How to Sell Stuff on your Website
Category: Web Design, Web Development
Recently had a potential client ask me how they could setup their own online business. Specially, “how can we let people buy stuff on our site?”
Well, after some research, I’ve come up with the following list ecommerce platforms:
Expensive Options
Commerce Server 2007 enables you to create full-featured Web business applications and extend your business across networks, while allowing you to integrate e-commerce solutions within your existing infrastructure.
This is Microsoft’s software platform, which allows people to create their own ecommerce sites from scratch. This is advanced software that would require an experienced developer. In addition, the software alone will cost you about £4,000. So this is only an option for sites with a serious business plan and large amounts of cash ready to invest.
osCommerce is an Open Source based online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved.
This is the Open Source version of Microsoft’s software. This is open source, and therefore, free. But, you’ll notice that I did still included it under the “expensive” options. That’s because this software will also require an experienced developer to install. And even if the developer is charging little to no money, there are other things to consider, such as the maintenance of such complex software. i.e. the development does not stop once the site goes live. You will need to hire a developer to maintain your site.
Cheaper Options
Accept credit cards online, plus bank transfers an more. Website Payments Standard is: Fast. There’s no lengthy approval process and no shopping cart needed. Start accepting payments today. Easy. Customers shop on your website and pay you on PayPal. They don’t even need a PayPal account. Low-cost. No monthly, start-up, or cancellation fees – and no annual commitment.
For those looking for a low cost, quick solution, I would recommend Paypal. Their service integrates with your existing website. And the best part is that visitors do NOT need a PayPal account.
Enabling your website to accept Nochex payments is quick and easy. You only need a basic knowledge of HTML and we have simple guides to help you.
Nochex is a clone of PayPal and will basically provide the same service. You’ll need to look at the fine detail to decide which one works better for you. Although, remember that PayPal (probably) has the larger user base since it is widely used on Ebay.
Conclusion
ECommerce solutions range from a simple website add-ons to a complex software systems. What you are selling and how much you have to invest will always determine the most appropriate solution for you. Whichever you chose, always remember the most important rule; make it easy as humanly possible for someone to make a purchase on your site : )
Credits:
I wrote this blog post after reading an article in .Net Magazine by Pawl Dawson
Yes, but your client is highly unlikely to actually need the thousands of TPS that getting, for instance, an MS Commerce server supports. It is far more cost-effective to get something like an M6 commerce-oriented account and use their hosting solution, at a few dollars per month, to support multi-GB per month traffic. Hosting your own box is a nightmare of expense.
@Endie - good point about having your Internet Service Provider host your ecommerce. I’ll check out M6’s site - and see what they offer.