HOW START YOUR OWN ECOMMERCE/ONLINE BUSINESS.

Ever since I started the sale of ecommerce website on the forums/boards I've received all sorts of questions/feedbacks that made it seem it was only me that understands my "Ecommerce site for sale" campaign.

I found out the best way to get things better was to make a tutorial about this. To let people know the benefits of having an ecommerce website and making money from it. I got another category of people that all they'd wanted was to have a merchant account and stuffs.

The ecommerce solution I'm providing on the boards as everything in one package. If you buy an ecommerce solution from me, I will design the website, logo creation and total brand development, load initial products, handle your merchant account registration, realtime shipment quotes registration and intergration all together.

Below I'm breaking down all you have to know (fundamentals) about the ecommerce solution into categories. And shedding more light on them one by one.

MERCHANT ACCOUNT:
Realtime Payment Processing: When credit cards are processed in real time on the Internet, credit card information provided by the customer during the checkout process is typically passed to a service called "payment gateway". Payment gateways connect the online store with a credit card processor, on one side and with your bank on the other side.

There are number of payment gatways that offer a different array of services. One of the most important things to look for in a payment gateway is wether or not the payment gateway allows you access to a secured area where you can manually refund previously processed credit card transactions. This will help you in handling returns on your store.

To process credit cards in realtime you will need:
1) A business bank account

2) A credit card merchant account. Your bank or the gateway that you sign up with will help you get a merchant account. (Though there is a way around this, when you talk to me will look into your situation together)

3) An account with a payment gatway. Some credit card processor also act as a payment gateway, which case you will not be required to take this further step. "Link Point" a large credit card processors is one of them.

You'll have to start by contacting your bank to find out what payment gateways they support.

Note: Paypal payments does not need all this blah blah. All you need is your paypal account email. Then I intergrate it with the site. And for the merchant accounts, there are some that does'nt require you to setup a bank account. They just handle the whole thing in one package. I'll work with you to shop for the best payment processor/merchant account that will suite you best. Though it will be better to have a business bank account..

Offline Payment Processing: This way funds will be collected offline, after an order has been placed. This is where you can setup payment options such as offline credit card processing payment terms.

To process credit cards offline you will need to have a business bank account and a credit card merchant account, but you will not need to use a gateway since transactions are processed manually, offline. This may be a good option if you do not expect many online orders pay day, and you already have a retail store with a POS credit card terminal.

Note: All credit card information collected from your customers during non-realtime credit card transaction is stored in the store database in an encrypted format to esnsure data security. (Though you have the decryption codes too, so you can view them).


REALTIME SHIPMENT : The ecommerce solution I"m providing allows you to set flexible shipping options by dynamically connecting to the following shipping providers: UPS, US Postal Service, FedEx and Canada Post. Shipping cost are calculated in realtime based on the shipping address and the order weight. You can also configure shipment using dynamic rules depending on customer cart contents and delivery region.

Though I highly recommend UPS for their fast response. They don't take too long before giving the Developer's Access key and password.

With Fedex you'll probably need a dedicated server. 'Cos their is a need to install softwares on the server. Thats crap to me.

USPS: Takes to long to respond.

I've not tried Canada Post yet.. but they should be good.

Intershipper (UPS, USPS, Fedex and DHL)
With intershiper you get shipment quotes from all the above courier services but you'll need to pay monthly fees for this service.

YOUR ADMIN/BACK-END OFFICE:The website is %100 database driven. So you don't have to worry about the hell on managing your site. The Backoffice is the administrator's chillin' spot, where you manage Product information, add/delete products, manage customers and orders, product supplier details, inventories, generate bills and tickets, manage store news page, auctions, gift certificates, send newsletters etc.

SUPPLIER/GOODS RESELLER ACCOUNT:If you plan to sell computer products (pcs, lappys, monitors, cases, etc) on your store you've got a big advantage. I have a ready made store with more than 1 thousand computer products loaded in upto 22 categories. With prices, weight, description all upto date. I can arrange reseller accounts for you, from famous computers stores, within 3days. So you start selling within a week.

And if you are interested in sellling something else, we can still work things out. Just explain what you have in mind. Then I'll help you shop for a good reseller account for such product. Then we start loading products into your store. Though I don't load more than 100 products for customers. This is not really my job. You best know the type of product you wanna load into your store.

HOW RESELLER ACCOUNTS WORK:In today's business world you do not expect to have all the goods in a store, especially when it is electronic commerce, except you're some very rich business person with all the funds to put in. Even when largest mainstream stores themselves don't do so. Not until they have orders do they request the products to be delivered from the manufacturers.

When a reseller account is arranged with a wholesales company, you'll have a better purchasing power in price from the wholesales company. For example if they normally sell a good for $100 to ordinary customers they may decide to sell at a 10% discount for their retailers. So when you get orders from your store, you re-order from your suppliers, which is mostly done in realtime now.

The ecommerce solution I"m providing gives you an hedge for bargain in terms of goods pricing on your storefront. E.g when you wish to give discounts or increments in price of goods. For example you found out you needed to increase the price of every product in your catalogue by certain percentage, maybe 5% which can automatically be done at the click of a button from your "Back-End Office". Mostly used when prices on your catalogue need a boost or a way you choose make your profit from reselling. E.g if a product is sold at $320 from a your supplier and you wish to make more profit, you may choose to increase by 10%, making you sell the product at $352 with a profit of $32.

GETTING CUSTOMERS TO YOUR STORE:We'll discuss this when you're ready. There are lots of effective ways to get around this. Though I'll be doing a lot of this free of charge. I"ll be providing a comprehensive tutorial on traffick generation soon.

For further enquiries please mail me at koboless2000@yahoo.com. Plus you can request for a sample view/demo.

Thanks Medo. I really appreicate all of this information.

I am keenly waiting for the GETTING CUSTOMERS TO YOUR STORE