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Our primer on websites...
If you are one of the many
people overwhelmed by how all of this works, we'll simplify it a
bit. This page is mainly all about ECommerce.
Ecommerce Sites
This is what it's all about - put up
an ecommerce site, sit back, watch the money pile up and retire.
NOT!
Shopping Carts
You will need several things to manage your own Ecommerce site.
First, you need a shopping cart. There are many available, from free
to thousands of dollars, but the better ones (read more expensive)
are usually easier to use and better tracking of orders and $. Most
carts will allow the consumer to select your products, keep track of
the purchases and lead you around the "store". While
search engine bots are getting better at reading these scripted
pages, look for a program that is more adaptable to SEO - usually
allows some specific tags and content enrichment for a better chance
at ranking pages.
Payment Gateways
Now that we have selected the products we want to buy, we have to
pay for them via credit cards that need to be processed and the
money deposited to our bank account. This is a 3rd party vendor that
provides this service, you can't just hook up to your local bank.
These companies charge a monthly fee, plus a transaction fee. May be
around $30 per month and 25 cents or more a transaction.
Security Certificate
Part of the payment gateway process is a security certificate, yet another
3rd party (can cost
$100-200/yr) that allows the transaction to be encrypted to protect
the card numbers and personal info. This may be a separate purchase
or part and parcel of the gateway.
You know when the security cert is in place, as the little padlock
shows up and the URL changes to "https".
You still need to upload the price changes, install a
shipping module (to determine method and price of shipping) with the
shopping cart/payment gateway, and a host of other details. Some
staffer should be assigned to maintain this.
Notes:
We price Ecommerce sites from $2,500 and up to start,
yearly maintenance will be higher than regular non-ecommerce sites.
Good quality product photographs are very important here.
Your potential customers can't fondle the merchandise, so make it
easy for them to purchase your wares with good quality photos and
descriptions.
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What they don't tell you
The drop-out rate with ecommerce is horrendous. The
secure process frustrates many buyers and they simply quit before
the transaction is completed.
Falling in love with the technology is nice, but if you actually answer the phone in a pleasant and knowledgeable
manner (no automenu options)- you can increase sales exponentially. |
