Your Full Package Internet Marketing Company
Bring on the E-Commerce
Do you want to develop a more interactive web site that will allow you
to sell your products or services online? Do you want to utilize the
Internet’s vast resources to expand your reach to new markets? Do
you want your web site to not only provide information, but collect data
on users as well?
Whether you need a store front or order entry system, we can
meet your e-commerce needs, designing and developing applications to help
you enhance your online presence and improve your transaction based needs.
yBOT’s e-commerce application development includes:
Order Entry/Query Systems
Stores and Electronic Catalogs
Business-to-Business and B2C Transaction Web Sites
Customer Service Web Sites
Customer History
Payment Information
Shipping Information
Product Specific Applications
Is E-Commerce right for you?
In the late 90's e-commerce was the buzz word that everyone was talking
about. Many dot com companies sprung up with the idea of making millions
selling things from books, music, cars, and anything else they could think
of selling over the net. Unfortunately two types of these dot coms survived,
those like Amazon.com who made a mark for themselves early and software
companies. Brick and mortar stores like Sears and LL Bean who where known
for their catalogue shopping before the birth of the Internet have also
found e-commerce works for them.
Here are some basic considerations when thinking about selling your products
on line:
Reasons to Consider E-Commerce on your web site:
- You are a store who is known for their brick and mortar locations,
with products and services your customers have come to know and trust,
but would like the ease of ordering on line.
- You are an established company selling a well known product.
- You have a new or unique product you want to promote and sell, as
well as having a very large marketing budget
Reasons Not to Consider E-Commerce
- You want to get rich quick on a small budget
- You want to sell an un-patented invention
- Everyone else is doing it
- You want to cut out your middlemen or retailors (this is the worst
reason, as your sales from the net will almost never out perform your
wholesalers and retailers of your product and you will lose them as
customers)
If you believe E-Commerce is right for your site, you should continue
reading this page and decide which way you want to go.
Weighing Your Shopping Cart Options
If you sell more than a handful of products on your web site, you'll
need to add what's known as a shopping cart. This is a function that allows
your customers to pick out the items they want and send them to a "cart,"
which holds onto them until they're ready to check out. The program then
totals the order and adds any applicable taxes and shipping charges.
So how do you add a shopping cart to your site? There are three different
options you can choose from.
1) Shopping Cart software
2) Link out to a third-party service (hosted)
3) Download a script and configure it to your needs
Let's examine each option separately and the pros and cons involved with
each:
SOFTWARE
1) DANSIE SHOPPING CART: www.dansie.net
This shopping cart is the preffered cart of yBOT. Cost is 150.00 US. Easy to set up and works well with secure credit cart processors like Internet Secure.
2) SALES CART: www.salescart.com
Specifically for FrontPage users. Cost is 179.00 US. Easy to set up using their step by step wizard.
3) PDG SHOPPING CART www.pdgsoft.com/cart.htm
Completely customizable to fit your needs. Integrates easily with FrontPage software or Dreamweaver. You can also use this cart to set up your own associate program. Works on UNIX, NT servers and others. It is a little pricey at 750.00 US, but worth it for the features you get.
4) Your E-Ware: www.youreware.com/home
Fast and easy to use, with a low price that gives this software an edge. It will hold up to 2,500 products in up to 20 product categories. Works on Win 95.98 and Mac. Download the free demo and take it for a spin. Final cost is under 100.00
THIRD PARTY/HOSTED CARTS
Third party cart services are easy to set up; you can be running in a
matter of hours. They require no software to buy or install, but usually
charge a monthly fee. Most include a secured server and a merchant account
option, if you don't have your own. This is a relatively inexpensive solution
for small businesses.
1) VCart.com: www.vcart.com
Free to try for 30 days then you pay 90.00 for 3 months, 150.00 for 6
months or 1 year for 249.00. Supports 1 to 10,000 products- No CGI to
configure and you can use your existing merchant account.
2) FreeMerchant: www.FreeMerchant.com
Prices range from 19.99 to 40.00 per month with a 30 day free trial. Build
your store using their web based interface.
3) Yahoo Store: store.yahoo.com
You can't go wrong with Yahoo's expert reputation. Easy to build your
store on their servers using a point and click interface. You can even
upload your own images. Cost for up to 100 items is only 100.00 a month.
You can also use your existing merchant account or apply for one through
them.
4) Marketers Choice: gta-tech.com
Believe it or not, this one is free. Supplied by Marketers Choice, this
cart calculates totals, taxes, shipping charges and notifies you of new
orders automatically. Follow the wizard for easy set up. You need your
own merchant account but they supply the secured server. So what's the
catch? They try to get you to upgrade to their 150.00 a year package,
which is an option. If you continue to use the free one the only trade
off is they will display business related ads on all of your cart pages.
SCRIPTS
If you're at all good at programming with CGI, there are limitless scripts
you can download for free or low cost. If you're all thumbs you could
hire someone to configure the script for you. Ask yBOT
about our associate Robert A. Miodonski who specializes in CGI and PHP
scripts for businesses.
1) CGI EXTREMES: www.cgiextremes.com
You'll find a variety of CGI shopping scripts here ranging from free up
to 300.00 in price. They'll work on a variety of platforms. Each one is
rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for guidance in selection.
2) CGI Resource Index: cgi-resources.com
To find the goodies here you'll need to drill down to the appropriate
category. Click on programs and scripts, then Perl, then shopping carts.
3) PERLSHOP: www.arpanet.com
This CGI script is for sites hosted on a Unix system. It is free to use
with their logo on the pages.
4) PAY PAL SHOPPING CART www.cstafford.com
Check out this free CGI Shopping cart script that passes all of your credit
card sales over to PayPal for easy processing.
There you have some of the various options to choose from when setting
up your online storefront. Before jumping into the e-commerce waters,
make sure you weigh your options and choose the one that best fits your
needs and your budget.
Weighing Your Paymet Processing Options
There are various ways to collect the payment from your customers, but the two primary ways are Secure Credit Card Processing and third party payment companies.
SECURE CREDIT CARD PROCESSORS
yBOT recomemd Internet Secure as one of the best secure credit card processors. Internet Secure has been on the forfront of e-commerce since the dawn of the world wide web.
THIRD PARTY PAYMENT COMPANIES
Pay Pal is probably the best known third party credit card companies
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