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| ECommerce |
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4BusinessHosting can help you with your ecommerce solution in many ways:
- Application hosting of ecommerce applications like VPASP, osCommerce, CactuShop, the XCent brand of applications, StoreFront , etc...
- SSL certificates
- MS-SQL, MySQL, and Access database hosting
- Secure payment processing through gateways such as SecurePay, AuthorizeNet, PayFlowPro, etc...
- Password protected directories
- Custom development of most ASP, ASP.Net, and PHP web applications
- Statistical Analysis of your web site's visitors
We also are licensed resellers for both Xcent and VPASP and can offer their applications at a discount. If you purchase the applications from us along with hosting we
will also install them to your web site with the basic configuration for FREE!
Rest assured, if you purchase your copies of the fine Xcent or VPASP ecommerce applications from us it's the exact same as if you purchased them directly from Xcent or VPASP,
only cheaper. The applications will be licensed in your name with all the support and upgrade privileges.
If you're interested in making a purchase of any of these fine applications please send an email to sales@4businesshosting.com letting us know which application(s) you're interested in and we'll reply with a price quote. |
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| The Basics on Setting up a ECommerce Web Site |
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Deciding to setup an e-commerce website is an easy decision, implementing it is a whole different story. There are many different types of e-commerce websites ranging from the simple, inexpensive site using only something like PayPal for credit card processing to more expensive database driven sites that offer everything from coupons and giftwrapping to multi-tier pricing and date driven sale pricing while keeping an eye on your inventory levels.
No matter how complex your site will be there are many steps involved before your site will be ready to accept orders. Plan on taking some serious time getting everything done, the more complex your site will be the more time needed. Some of the most basic steps are outlined below.
- Do you have a viable product? This is probably the most important question you have to ask yourself, if your product is only geared towards a niche market you may be dooming yourself before you even start.
- Do the research! Use search engines to check and see if there are already too many websites offering the same product. If the online market is already saturated with the same type of product you have to ask yourself if there is enough of a call for your product to support another website selling that product.
- Make a plan. Layout everything you can possibly think of that you will need and do the research on each step to determine the cost and time involved in for each step. If a step is too pricey or time consuming research the alternatives.
- Do MORE research! The better you research each and every step the more you will know and understand how it all works. You might use up more time doing loads of research, but you will save yourself a considerable amount of time and money down the road. And the more you know about how it works the less likely you'll be "taken" by people who don't care if you succeed or not and are only there to take your money.
Don't let all the talk about research scare you off, we're not telling you that you have to learn how to do each step yourself. There will be plenty of times that you will have to turn to others to get some of the things done, but the more you know and understand about those things the less likely you'll get ripped off or take bad advice from someone.
Some of the things you'll need:
- Business License - If you plan on having an SSL certificate or collecting taxes you'll need a state issued business license/tax number. Some SSL certificate issuers require that you be a legal, licensed business in the state you reside in.
- Shopping Cart - You'll need some type of web application that will handle your sales. There are many different types of shopping carts available. Most of today's shopping carts can handle everything from a wish list to tax collection to live shipping charges and credit card processing with a merchant account.
- Hosting - Of course you'll need to host your website with a hosting company, that's us. We can host your website no matter how big or small it is. We have support for most of the major databases used to store products, customer information, invoicing, stock, etc... We offer support for Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Access, and MySQL databases.
- Merchant Account - If you plan on accepting credit cards and automating the processing you'll need to set up a merchant account. The basics of a merchant account are simple; however, there are many ways to set up these accounts involving a variety of "hidden fees". Do your homework on this, compare the different merchant accounts and ask them questions about ALL fees involved.
- SSL Certificate - If you are going to accept credit cards online you'll need to purchase an SSL certificate. We recommend Comodo (InstantSSL) for the issuer. A InstantSSL certificate can be purchased directly through us, this can save considerable time and money, the certificates are more expensive if purchased by the end user directly.
- Customization - If the default templates that come with most shopping carts don't appeal to you or don't suit your website design you'll need to have it customized. Customization of web applications is a complicated job, fortunately we have a team to do this also. Our teams of programmers/developers can work in almost any programming or scripting language
- Marketing - One of the biggest reasons that your site can fail is poor marketing. The Internet is so big that your site will never get found if you don't spend money marketing it. The quickest way is to spend some money and get listed in the search engines. There are a ton of search engines out there, some of the biggest are Google, Bing, and Yahoo. While Yahoo is one of the biggest out there, we recommend you think hard before paying them the $300.00 per-year they want. They take your $300.00 and then decide if they want to list your site, if they decide not to list your site they still keep your money! We got burned by them, they took our $300.00 and told us our site isn't unique enough, we believe the actual reason is that at the time Yahoo had decided to offer hosting and didn't want the competition.
- Time - Your e-commerce site isn't going to make you a million dollars in the first month. It takes time to get your site out there enough for potential customers to find. Don't be discouraged, have patience and plan on at least a few months time before you start making money.
Starting your own e-commerce site can be the beginning of a wonderful new venture for you, it can also be a lesson in frustration. Take your time, plan everything, AND DO THE RESEARCH. The better your research and planning the more likely that your site will succeed.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns at either hostmaster@4businesshosting.com or sales@4businesshosting.com. |
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