Thinking of Starting Your Own Ecommerce Website?

Starting an online store is never easy. There are a multitude of things to consider before you even think of designing a website. Most people jump into ecommerce thinking it’s a get rich quick scheme and once they have an ecommerce website up and running the money will come flooding in. Unfortunately this just isn’t the case, the days of “build it and they will come” in regard to websites are long gone. You will have to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of business and you need to make sure the odds are stacked in your favour to give yourself a fighting chance.

Selling online is now more competitive than ever, customers will inevitably look for the best price on products on a variety of websites, you need to be there or there about when it comes to costs. If you’re not the cheapest online why not? Why would a customer buy from you instead of someone offering the same product for a fraction less? You need to ask yourself these questions and have a good answer before you even consider setting up and online ecommerce store. Some great answers to these question are:

• My product is unique and can only be purchased from me.
• My company name is synonymous with reliability and customer service
• I will always be the cheapest online

Before you can take payment online you need to have a payment gateway and a bank account. Before you choose a payment gateway talk to your bank. If you have a business account they should be able to offer you a solution for taking payment online. But wait, don’t take it as read this is the best option. Compare the banks offering against other solutions such as PayPal or Pay Point and see what features and options are included.

Take your time to decide what you want your online store to portray, do you want to look expensive and high class or budget and value for money. Look at as many ecommerce websites as you can, then look at them again. Take notes on what you like about each website as well as recording what you don’t like. This information will help you when talking to web designers about the functionality and design of your ecommerce store.

Take special care to use as many different checkout systems as possible, you don’t actually have to pay for any goods just go through the purchasing journey to the stage where you asked for credit card details. Think about the barriers to making a purchase, are you getting asked to much information? Is it over complicated? Do you feel secure? Keep a record of all your thoughts as these will help you when getting your ecommerce website built.

It’s a great idea to try running an eBay store for a couple of months so you get used to the process of trading online. eBay is a great place to start, and for some its as far as they will ever need to go. eBay has a dedicated customer base already willing to make a purchase and looking for specific goods. You may not make a million by running an eBay store but you will get a good feel for ecommerce.

Speak to a professional web design company about your ecommerce website and let them know your findings, they should be able to guide you through the process of choosing the right solution. You should enquire if the solution offered is bespoke or Open Source. Open Source solutions give you more rights over the ownership of the system but can be limited in the way things work, this isn’t to say they won’t be able to do what you want, they just may not be able to do it exactly how you want it to. Open Source system include Joomla! and WordPress. Bespoke system can be developed to meet your exact requirements but often cost more than Open Source solutions. If you go for a bespoke system make sure you understand the ownership rights to the websites content and content management systems. Web design companies will often protect their own bespoke systems under intellectual property rights.

Another option open to you is the DIY route. If you have a good understanding of web design, hosting and content management systems then give it a try. You will be able to use any Open Source system but will need to find a suitable host.

Finally don’t get carried away and try to get everything done immediately. Your website will be able to grow along with your order book, additional features can be added at a later stage.

-By: Peter J Aland

For more information and professional help on ecommerce web design.