Ecommerce Solutions

What is an ecommerce web site? a convenient way to buy an item from a web site via the Internet.

Why should I bother? Statistics show that more people can be tempted to buy when there is an ecommerce solution in place than if they had to place their order by phone. Around 50% of the UK's population uses the Internet to shop and by the year 2007 the percentage is set to rise to almost 90%. To maintain profitability in your business it is essential for your customers to be able to buy your goods or services online.

Where do I start? Look at your competitors' and other web sites. In doing so, you are building up a vision of how your site could work and then do it better.

What else do I need to know? You'll certainly want an idea about development and running costs before going ahead. It is important you know how long the site development is going to take and also how much time you'll need to allocate for adding your products or service to the site.

A. Running costs - Payment Gateway - the means by which you receive payment for items sold on the web site into your bank account. There are two methods, either by Paypal or the more expensive Payment Gateway Providers (PGP) i.e. Secpay, Protx, Worldpay. PGP's also require a merchant account at a bank of your choice. Costs vary in each sector and it's worth shopping around.

B. Running costs - Marketing (SEO ) - Your web site appearing on the first or second page of the most popular search engines i.e. Google, Yahoo for the right keywords is vital to the success of the web site. Active marketing, as with any advertising method, requires thought, strategy and it needn't cost the earth.

C. Running costs - Hosting - essential and normally paid annually in advance.

Our complete service offers you help and advice at every stage of your web development.