Ecommerce Websites

An Ecommerce Website may include the information of a brochure styled site, but it will have the extra functionality of being able to transact business. As a result, an Ecommerce site will have databases at the back-end holding information about the business's inventory, sales and customer information. In fact they are often Online Business Applications.

People can purchase from the site and they may be able to pay by means of credit card, direct bank transfer and/or by a third party like Paypal.

There are many issues at stake here.

Firstly, you will need a "high level" Merchant Account with your bank - one that is authorised to handle credit card transactions. Your "bricks and mortar" business may have a Merchant Account, however it maybe a mid-level facility where you need to sight/swipe the credit card in person. If so, this account will need your bank to approve the Merchant Account for Mail/Telephone Order processing.

Secondly, not including Paypal as a payment option will exclude your site from more than 80 million customers who have all decided they will never use their credit card online. And so Paypal must be considered a payment option or you risk excluding a large number of online buyers from your market potential.

Thirdly, there is the question of should credit card payments be processed online and in real time, or can they be manually processed offline with your business's normal daily banking. If you sell services like online- memberships, reserved-seat bookings or downloadable products like software/music/video then real time processing would most probably be required. However if you are to dispatch physical goods the next day, then offline routine processing could be the option of choice.

Search Engine Optimisation, Email Marketing and Pay per Click (SEM) frequently play a big role here.

These are the sort of things that one of our Business Analysts will cover with your FREE 2 hour consultation. Call +61 (03) 9018 7354 now to make an appointment.

FREE 2 hour consultation; call telephone number +61 (03) 9018 7354 NOW!