E-commerce Websites
May 25, 2004

Not only has web presence become an integral part of the way many companies do business, but for some, it is not only the primary, but their sole place of business. The World Wide Web offers a broad market, great advertising opportunities, and—whether you continue to see customers in person at one or more storefronts or not—it may serve you well as promotional tool

Online Competition

While you may have a good handle on competition in older media, such as television, radio, and print advertising, snail mailing lists, and promotional events, the world of the Internet is likely to present some new opportunities and pose some new challenges, both in terms of customer support and in terms of gaining this article has all rights reserved and is copyright by 100 Best a competitive edge. Your choice of domain names, your web design, your ability to draw customers to your site by various means, including page rank, are the element you will have to look to in order to secure your place.

Online Responsibilities

Ecommerce involves selling products or services online. In order to do this, you need to support your customers as they find your site, browse your offerings, make purchases, ask questions, and deal with after-purchase issues.

• Shopping is facilitated by shopping cart software that allows customers to collect items and identify the number and type they wish to purchase.

• It's necessary to arrange for accepting various types of payment: mailed in checks, credit cards, and PayPal.

• You need SSL: Secure Socket Layers to encrypt online transactions so that customers' payment information is protected from credit card and identity theft.

• You need to track, pack, and ship online orders.

• Customer service for online customers and technical support for website issues are both key.

• If you process payment card data, you will have to comply with new Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council regulations that went into effect on June 30, 2008 (http://www.knowpci.com/)

Choosing an Ecommerce Web Host

Some of the features customers want in an eCommerce site are compared in the following chart:

	set-up	$/mon if pd by yr	space	transfer	import DB	max # products	Catalog Mgmt.	affiliate program	Transaction Fee	Shipping
A.	$50	$19.95	*	*	√	10	no	√	2.0%	no
B.	$50	$39.95	*	*	√	50,000	no	√	1.5%	no
C.	$50	$99.95	*	*	√	50,000	no	√	1.0%	√
D	$50	$299.95	*	*	√	50,000	no	√	0.75%	√
1	$94.95	$35.00	300 MB	4 GB	?	1,000	no	√	no	no
i	–	$18.33	5 GB	200 GB	no	9-p. limit	no	no	no	no
ii	–	$25.33	10 GB	400 GB	no	9-p. limit	no	no	no	√
iii	–	$39.33	10 GB	400 GB	√	9-p. limit	some	no	no	√
iv	–	$65.58	20 GB	500 GB	√	9-p. limit	√	no	no	√
v.	–	$83.08	40 GB	1000 GB	√	* pages	√	no	no	√

N.B. * means unlimited; 9-p. limit means there's a limit to the number of pages on the site, which, in effect, limits the number of products. 

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Types of Websites
Ecommerce Websites