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One of the
first things you will need, of course, is an ecommerce host.
E-commerce hosts provide businesses with the resources which
enable them to sell their products or services on the web: a
web server and the facilities required to manage online
transactions, templates for building store fronts and online
catalogs, support for secure credit card purchasing, and tools
for tracking inventory.
Before choosing your ecommerce host, you will need to know
exactly what you require from a web-store, both now and in the
future; you will need to know which web-store applications on
the market best fit these needs, so you can choose an
ecommerce host who supports these applications; and you will
need to estimate how much it will cost you to run your store
on an ongoing basis.
Here is a checklist of things you will need to consider when
making these decisions:
Dedicated or Shared Server
The range of software options available to you will depend to
a large extent on whether you plan on having your own server
(for instance, a dedicated server), or whether you use shared
web-space on an ISP’s server. If you are running your own
server, you will have more options and a greater range of
software packages to choose from. If you are using an ISP’s
shared server to host your site, however, your options will
usually be more limited. Many ISPs partner with one ecommerce
or shopping cart provider, and have set up support systems for
that provider only. If you do plan on using an ISP (rather
than using your own dedicated server), it’s best to choose
your preferred ecommerce application first, so you can then
choose an ISP that supports it.
"Some ecommerce hosts offer "unlimited bandwidth,
but this claim should be regarded with some suspicion"
Web-Space, Data Transfer Costs and Bandwidth
Think carefully about your present and future needs here. You
will be paying for space on a web-server, and most hosts
charge for this space. How much space do you need for your
online store now – 20 MB, 40MB, more…? How much space will
you need one year from now? Hosts charge for this space, so --
to realistically calculate your ongoing costs -- you will need
to know how much space you will be using, both now and in the
future.
In addition to web-space, you need to consider the bandwidth
data transfer demands of your store: that is, the amount of
data (including graphics as well as web pages) which will be
regularly uploaded and downloaded from your site. Most hosts
charge for bandwidth transfer on a monthly basis.
[Note: Some ecommerce hosts offer "unlimited bandwidth ,
but this claim should be regarded with some suspicion. Hosts
have to pay for their bandwidth, so they may try to cut costs
elsewhere in order to be able to promise this unlimited
bandwidth – for instance, by taking on too many customers
and overloading their servers, thus slowing them down. Keep a
watch out also for fine print clauses which penalize
“excessive use of bandwidth”.]
Scalability
You will want a web-store that can support your business as it
grows. This means you will need an application which will not
“slow down” as greater demands are placed on it; and it
also means that you will need to keep in mind growing data
transfer needs as your requirements grow.
If you anticipate rapid growth of your store and your traffic
levels, you would probably be well advised to avoid some of
the cheaper web-store applications. For instance, there are
many cgi-scripts available that will provide shopping cart
functionality. Many of these are free, and may even be
supplied by your ISP as additional ‘freebies’ to tempt
you. While these are cheap, there are limits on their speed,
and they work well only with lighter levels of traffic.
Do you need a turnkey solution?
If you do not have programming skills (or access to
programming skills), you will need an application that
supplies a “wizard” to create your store automatically for
you. The obvious advantage of a turnkey solution is that you
do not need programming ability. The disadvantage is lack of
flexibility – you will usually be confined to the solutions
your host provides for you.
If you do have programming skills, on the other hand, you may
well prefer an application which gives you access to the
source code for customising and ‘tweaking’ to meet your
needs.
Integration with your Database and / Or Book keeping System
Do the shopping cart features integrate with your present book
keeping system or database? This will make running your store
much easier, especially if it is a large store. For instance,
if your products are already on a database, you should be able
to import data about your product directly from your database
rather than needing to re-enter it manually (a time-consuming
process).
Tax and Shipping
Most shopping carts do tax and shipping cost calculations, but
you will need to watch out for possible limitations here. For
instance, if you are going to be shipping internationally,
does your software enable you to calculate international
shipments as well as those which are local to your own
country. What about sales tax calculation – can you adjust
this according to region, country or state?
Secure Transactions
Credit card transactions will need to be secure, so you will
need to look for the ability to transfer data in a secure
manner, using SSL.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) capability, which uses encryption
to pass data between a browser and a server, is now included
in most e-commerce solutions. Even when SSL is supplied,
though, there may still be areas of insecurity in your
application which need to be considered. For instance, where
is the data stored once it is transferred to the server? If
the storage place is on the server, how is it secured from
unauthorised access? Is the data to be transferred by email?
If so, is the email encrypted to prevent unauthorised access
from eavesdroppers?
Payment Processing
If you are running a small store, you may be processing credit
card orders manually offline. However, as the store gets
bigger, manual processing will become less manageable, and you
may consider moving onto online ‘real-time’ processing of
your transactions. It is best be sure, before you choose an
application, that it can handle online processing, in case
this is required for future growth.
To process your credit card orders, you will need a merchant
account; and, for ‘real time’ processing, you will need to
make sure that your application can integrate with the payment
processing “backend” provided by whatever merchant account
supplier you use. (This may require some programming ability
in some cases – look out for this).
Many banks provide merchant facilities, but they can be very
stringent in their requirements, especially for “unproven”
net businesses – they require a proven credit rating and
prefer a guaranteed volume of sales. If you do not meet your
bank’s requirements, there are now many specialised payment
solutions services for small businesses on the web. These
include WorldPay, IBill and Planet Payment, which take
payments on behalf of small business customers. Many of these
also provide multi-currency facilities, so you can charge your
customers in their own currency.
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