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Free E-commerce Guide | E-commerce Tips
| Is your company switched on to ecommerce? E-commerce is one of those things that
you just keep hearing about more and more and today.
It represents big business for small businesses. Below
is a guide to help you through the jungle that is ecommerce.
It provides e-commerce tips and may help you decide what
ecommerce solution is right for your organisation. We currently support ecommerce clients in Swansea, Cardiff, Carmarthen and throughout South Wales. To find out how we can help you, visit our e-commerce solutions page. If you're looking for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) advice or Pay Per Click information check out our other comprehensive guides on our free website resources page. |
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| E-commerce or electronic commerce is the ability to buy or exchange products or services online immediately over wide geographical distances any time of the day or night. Today, you can buy and pay for almost anything over the Internet. | |||||||||||||||||
What is an E-commerce website? |
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How can I get an e-commerce website? |
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| In order to accept online payments you will need to set up a Merchant Bank Account with one of the 9 Acquiring Banks who offer Merchant Services. A merchant bank account is an account used to process credit or debit card transactions. Check with your own bank to see if they provide this service. Your bank will ask for lots of information before you can set up a merchant account and it could take up to 8 weeks to set up. They will ask for your business history, business accounts, forecast turnover, average transaction values, type of goods you sell and so on. Online transactions are known as customer not present transactions. When you apply for a customer not present transactions merchant account the bank will ask you what percentage of your sales are of this type and use this information to calculate the cost of their merchant service to you. | |||||||||||||||||
Here is a list of some of the uk acquiring banks |
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Alliance & Leicester American Express Merchant Services Bank of Scotland Barclaycard Merchant Services Diners Club HSBC Lloyds TSB cardnet Royal Bank of Scotland & NatWest Bank Ulster Bank |
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| You will also need a PSP (Payment Service Provider) who can provide you with a virtual PDQ swipe card machine that collects card details over the Internet and passes them to the acquiring bank. This costs extra but some banks offer it as part of your merchant package. Usually the higher your transaction volume the cheaper the rate. | |||||||||||||||||
Here are some typical rates |
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Setup Fee £200 Monthly fee £10 Debit card £0.35 per transaction Amex card 3.0% Diners card 3.0% MasterCard & Visa 2.5% Bond £1000 |
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How does e-commerce work? |
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You will need good online marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to compliment your e-commerce website. Check out our
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Guide on our free website resources page for further information. If no one can find your web site on the internet no one can buy your products. Potential customers go online and usually use a search engine to find the specific item they are looking for. They browse the list of web pages looking for key words related to what they are looking for. If your website has good SEO the link to your website will appear near the top of the list. |
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| Once on your website they will need to find what they're looking for quickly otherwise they will try somewhere else. A good intuitive site structure with clearly labeled sections, so customers can find their way around, is a must. Once they find the product they need your customer can add it to their basket and proceed to the virtual checkout. | |||||||||||||||||
| A PSP then collects the card details and the total transaction value. An acquiring bank then authorises the transaction. The customer's card limit is temporarily reduced by the value of the transaction. The goods are dispatched and the transaction value is then captured from the card. A small transaction costs is also charged by the PSP and acquiring bank. | |||||||||||||||||
Light at the end of the tunnel |
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| If this sounds too complicated, you can always use a Payment Bureau. Check out Worldpay, Netbanx or Paypal. With these bureaus you do not need to set up a merchant account, they collect the transaction funds via credit or debit card using their own merchant account. They hold the funds for you until you request payment into your bank account. Beware, the initial payment holding period when you set up your account could be up to 60 days. | |||||||||||||||||
Security |
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| Security is very important, after all customers are providing you with their bank account details. A secure order form should have a digital certificate, also known as a SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Server Certificate, it allows data to be scrambled so the account details are unreadable. SSL protects internet communications so you can take credit card orders securely and ensure that hackers cannot eavesdrop on the transaction. Check out Thawte or Verisign. |  |
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The e-commerce shopping cart |
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| You will need to purchase some shopping cart software. The best solutions provide you with an online brochure facility, so that you can display a list of your products, a shopping basket, so customers can collect items prior to purchase and a backend administrative system to update your product list. Check out our e-commerce catalogue. | |||||||||||||||||
E-commerce website integration |
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| Once you have all your e-commerce components; a basic website, a merchant account, a PSP, SSL certificate, shopping cart software you will need an e-commerce expert to put them all together to form an e-commerce website. There are literally hundreds of providers out there claiming to do e-commerce, ask your friends or colleagues for recommendations, do some research to find the right provider, but be wary of "I’v got a mate that does that in his spare time!". Check out our e-commerce solutions page for further information. | |||||||||||||||||
Hosting |
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| An e-commerce website needs a good hosting solution, there are numerous offers out there claiming to provide fabulous hosting. Be careful, if you get it wrong you could have down time that will cost you a lot in lost business and it will cost you to move your website to another provider. Ask friends or colleagues for recommendations, check out reviews, check out the more reputable well known companies like Easyspace to see what they are offering. | |||||||||||||||||
Distance selling laws |
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| Once you have your e-commerce solution make sure you read up on the law regarding distance selling this is very important, get this wrong and you leave yourself wide open if a customer decides to sue you for a mistake in any purchase. Make sure you word your terms and conditions and any language you use to confirm purchases very carefully. For further details visit http://www.out-law.com/page-430 . For a comprehensive guide to ecommerce check out the Electronic Payments website www.electronic-payments.co.uk. | |||||||||||||||||
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Website Disclaimer 23/02/2010: The use of data-mining, extraction software or bots by any company that is not collecting data for a search engine is strictly forbidden on this website. The use of any data collected from the website by any data-mining, extraction software or bots is also strictly forbidden. This does not include search engine bots collecting data for search engines. The use of Picscout in particular will be treated as 'hacking' and will be prosecuted.
© W3 Communications Ltd - PO Box 722, Swansea, SA4 4UH - 0845 0034265
Website Disclaimer 23/02/2010: The use of data-mining, extraction software or bots by any company that is not collecting data for a search engine is strictly forbidden on this website. The use of any data collected from the website by any data-mining, extraction software or bots is also strictly forbidden. This does not include search engine bots collecting data for search engines. The use of Picscout in particular will be treated as 'hacking' and will be prosecuted.