider carefully. Some may keep you in year long commitments.
3. Payment Gateway - Your merchant account provider, once carefully selected, will work with a Payment Gateway. The Payment Gateway communicates the purchase order online through the merchant account to your bank. Popular payment gateways are Authorize.net and PayPal (which is a merchant account and gateway in one). Check to make sure that your web developer is comfortable with integrating your payment gateway with your shopping cart. Without a properly integrated payment gateway, your customers will be placing orders without fully paying you.
4. SSL certificate - An SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer certificate) is the piece of the ecommerce pie that puts the yellow padlock and the https on your site to ensure to your customers that they're checking out with their credit card information in a secure environment. The installation of an SSL certificate is important as it sets up a data encryption process that prevents hackers from being able to steal your customers' credit card information. A smart online shopper will not proceed through checkout without first looking for the https (vs. http) or the padlock in the bottom right of the browswer window. Ask your merchant account provider if they have an SSL certificate for you to have your web programmer install on your site. If not, you can purchase them online. Check out rapidsslonline.com and thawt.com. You'll need to consider the annual cost of having an SSL certificate and the installation cost. Having an SSL certificate is a renewal service just like renewing your domain name ever year or every 5 years.
With this information on the four ingredients to setting up your ecommerce business, you should have all the questions prepared to start working with the right web developer. Now you just need to make sure you like their design capabilities.
I hope this helps your ecommerce business get off on the right foot...next is marketing.
Jenny Field
Account Director
Indy Media Group
[http://www.indymediagroup.com]
