Getting Ready to Launch Your e-commerce Website
If you’re planning to put up a website for your products or services, one of the first things you have to consider is finding the best e-commerce hosting provider. Electronic commerce or e-commerce is the term used for businesses or services transactions conducted online. e-commerce web hosting, then, is a form of web hosting service that manages your e-commerce website.
Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? However, managing an e-commerce website entails more than just putting up the site and making sure it stays up – and running. First, you have to be familiar with the fundamentals of e-commerce websites.
Essential and Vital Features/Tools for a Successful E-commerce Website
An e-commerce website will not succeed if the product management system is not supported and reliable. Features must be attractive to potential customers. More importantly, an e-commerce website must be user-friendly to enhance the customers’ on-site experience and encourage them to keep coming back for (more) future purchases. Here’s a simplified and quick guide on the basic features and tools for setting up a successful online shop.
Choose and register a domain name. Your
Find an excellent e-commerce web host. It is best to gauge your web hosting needs against your own level of expertise.
Come up with a superb website design. You have various options for designing your e-commerce website. If you decide to use the full service of an e-commerce hosting provider, web design is most likely included in the package. However, you can also opt to hire a website designer or you may decide to design your own site yourself. Hiring a website designer can be costly; likewise, doing it on your own may also end up more expensive. But the upside to this is you can have your e-commerce website according to your specifications, making your site look distinct and unique from among the many sites. You can customize it accordingly, to encompass all the features you want to include on your site.
Make online transactions work. You need two basic things to effectively carry out a successful inline financial transaction. You need a merchant account that allows you to accept and process customer payments through credit cards. You can obtain this account either through your e-commerce host provider or by applying at a local bank. For the latter, you need to provide proof that your business is a duly registered one. The other requirement for your online transactions is the payment gateway; a system that automatically processes, verifies and accepts or declines on your behalf, all payment transactions between you (or your bank) and the customer. This system is performed through secure Internet connections that meet all industry regulations and standards, including Peripheral Component Interconnect or PCI.
Provide a shopping cart. This is primarily a software that serves as the interface on your website and its networks, which enables shoppers to choose the items they want to purchase; review their selections; and make changes (either add or remove items) before they make the final purchase. It would be quite difficult for consumers to purchase anything from your online store if you do not have a shopping cart. Most e-commerce hosting providers offer customizable shopping carts for your website.
Ensure e-commerce website security. The importance of online security to safeguard the consumers’ information can never be over-emphasized. It is absolutely crucial for a safe and secure online transaction of any kind. For several years now, the only authentic and genuine standard for a secure e-commerce transaction is the Secure Sockets Layer or simply SSL, which you as an e-commerce website owner can obtain from a Certificate Authority (CA). An SSL certificate is on a secure server that identifies your website during transactions; it encrypts your customers’ information.
Excellent customer care service is crucial. Problems are inevitable and customer service plays a huge role in satisfying the customers’ need to resolve issues when they transact business over the Internet.
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