There are four basic steps needed to facilitate ecommerce on your
website. This diagram combined with our ecommerce FAQ's will give
you a good foundation to move forward.
#1 - Get a domain name and start a hosting plan
- Finding a good hosting company that will meet your needs is
critical. Don't use price as the deciding factor or you may find
yourself in trouble down the road when you realize what corners
are being cut to give you that low price. You want a dependable
and customer service oriented company with secure high-speed
servers so that you don't lose customers to website congestion and
failures.
Build an Online store
- Build an
online store (a database driven computer program which contains
your products and price information). We offer MIVA Merchant &
osCommerce.
Graphics -
Work with someone
who knows how to scan, photograph, and/or manipulate images and
files or teach yourself some graphics basics for your new store
to upload. If you want to do it yourself then we suggest that
you
purchase the most current version of FrontPage (currently
FrontPage® 2003) or a similar webpage editing product.
Market your business
- Let
people know where you are and what you're selling. Give them a
reason to come to your site. Use search engines, make doorway
pages, and advertise in whatever fashion you can afford.
One
of the latest and greatest tools for marketing is through opt-in
emails and newsletters using our Market Manager Opt-in email
system.
#2 - Payment Processing
Services
/ Gateway - Handles secure, encrypted,
real-time credit card transactions over the internet. The merchant
account is needed to coordinate the transfer of funds between your
bank, a payment-processing service, and a customer's bank.
#3-4 - Payment
Processing Services
/ Merchant Account
- Payments get processed and
deposited into the company's bank.
