A good place to start is to determine how many products you plan to sell, and what kind of customer experience you wish to have. The type of website solution will vary for a business that is selling shipped products versus a business that is selling a virtual membership subscription.
Many of our web hosting plans will support custom applications or different shopping carts with the help of a web developer.
Some of the popular e-commerce platforms that WEBii can host for you include, but are not limited to:
Once you decide which type of website experience you prefer, you can research and demo shopping cart options like these to determine which one is a good match for your business goals. Learn more about e-commerce web development.
Another important step in preparing for e-commerce is establishing your online payment solution. This is not the same as just opening a bank account for your business. If you have never sold online before, chances are that your banking solution is limited to in-store sales. You will require a merchant account with the bank for the business, as well as some type of online payment gateway that will connect the website with your bank account. There are a variety of solutions for online payment processing, and fees will vary by the provider and your particular business. We recommend consulting with a professional merchant service provider and comparing your options. Also note, some shopping carts allow you to support more than one payment option, so your customers have a choice during checkout; you might wish to sign up for more than one type of service.
You should also gather details about things like your tax rate requirements and your shipping providers or shipping cost model.
You should prepare content for your return policy, privacy policy and terms of service.
Most merchants hire a professional web developer who is experienced in e-commerce to build the website or to extend their existing website. E-commerce development has more moving parts than a basic web design, and it requires attending to several details and quality testing before launching to real customers.
Our e-commerce web development team also has decades of experience creating websites using these tools, as well as creating extensive custom online applications that sell services and products.