E-Commerce Solutions

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!"