The Five Steps of E-Commerce

You set up a retail business, you advertise in your local newspaper, you get customers coming into your store, and you receive payment at the cash register. Create an online store, and...how do you get customers? How do you receive payment?

The concept is the same, but the steps are different.

Step 1: Create your website

If you don't have web design skills, you can hire a qualified web designer to create a website for you, or you can use an online site builder. Think of it as hiring an architect and an interior decorator compared to setting up shop in an existing store.

Using a web designer

With the services of a web designer, you can have a unique website template and website customized to your specific needs. A web development team can also add features such as Flash headers or any programming needed for your site. If your company image is critical, a custom-designed site that conveys the right professional image is a must.

Using an online site builder

An online site builder is the budget way to go. With site builder programs such as Site Studio, your website can be online within minutes. A step-by-step menu allows you to choose a layout and colors, and then add a site description, a logo, and content. Your template may not be unique, but your content will.

Step 2: Set up an e-commerce store

Your customers will browse at your website, select some items, and then pay for them. When you set up an e-commerce shopping cart, you're providing a way for your customers to bring their purchases to the cash register. The program you choose will allow you to enter your products in the database and allow shoppers to choose products when they click on "Add to cart" or something similar.

Two well-known shopping carts, osCommerce and Miva Merchant, both allow you to do these tasks:

? Add, edit, and delete product categories and other information
? Set tax rates and charge tax
? Receive payment via numerous online and offline payment processing methods
? Bill customers
? And much more

osCommerce

osCommerce is an open source program. Store owners can set up their online stores using osCommerce with no costs involved. For small stores, it has all the features you need for an online store. Drawbacks of osCommerce are that customization is not easy, and online stores using osCommerce tend to look similar.

Miva Merchant

While Miva Merchant carries a price tag of $995, some web hosts offer Miva Merchant licenses with their hosting plans. If you choose Miva as your shopping cart, be sure to host your site with a host that provides Miva support. Its learning curve is steep, and it requires the support of people who know how to work with it.

With the price and the steep learning curve, you get more features, and you can customize the program more. Add-in modules can be bought that perform a number of tasks. In addition, a strong support community is available in the Miva user group forums.

Step 3: Get a merchant account and payment gateway

When customers arrive at the checkout counter, you need a way for their payments to be transferred from their credit card accounts to your bank account. The method you choose may depend on your sales volume.

For high-volume sales, an e-commerce merchant account plus a payment gateway will meet your needs. A merchant account provider authorizes the transfer of payments to your account, and a payment gateway transfers the information from your customers' financial institutions to yours.

Most merchant accounts have setup fees, transaction fees, monthly fees, and statement fees. The transaction fees are less than what you'd pay using a third party credit card processor such as PayPal. With all the fees, however, the overall cost is typically lower only if your monthly sales volume is over about a thousand dollars.

For medium and low volume sales, PayQuake and PayPal are viable options.

PayQuake

PayQuake offers three merchant account types to choose from. Although they all require payment gateways, the two smaller plans have no monthly minimums. You can upgrade to a higher or lower plan if your needs change.

PayPal

PayPal has become a household name. Customers can send payment through PayPal via credit card or via money that they transfer into their PayPal account. While the fees per transaction are higher than with merchant accounts, there are no setup or monthly fees, and you don't need a payment gateway. You pay only when you have financial transactions.

Step 4: Create a secure payment environment

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate enables you to receive credit card information securely from your customers. When a payment page is using SSL data to encrypt data, a small image of a lock appears at the bottom right of the screen.

Some web hosts offer SSL certificates as part of their hosting packages. If your web host package doesn't include SSL certificates, you can purchase one separately.

With PayPal, no SSL certificate is required.

Step 5: Generate traffic

Your products are on display in your newly designed store, your shopping cart is set up and ready to use, and you have everything in place to be able to receive payments securely. Now all you need are customers.

This is where marketing comes in.

? Submit your site to search engines.
? Advertise your site.
? Keep your company name in front of your customers with a regular email newsletter.
? Add more content to your website to keep it fresh.
? Monitor your website traffic to see where it's coming from and how you can increase traffic for key content areas.

For related information, see these pages:

? Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization
http://articles.websitesource.com/seo_do_it_yourself_8_16_2005.shtml
? Promote your Domain
http://www.websitesource.com/domains/domain_promotion.shtml

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

---

Google News Updated : Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:54:08 GMT On Independence Day, Think Fireworks Safety First - Washington Post Seattle Post Intelligencer On Independence Day, Think Fireworks Safety First Washington Post - 1 hour ago By Dennis Thompson FRIDAY, July 4 (HealthDay News) -- Fireworks can be breathtaking spectacles, creating glittering showers of sparks and earth-rumbling booms that thrill people for miles around. 2006: 11 dead, 9200 fireworks injuries United Press International Burned by fireworks? Here's what to do Seattle Post Intelligencer Bell Gardens Sun - NorthEscambia.com - Register Herald - Chester DailyLocal.com all 22 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:19:24 GMT Reaction to the death of Jesse Helms - The Associated Press Canada.com Reaction to the death of Jesse Helms The Associated Press - 2 hours ago Reaction to the death of former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who died on the Fourth of July at age 86: "Jesse Helms was a kind, decent, and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called "the Miracle of America. Video: A Look Back At Jesse Helms CBS Former Senator Jesse Helms dead at 86 Boston Globe AFP - RedOrbit - Salt Lake Tribune - Journal and Courier all 1,804 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:51:11 GMT Botswana urges region not to recognize Mugabe's re-election - Xinhua Times Online Botswana urges region not to recognize Mugabe's re-election Xinhua - 2 hours ago JOHANNESBURG, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Botswana's government urged its neighbors Friday not to recognize Robert Mugabe's re-election, reiterating calls for Zimbabwe to be suspended from a regional bloc. African Union Weakened by Summit Inaction on Zimbabwe Voice of America West condemns Mugabe, ignores other Africa despots The Associated Press Telegraph.co.uk - Times Online - AFP - USA Today all 4,688 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:05:14 GMT O's bats get revenge vs. Rangers - MLB.com Seattle Post Intelligencer O's bats get revenge vs. Rangers MLB.com - 1 hour ago By Spencer Fordin / MLB.com BALTIMORE -- Call it a down payment towards payback. The Orioles earned a small measure of revenge against the Rangers on Friday, courtesy of an 10-4 victory that was all but decided by the fourth inning. O's pound Rangers Sports Network Orioles score 8 off Padilla, beat Rangers 10-4 The Associated Press Rotoworld.com - TexasRangers.com - United Press International - Dallas Morning News all 147 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:43:39 GMT 'Gonzo' diverting rehash of what a long, strange trip it's been - San Jose Mercury News 'Gonzo' diverting rehash of what a long, strange trip it's been San Jose Mercury News - 6 hours ago By Glenn Whipp With two volumes of letters, a handful of biographies, three previous documentary movies, two feature films and a comic strip character, not to mention a writing career spent mostly in the first person, is there anything that hasn't been ... The perfect subject for 'Gonzo' Seattle Post Intelligencer Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson Chicago Sun-Times Washington Post - TIME - Los Angeles Times - USA Today all 160 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:10:38 GMT RPT-China, Taiwan airlines to see lift from new flights - Reuters WELT ONLINE RPT-China, Taiwan airlines to see lift from new flights Reuters - 8 hours ago By Joseph Chaney TAIPEI, June 29 (Reuters) - Direct weekend flights between China and Taiwan starting this week are likely to give a boost to carriers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait at the expense of Hong Kong, but probably not until all ... China resumes direct flights to Taiwan after 60 years guardian.co.uk China-Taiwan direct: Readers react BBC News AFP - International Herald Tribune - Hindu - Voice of America all 852 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:46:40 GMT Federer One Away From Another Wimbledon Title - New York Times Federer One Away From Another Wimbledon Title New York Times - 5 hours ago By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY For the third straight year, the men’s final will be between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. And the women’s final will be the latest family affair between Venus Williams and her sister Serena. Federer, Nadal to meet for Wimbledon men's title Los Angeles Times Federer aims to keep winning in Nadal battle Financial Times Sports Network - ESPN - Bloomberg - FOXSports.com all 3,443 news articles Publ.Date : Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:30:13 GMT Clickbank Earn Money At Home

PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts, Websites, and more...

Adsense websites

Shopping Cart Abandonment ? Discover 5 Things you can do to Lower Cart Abandonment

A common frustration among merchants who sell online via a... Read More

Is ClickBanks Popularity Drawing To An End?

ClickBank is the Internet's most popular payment processor for online... Read More

Online Business- What Makes It a Success!

Only a few manage to sell everything under the sun... Read More

Internet Merchant Accounts For Innocents Abroad

If you want to sell on the internet, your need... Read More

Intranet Portals ? Personalisation and Customisation

The key difference between an (old-fashioned) Intranet and a PortalWhat... Read More

Cheap Cigarettes, Discount Tobacco and Cigars Online - Is It Legal?

Many people online today still believe that buying tobacco products... Read More

3 Powerful Concepts That Climb Marketing Mountains

You have probably heard many times how you should offer... Read More

A Tale of Two Revolutions - Ecommerce: A Historical Perspective

The World As It Then WasThe dynamic economic growth of... Read More

Get Out of The Way

Get out of the way and make it easy for... Read More

Paypal Primer

To conduct business on the Internet, whether informal, one-time only... Read More

Business Online ? Blind Hunt

Do you sell something online? Do you have a business... Read More

The Art of Being Human

This isn't the first time I have written about the... Read More

Make That 3 Billion

My previous article I wrote called "One Point Two Billion"... Read More

The Webmasters Assistant

There are many tools available to a webmaster to analyse... Read More

6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online

by Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva"In the rush to keep... Read More

Something new in e-commerce: the Echo System Build

How four partners build and manage an exclusive art posters... Read More

12 Easy and Effective Ways To Create Reports

1. Combine a few of your articles into a free... Read More

Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry

You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last... Read More

How Do You Make Money Online?

If you learn how other people make money online, I... Read More

7 Suggestions for an i-Mom Friendly Web Site (e-commerce news and statistics)

The Internet began as a male dominated medium, but those... Read More

Creating The Perfect Ecommerce Website

If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going... Read More

How to Write a Landing Page

Is there a difference between writing a landing page and... Read More

The Top 10 E-Commerce Ways to Follow up with Clients - Part 2

Did you know that 80% of all sales are made... Read More

Maximize Your Froogling for Increased Website Profits

Are you familiar with Froogle? If you are an online... Read More

Government Buying and Selling on the Internet

Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly... Read More