Selling online is a vital part of many commercial websites. If you want more out of your site than just to announce your presence and give product information, you will need to have e-commerce incorporated into your webpage.

Essentially what you want is a way of getting payment from your purchasing customers to you. For online sales, that almost certainly means payment by credit card and/or Paypal. And that means you need 128/256-bit encryption Secure Socket Layer (SSL) on your site. (That is not optional; it's required for safe online transactions.)

Checkpoints:

1. Unless you only want to offer Paypal as a payment method for your customers, you will need a merchant number. (If you are in Australia, that means you need an ABN.) Not sure about how to apply for an ABN? Ask us for help.
2. If you offer payment by credit card to your customers, you will need to arrange a merchant provider for online payment processing (for Australian businesses or traders, we recommend Westpac, but ask your bank about your options) and a payment gateway. Your bank will advise you about payment gateways and set up the details for you. (Our personal gateway recommendation is Payflow.)
3. You must have a dedicated IP and an SSL certificate installed on your website before you will be accepted by a merchant provider. Ask us to arrange this for you.
4. You'll need an online store on your website, so that your customers can put items into their shopping cart, go to the Checkout and put through their payment. (This is why you need SSL on your site - it ensures encryption of sensitive credit card details and other information.) We will install this for you and set it up with your appropriate payment gateway information (credit cards, Paypal, cheques - whatever you specify).

What happens to the payment? Your online store programme will send the payment information securely to your payment gateway; your payment gateway processes the information; the processed payment is sent to your business bank account via your merchant provider.

What happens if I've got a lot of inventory? Send us your inventory information in spreadsheet or database form such as MS Excel (file should include all the necessary columns or fields, such as image, title, weight, price, model, product description, stock quantity, etc.) and we will convert and upload the information to your account's MySQL database, so that it will be accessible to your online store.

What if I have additional titles to add to my inventory on an ongoing basis? You can add these manually through your online store's administration panel.

How do I know what has been purchased, and by whom? You can check customer and order information in your online store's administration panel. You can also print out invoices and labels.

What are the costs for me? Installation of your online store is AUD $55. Database conversion and upload cost (optional) begins at additional AUD $44, depending on specific job requirements. Cost of customising store appearance (optional) begins at additional AUD $44, depending upon specific job requirements.
Your bank will inform you of business account fees, merchant provider setup and monthly merchant provider fees. Your gateway provider will inform you of their monthly fees.
If you decide to offer Paypal as a payment option (either as well as or instead of online credit card payment), check on the Paypal website to learn of the transaction fees and any other costs.
Dedicated IP address is AUD $32 per year (based on current exchange rates).
Dedicated IP address plus yearly SSL certificate is AUD $65 per year (based on current exchange rates).

And that's it. These steps will get your e-commerce up and running - safely and effectively.

 

From concept to design, Web Empress works to provide you with a website to suit your design criteria.