So you want to sell online but you’re not sure where to begin or what you need to get started. E-Commerce sounds like a scary word but it’s not.
With some careful planning and research anyone can setup an E-Commerce site.
You can end up paying anywhere from zero dollars to thousands of dollars to get started. It all depends on your needs and requirements.
Don’t worry though, even If you’re on a low budget, you have some great options. Before you build your e-commerce website do a little research to decide on a few things first.
So what all do you need to get started?
There are 5 main things you must have to get an online shop up and running.
- Domain Name: This is the first thing you need. Make sure you choose a domain name that reflects your business name well or something catchy and easy to remember. Most hosting plans come include a domain name.
- Hosting Account: You’ll also need a place where you can store all the information, files, images, customer information etc that are used for your website.
A hosting account is a server or computer that stores your files and serves them on the internet to your users.
The things to look for in a hosting account are how much space and bandwidth do they provide. Most hosts offer unlimited space these days. Some hosting accounts also offer free shopping cart systems that can be setup with a click of a button.
Another thing to look for is if they offer SSL certificates. See below to learn what this is. Some hosts offer free shared SSL and also the option to buy your own.
Bluehost offers unlimited space and bandwidth, free shopping carts and shared SSL.
- Merchant Account: A merchant account is used to receive payments from the customers online. Some merchant accounts also allow you to process payments by phone as well. Paypal, Authorize.net, Google Checkout, Amazon are all good merchant account options.
- Shopping Cart: A shopping cart is the framework or the interface by which customers can place their orders. These are the pages you see online when you purchase things. The pages include the products, your buy buttons, checkout and all that is needed to process and integrate your shopping cart.
There are many shopping carts out there, which makes it difficult to choose one. Read the article on How to Choose a Free Shopping Cart.
- Shared or Private SSL: Finally you need a way to make your payment pages and personal information pages secure (HTTPS). Notice when you buy online you are taken to a secure page to enter you payment information.
The address displayed in your browser’s url is proceeded by https instead of http. An SSL certificate allows you to serve secure pages (payment pages) over HTTPS instead of HTTP. This encrypts the data as it’s sent through the internet for processing and secures the entered information.
Without the SSL your customers won’t trust you and will not buy from you. Make sure your payment system is secure.
Learning how to build an E-Commerce site can be very complicated or very simple depending on what you need. If you’re not sure and are stuck you can always hire a pro to setup your store for you from start to finish. Make sure you setup a system that you can easily maintain yourself once it’s all setup.
Visit our Web Design page to see our rates for an E-Commerce site. If you are in need of something more unique don’t hesitate to contact us and ask for a quote.
