An eBusiness of Your Own
An E-Commerce Web Site
When planning your on-line business, one of the most important considerations is the Web site itself. This after all will be how your customers will see the business. One of the great advantages of the Web for a small business is that it is possible to appear as slick and professional as the largest corporations, providing your Web site is well thought out. There are four main points to consider when planning your E-Commerce Web site.
Design
Web design isn't as easy as it's made out to be. Generally, business sites designed by amateurs tend to look, well amateurish. If you can afford it, it's definitely best to hire a professional to do the initial design for the site. It will save time, and let you concentrate on planning the business. The best way to select a Web designer is on the recommendation of someone who has used him or her before. If this isn't possible, then at least have a look at some of the designer's previous work. If you can't afford to have your site designed for you, don't panic. With a little care it's possible to avoid most of the common mistakes. (Big Hint: Keep it simple!) For more guidance, check out the About Web Design site, where guide Jean Kaiser has plenty of advice for novice designers.
Hosting
You can run a Web server on your PC if you like, but running your own server needs a fair amount of technical knowledge. Most businesses rent a server, or space on a server from a hosting service. This removes all the hassle of having to deal with hardware and worry about bandwidth and it doesn't have to be expensive. Basic hosting services, suitable for small businesses, are available for under $10 per month.
Payment Processing
Although it's possible to run an E-commerce site using a payment service like PayPal, most businesses need to accept credit card payments. This whole are is a minefield as there are hundreds, if not thousands of companies out there offering payment processing services. If you have no track record in business you may find it difficult to get a merchant account, which is necessary for many payment services. However there are now many services that don't require a merchant account and are therefore available to almost everyone. The downside is that they usually charge more.
Maintenance
Nothing puts potential customers off more than a Web site that looks like it hasn't been updated for months. It's essential therefore that your site can be updated easily and quickly. For simple sites a forms-based interface for entering product information is preferable to having to edit the Web pages directly. More sophisticated sites may have automated links to stock databases. (For quick updates and newsflashes one neat idea is to build a Web Log application into your site.) Any plan for a Web-based business needs to ensure that these 4 areas are fully covered. Later in this series of articles I'll consider each of these topics in more depth.
