| How to set up e-Commerce |
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Customers opt for online stores for their convenience. However, one of the biggest challenges of conducting an online business is making sure that the customers trust your website. To be a successful online store, your business needs to provide a strong framework that engenders trust amongst its users. Emphasizing this to the user will increase your customer base and facilitate business growth. Studies show that once a customer has a satisfactory online shopping experience, he/she is likely to remain loyal to that online store. This is often referred to as ‘customer lock-in’, a term to describe customers' repeated visits to the site. Hence, it is vital for your business to make a good first impression. One bad online experience is enough to dissuade a customer from returning. The use of a secure payment system is a key device in promoting such value to your customers. In order to create a secure payment system, however, you first have to convert your business into a site where e-commerce can take place and where your customers can purchase your products and/or services with ease. Initial Set-Up There are three major elements to setting up your e-commerce website: a payment gateway, a merchant account, and a shopping cart. When building your website you need to ask the following questions:
The Front End In your ecommerce set up, you need to choose whether you are going to use a vendor built shopping cart system or a custom developed application. There are different benefits from the two shopping cart systems: Benefits of a vendor built shopping cart system:
Benefits of a custom-developed shopping cart system:
Merchant Account After you set up your payment gateway and shopping cart, you need to set up your own merchant account. This account will enable you to accept payments for the products you sell. Under a merchant account, you can use a bank or other financial institution to accept and deposit credit card payments into your account. Usually, your bank will have an online facility for your transactions and fees associated with this service. There are many companies that specialize in merchant accounts, and the fees vary from company to company. Expect to be charged for the setup, license of the merchant account, as well as the ongoing service of processing the transactions. Merchant accounts may have two other types of fees: 1) a reserve fund, which may be required to cover charge backs, and 2) charge back fees, which are similar to NSF-fees a bank charges for returned checks. Security & Trust There are four basic steps to providing trust. The first two are easy enough--telling the customer who you are and stating your privacy policy. It is the last two--providing secure transactions and making it easy for customers to pay--that are the failings of many ecommerce sites. Trust and security are two intertwining issues. The security infrastructure is vital to the ongoing relationship with partners and customers. You may need to use privacy certificates, escrows, and digital security to promote trust amongst your users. In order to accept credit card information from your customers, your website will need to be secured to prevent hackers from using your customer’s information fraudulently. More importantly, customers will be concerned about confidentiality. Technologies like “SSL encryption” are used to encrypt data as it is being sent, so that the information cannot be intercepted and read in transit. SSL encryption requires the use of a “Certificate”, which can be thought as a “key” that “locks” the incoming data, and unlocks it when the information needs to be used. Another alternative is purchasing your own ‘certificate’ from a company which specializes in encryption. Once installed, you can secure any of your web pages. By ensuring confidentiality and trust, your e-business will succeed. |
