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E-Commerce Solutions
Author : Karen Kratz
E-commerce. You hear this expression all the time, but what does
it really mean? According to Web.com it is "short for electronic
commerce, meaning any sale/purchase that takes place over the
Internet".
Think that online shopping is becoming a thing of the past?
According to e-commerceGuide.com online business is booming.
E-commerce sales (non-adjusted) totaled $16.5 billion in the
third quarter of 2004. That comes to 1.2% of total retail sales
nationwide and that means that e-commerce sales grew by 21.2%
over this same quarter in 2003, and the trend is not slowing
down.
Want a shopping cart site? Just one caution - sellers beware!
Shopping carts can be a very daunting and expensive undertaking.
The thing to know is that a full-fledged e-commerce shopping
cart is no small thing, and neither is the price tag that will
go with it. There are loads of shopping cart solutions out
there, just be sure to do your homework first.
Full-fledged shopping carts, like the one proflowers.com uses
are real workhorses and are what most people expect when
shopping on the Internet, and these are the more expensive
carts. There are also other, less expensive ways to sell on the
Internet. Four of the options are outlined below, starting with
the best of the four.
For a full-fledged shopping cart site you'll need several
things: a merchant account, a gateway, a secure socket license
(SSL) and of course, the cart itself. All online businesses need
to operate with an Internet Merchant Account, primarily for
depositing and refunding online payments. A merchant account
usually incurs a nominal monthly fee plus a percentage of the
credit card transactions. The percentages and fees will vary
depending on your bank and how much you transact over a given
period of time.
A merchant gateway is an online system for real-time charging of
credit cards when a customer places an order. Think of it as the
electronic box that you slide your card through at a grocery
store. Website owners will need to first establish a merchant
account before requesting a credit card gateway. There is
frequently a set-up fee and other fees attached depending on who
provides the gateway.
Want that secure little lock at the bottom right-hand side of
your screen? That's your Secure Socket License (SSL). A SSL will
securely encrypt your client's credit card number and other
information before passing it across the Internet. This item
will carry an annual fee.
After all that, there is the development of the shopping cart
area of your website. I've seen carts for as little as several
hundred dollars to as high as several thousand. Good shopping
carts require highly complex programming in any number of Web
related languages. You can buy them pre-packaged and
configurable, or you can have a designer or developer create one
for you. Whichever you choose, don't expect to get something
this intricate for next to nothing.
The next cart option is not as robust, but it will save you some
up-front costs. You'll still need a merchant account, gateway
and a shopping cart, but it will eliminate the need for a SSL.
One of the best deals I've found for this solution is VeriSign's
PayFlow Link. This is great for the seller who KNOWS they must
sell on the Internet, but can't quite afford all the bells and
whistles that go with the territory. Essentially VeriSign will
allow you to pass through their SSL to process the payments.
The third option is great if you are operating on a shoestring
budget. This one would provide an online order form, or a simple
shopping cart, and take the client's credit card via a gateway
such as PayPal. This is not a bad way to get started with
selling over the Internet and testing the waters for your
product's online marketability. You won't need a merchant
account, gateway or SSL, and it will save you plenty in upfront
costs. PayPal's percentage per transaction, when you take into
consideration all the other costs of the first two options, can
be well worth their fee, and set-up is free.
Then there is the cheapest way - provide a downloadable (paper)
order form, which a customer can fill out and attach a check to
and mail to you (oh please - would you trust someone over the
Internet with something like that?). Obviously this is not the
best solution, but if money is tight, it can work... to a
point.
Finally, there are an abundance of selling solutions where you
can sell your items through online brokers such as eBay, Yahoo
Marketplace, ABeBooks (if you sell used books), etc. Be careful
when you check these options out, and make sure you know what
you are getting into. As my mom used to yell up the stairway,
"do your homework!"
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