What is E-Commerce?

E-Commerce, or Electronic Commerce, is a general term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. Technological developments are now allowing users to order to deliver goods and services over the web and even make payments online.

What do I Need to Start an E-Commerce Site?

Beside the product or service you want to sell, you need a Web site. This can either be an existing Website to which you can add E-Commerce capabilities, or you can build the site from scratch. Website should have Query and Order processing Forms. Shopping cart should be implemented incase of products, A back office system should be developed to keep track of online orders. 

Next you need some way of accepting on-line payments. This normally means Peer to Peer (P2P) or credit cards, although there are other options for very small or low-volume sites. Lastly, but most importantly, you need to have a strategy for marketing your site and attracting customers. This is far harder than you might think. 

How can I do business on the web?

Essentially, doing business on the Web can be broken down into five main requirements. 

On-Line Store 
The obvious requirement is an on-line store, or commerce-enabled Web site where goods or services can be described and selected. 

Payment Processing 
While it is possible to run an on-line store without accepting on-line payments, this is cumbersome and rarely successful. Accepting on-line payments is therefore essential - and at the moment this means credit cards or Peer to Peer(P2P) System. 

Shipping/Order Fulfillment 
OK, so you've made your sale and now you've got to deliver the goods. Just package them up and ship them off. Easy-except what happens if you get dozens or hundreds of orders a day? 

Customer Service 
Support, Complaints, Returns - the biggest complaint about E-Commerce is the poor level of customer service in the event of problems. 

Promotion 
The big one! Even if you do everything else right, without successful website promotion your on-line business will fail.


Can I do it by myself?

Yes of course you can, especially if your requirements are straightforward or you are on a limited budget. However, if you are planning a large site or have no previous experience, hiring a professional may well save you a lot of time and money. If you do build the site yourself, the trick is to know your limitations, keep things simple and concentrate on the priorities i.e. keeping the site easy to use, secure and reliable. 


How can I enable my store to accept online payments?

There are two ways of accepting payment  through website  Peer to Peer(P2P) and Credit card. There are Merchant Account providers which enable a website to accept online payments. Whenever a customer purchases from on line store by producing his credit card details, the payment is deducted online from his bank account, and credited to the Shop Owners account. 


How do I accept payments by credit card?

Firstly you need some secure method of collecting credit card details from your customer. Most storefront services or shopping cart software offers this facility. You then have the option of processing these details manually, or using an online credit card authorization system to process the payments. This is obviously preferable, but there is an additional cost. Finally, you normally will require a Merchant Account with a bank or other financial institutions in which your payments can be deposited. Note that not all Merchant Accounts are suitable for Internet payments. It is possible to find payment processors who do not require a Merchant Account, however these companies inevitably have higher charges. 


Do I have to accept credit cards?

Generally yes, as about 95% of on-line consumer transactions are by credit card. However low volume sites, or sites that are linked to auction sales, may be able to get by using one of the on-line payment services like PayPal. (In fact PayPal offers premier and business accounts, which allow credit cards to be accepted directly from Web sites at very reasonable cost.) 

There are other options like on-line checks, or more unconventional methods like reverse SMS using mobile phones, which may be useful for some specialized applications. For most small businesses though, credit cards will be the normal system of payment 


How do I get customers to visit my site?

You have to work at it. Don't expect customers to come flocking to your Web-store once you set it up. Marketing is the hardest, but most important, part of selling on-line. You can use search engines promotions, banner ads or advertising mail shots to attract customers. You can add content or community features to your site to try and increase traffic, and therefore increase the chance of making a sale. You can use off-line advertising. If you do decide to open up an E-Commerce operation, nine times out of ten it will be the effectiveness of your marketing that will make the difference between success and failure.