Simple E-Commerce

Simple E-Commerce
Selling from your website

Selling products and services from your website need not cost the earth and take forever to establish.

There's a misconception that e-commerce websites have to be database driven, require extensive programming and cost a fortune to build.

While large corporate websites require considerable investment, small business can sell products and services over the Internet with relative ease.

There are 4 ways to e-commerce enable your website:

Process orders manually
Build a database driven website
Use a third party e-commerce provider
Buy off-the-shelf shopping cart software

Process Orders Manually

Probably the easiest to set-up and the most cost effective. This involves receiving orders from your website via a simple email form and then processing the order manually by contacting your credit card authorization center.

It's a good way to see whether your products are going to sell online. Once orders start to pick-up you can move to a less labor intensive option.

Build a Database Driven Website

The most costly but most professional option. Hire a website design group to build a complete e-commerce solution enabling ordering, processing and fulfillment.

Use a Third Party E-Commerce Provider

Find a group that has a shopping cart system already online that you can incorporate in your own website. This will enable you to sell products online without a huge start-up cost. Often website hosts offer this service at a nominal cost if your website is hosted with them.

Buy Off-The-Shelf Shopping Cart Software

Be wary of off-the-shelf shopping cart software that often can only be hosted by the software maker - they can lock you into high monthly rentals to use their shopping cart web server.

This said. there are some packages around that might be just the ticket to selling online. Make sure you know all the up front costs before proceeding.

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