Setting up a shop on the Internet

E-commerce or what is often referred to as a shopping cart, provides you with the opportunity to sell merchandise online through your website. Products and services now available on the Internet are numerous. You can now purchase just about anything you want or can think of, on the Internet. Setting up shop and selling your goods and services online is a great avenue for you to get your products and services in front of people. But no way should this be your only goal for having a website.

Your website design will be critical as you will be marketing and selling of your products and services on the Internet is where you must excel because unless you have a very unique product or service you can expect a lot of competition. So if you're about to set up a shopping cart on the Internet there are a few things you will need to consider. The web designer featured on our home page will be able to guide/assist you when it comes to an e-commerce website.

The overall design is going to be a critical aspect if you hope to appeal to your target audience and set up an effective e-commerce website. The old saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but cannot make it drink”, is applicable to your e-commerce website. You can put anything you like on your website for your customer to look at but this doesn't mean your visitor is going to buy from you. Your website and the goods you are selling must appeal to your visitor as soon as they arrive at your store.

You must lead your customers into a buying decision by alleviating any fears or concerns they may have about purchasing from you. When buying on line from your shopping cart, the customer cannot touch or feel the merchandise. So you need to provide them with assurances so they can feel confident and comfortable about purchasing from you.

Some e-commerce websites use very small images of the products that are for sale. This is a mistake. In many instances your customers will be relying on these images to make buying decisions. You must take every opportunity you can and use any means you can to bring your customer to a buying decision.

Apart from the actual aesthetics of a website, the power behind an e-commerce website is an efficient and robust database. The database must be constructed and set up in a way that enables most processes to be automated. E-commerce website design must provide the store owner with the ability to easily control all aspects of the website through a password protected administration panel.

Typically an e-commerce website would allow the administrator to set up categories, products, pricing structures, taxes, shipping, discounts, promotions, e-mail, newsletters and have the ability to produce reports. All in all an e-commerce web design can be simple or extremely complex, depending on your needs. You should talk to your website designer about any features you would like in your e-commerce application.

• You Will Need a Merchant Account.


• You Will Probably Need an SSL Certificate.


• You Will Need Documentation

You will have to set up a merchant account with your Bank and sign a merchant agreement with your bank.

The merchant agreement will clearly state that you must protect your payment page with secure socket layer technology and that all card holder data, which is stored electronically, is to be held in an encrypted form.

Other things you will need to consider when setting up an e-commerce website. This is not all, but will be a part of the bank's requirements.

1. You will need to clearly display your business name.
2. Your business address.
3. Contact details including telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses.
4. A complete description of goods and services available, with prices stated in your local currency, or in a bank approved foreign currency. Contact your local bank for assistance.
5. You must provide a return and refund policy.
6. Clearly state your shipping process.
7. You must advise your customers of any export restrictions.
8. You will also have to display your privacy statement.
9. You will also want to provide your customers with a privacy statement and terms and conditions of use. It is important that your customers feel confident when purchasing from your website.