Ecommerce Websites

Taking money through your web site starts here

Whilst many web sites exist simply to provide information an increasing number are being designed as ‘online shops’ where users can buy and pay for ‘stuff’ that is then sent to them. If you are planning a site that ‘sells stuff’ and want to take payment online you’ll need to be able to make transactions through your site so shoppers can pay using a credit card or method such as PayPal. In order to do that your site will need an ‘Ecommerce’ engine.

The term Ecommerce is simply a shortening of ‘electronic commerce’ – i.e. payment for something electronically using a card rather than physically paying cash. This method of payment has become increasingly common and increasingly secure.

Why have an online shop?

There are significant advantages of having an Ecommerce website:

• Your ‘shop’ is open 24/7
• You are open to business from a distance and indeed to around the world
• It’s easy to make price changes, run special offers etc.
• Customers can shop incredibly quickly
• Online shops have a much lower cost base to their ‘bricks and mortar’ counterparts
• You can build a valuable customer database for future email marketing

The fact is that more and more people expect to shop on line more and more often. If you work in any sort business where your revenue is driven by exchanging money for an easily deliverable commodity you have to ask yourself the question ‘can I afford not to have a transactional website’.

How easy it to get into Ecommerce?

There are a variety of Ecommerce systems available from ‘off the shelf’ solutions to individually developed ‘bespoke’ options. Which one you choose will depend on what sort of stuff you sell and how big the shop needs to be.

Apart from transactional capabilities online shops need a database of product, product availability and prices, delivery details etc. Generally the trickiest thing is making sure your existing database suits the Ecommerce engine you choose. The great thing about Ecommerce selling is that the Ecommerce system will talk directly to the database so you can monitor stock levels at all times.

How does Ecommerce affect search engine optimisation?

Ecommerce systems can be easily incorporated into search engine friendly websites and developed to be ‘continuously friendly’. This allow not only your web site, but also all the stuff you sell to be listed and highly ranked within search engines.

What Ecommerce engines does Flipside Digital offer?

Flipside Digital offers a full range of Ecommerce options and has also developed its own Ecommerce engine called e-Posit, which is accredited by WorldPay. That means that if you already have a WorldPay account you can use e-Posit ‘out of the box’. e-Posit can also be integrated with other online providers such as payPal, HSBC and more.

For the technically minded e-Posit has been built using a Microsoft technology called .NET offering a fast and reliable shopping cart that is cost-effective and extremely flexible. You can see an online demo of e-Posit by visiting www.e-posit.co.uk

If you would like to know more about Ecommerce and online shopping please don’t hesitate to ask.