What is e-commerce?

E-commerce is a term that describes the process of making money online.  There are many different ways to create an effective online store.  Usually one particular method will stand out as the most advantageous for your business circumstances.  Please feel free to contact us should you have an questions.

Store set-up options include:

1. Full, independent, e-commerce store: This option requires the purchase of a merchant account, SSL certificates, and shopping cart software that are then used to create a site that functions independently online.  These stores can accept and store customer financial information securely, then passing customer orders to you via e-mail or site log-in. 
 
This setup has the most flexibility, but is the most difficult to set up, involving many confusing decisions.  For a successful, thriving business, it costs the least in the long run, but can be expensive upfront.  It is one of the most professional-looking solutions since you can usually customize the user interface of every page, including the payment pages.  We would be glad to guide you through some of the challenges of figuring out which components of e-commerce are right for you and offer recommendations for merchant account companies that we have positive experiences with.

2. Bundled Site: These are preformatted sites that can then be tailored to your preferences.  They often incorporate the shopping cart and the ability to accept credit cards, and are also often associated with additional marketing (such as Yahoo Shopping with Yahoo's E-commerce bundle).  These often cost substantially more, so you must carefully balance the extra functionality you are paying with its cost to analyze the effectiveness of this approach.  It can be very effective for certain businesses but can be a significant financial drain on others.

3. Paypal-Oriented Site: There are two forms of payment processing offered by Paypal.  The first, most widely known method requires no monthly fee, shopping cart, or SSL certificates, but requires the buyer to register with Paypal.  This can often discourage sales in many industries, but can be the standard of practice in others (such as E-bay).  The other option includes a monthly fee, but avoids the need for the buyer to register with Paypal.  Both options take a larger percentage of your sales than a traditional merchant account would, but are usually the most cost-effective, no-risk, low-hassle e-commerce solution for a low-volume business or online auction store.

1. Merchant Account:  You must have a merchant account to process credit card payments from your customers.  Many retailers already have one, but if you are new, this will be one of the most confusing aspects of starting a business.  Different fee structures abound, making it complicated to shop and compare, but it can be done.  If you have at least a rough projection of your prices and how many transactions you are planning per month, it will help you decide on a company that offers the best deal for your business.

2. SSL (Secure Socket Layer):  This is a form of internet security that protects your customer's sensitive financial information from being intercepted.  Rates vary in the industry from very reasonable (as low as $16/yr), to quite expensive ($1300/yr) and it is based on the reputation of the company providing your SSL certificates and the insurance they provide for damages resulting from interception.

3. Shopping Cart Software:  Sometimes packaged with the merchant account, shopping cart software is usually less expensive to buy separately from the merchant account in the long run.  There is a huge variety of software, so it depends on what your preferences are and how many extra features you desire.

What is a domain name?

What is a registrar?

What is hosting?

High quality hosting is not necessarily synonymous with high prices.  Good hosting can be found for a few dollars a month in most cases, depends on the software and functionality you need.  Although we do not provide hosting services ourselves, we can arrange it, if you desire, at no additional charge.  Similarly, we can easily accommodate any hosting company you might chose. 

When choosing a hosting company, we recommend great care in choosing a reputable one.  Sometimes, spontaneous loss of e-mail can occur.  Other times, entire sites, costing thousands of dollars to design, can be lost to incompetent hosting companies.  Regardless of the hosting company, we additionally recommend always keeping a back-up copy of your site on your home computer.

Would animation be useful on my site?

Animation often serves an aesthetic role on websites, adding beauty to capture the viewer's attention, but there are also many practical applications for animation that are easily overlooked.  With broadband internet access becoming commonplace, and software evolving to deliver rich content with minimal loading times, animation is becoming much more common and branching out into new, sophisticated, and useful areas of design.  It is a powerful teaching tool and an effective marketing aid when utilized properly.

Splash Pages/ Intro Animation: This is the first page to appear when you connect to the site.  A well-done animation can pique curiosity and increase the amount of viewers who stay for more.  Similarly, if you have an ad campaign on TV or radio, you may increase brand recognition by echoing existing market themes, unifying various advertising mediums into one cohesive message.

Tutorials and Demonstrations:  In many situations, you can convey concepts more effectively with an animation than with text-based explanations or instructions.  E-Bay, for example, has an animated tutorial outlining the process for posting an online auction that can be very helpful for people who want to participate in the online auction, but are not comfortable using the internet.

Slideshows When you present large amounts of changing visual information in a small space, you can generate more impact and draw the attention of the eye better than unchanging content.  A small slideshow cycling through the prestigious awards your company has achieved, for example, can convey a trustworthy image and emphasize the quality of your products or services without using a sizable list that no one would otherwise be interested in seeing.

Banners: A popular use of animation is to restrict it to part of a page. This still adds the emphasis and motion but a visitor can read the text while the animation loads, making the animated element unobtrusive. 

Buttons: Serving a mostly aesthetic function, animated buttons can help make your site memorable and increase the impressiveness of the interface.

Advertisements: Animation demands attention, enticing viewers to read pages they may not otherwise be interested in reading.  By employing bright or unusual animations, or incorporating simple games, animations can attempt to increase curiosity and gain clicks.  Ads are also often seen in banner form.

BIG Animation: Some animated sites are visually decadent, and designed to project a high-end image.  Sites like this can have remarkable impact, attracting a lot of word-of-mouth attention.  Good examples include sites for movies, cars, and corporate public relations.

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