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Tips for Setting up an Ecommerce Website

By Charles Mburugu on 22 September 2011 @ 2:21 PM.

Tags: ecommerce, ecommerce websites, setting up ecommerce.

Do you plan to start selling your products on the internet? If so, you will need to set up a functional and professional looking e-commerce website. Such a website is comprised of four main components:

Store product pages
A shopping cart
A gateway account for payment processing
A merchant account where payments are deposited

Store product pages

These pages contain information about your product(s). Make sure your content is keyword rich and that it sells to your prospects. You could also consider using high quality images to promote your products. Think from the perspective of your customers. What kind of text and pictures will convince the customer to buy your product? Does your website offer an easy, pleasant and safe shopping experience? You need to make sure that your website is presented to customers in a professional and efficient way. This was an important consideration when developing an ecommerce website to sell my webhostingpad discounts and register.com coupons.

Shopping cart

Your shopping cart needs to incorporate all the following components.

A method which allows shoppers to view and choose items for purchase intuitively and easily
An admin system which allows you to edit, delete and add items for sale
Efficient tracking of product inventory, orders and fulfillment
Generating data and sales reports into your accounting

Though developing shopping carts from scratch is expensive, it allows for design customization and maximum functionality. Shopping carts can also be developed through third party application such as PayPal or Yahoo stores. This method is less expensive, and offers little customization. The method chosen will be determined by your development budget. Structure your checkout steps properly and make sure your customers enjoy an efficient and pleasant shopping experience.

Website security is vital for ecommerce sites. Makes sure you install a Secure Protocol (HTTPSAn acronym for 'hypertext transfer protocol secure'.

Learn more about HTTPS), a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and a Secure Server Certificate (SSC). These will help you find credibility with your customers. You should also encrypt the whole checkout process so as to protect your customers' personal data from hackers.

Payment gateway

These accounts help in processing credit card transactions. There are many Gateway processor companies which you can choose from. Research the different companies and find out what fees are involved.

Merchant account

Merchant accounts accept credit card transactions online and hold money from such transactions. Find out if your local bank offers such accounts. In some cases, you might get both transaction processing services and a merchant account from the same company. Though such integrated solutions make things simpler, they may not necessarily offer the best rates.

About the Author

Charles Mburugu often writes about social media, technology and blogging tips. He also blogs about coupon and discount offers such as webhostingpad discounts and register.com coupons. Currently, he is writing for YouLoveCoupons, a coupon blog that offers webhostingpad coupons and register.com coupon code.