Hosting With E-Commerce Solutions

Posted by admin | discussion | Sunday 31 May 2009 5:51 pm

You’ve created an online business and are in the process of developing the website. One of the biggest factors to affect your design is if you are selling a product there. If you are, then you’ll need an e-commerce solution. Very similar to regular web hosting, e-commerce has an additional layer because of the financial transactions between you and your customer. There are many types of them, and you have lots of options. Below is a summary of the different kinds of e-commerce solutions available today.

First, there are shopping cart providers like Paypal, which is a shared solution that can be linked to your website. This type of system allows customers to collect and purchase products. This is a good type of e-commerce solution for small companies who want a simple order and payment system that is secure, but it has higher fee rates for payment processing than you would find with a customized system designed specifically for your site.

Another option is hosted e-commerce solutions that are hosted at the provider. These types of systems provide more functionality for a higher-volume environment. They may be customized to have a product catalog and shopping cart, and designed to process transactions and manage orders.

For web-based companies with more than $10 million in revenue each year, a dedicated e-commerce solution might be the best fit. They are customized using components from many different packages, and require a large upfront payment, ongoing maintenance, dedicated staff and more.

There are also web-hosting companies that provide comprehensive e-commerce solutions. From building the site to hosting the server, these companies help the online business in every aspect. They also provide customer support, marketing assistance and fulfillment solutions. The web-hosting company typically takes 20 to 30% of the profits from the sales of the website as payment.

Depending on your business needs, you can find an e-commerce solution for your website. There are many factors to think about before choosing an option, including:

Are you selling a high volume of lower priced items, or are you selling a low volume of higher priced items?
How many different products are you selling? Less than 10? More than 50? Do you need a product catalog?
What does your shipping situation look like? Are you shipping everything out of your small business? Are you shipping different items from different suppliers and different warehouses?

Just by researching and planning out your company’s future needs, you’ll be able to make a wise decision about e-commerce solutions.