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E Commerce_Made_Easy
| E-Commerce Made Easy
INTRODUCTION
What does it take for small and home-based businesses to get
started with e-commerce? My goal is to answer this question and
to give you information that allows you to get started with
selling your products and services on the Internet.
The benefits of e-commerce are plentiful; the most important
ones being: increasing sales revenues while expanding a
company’s customer base and offering services to allow customers
to shop at their convenience around the clock and independent of
location.
BASIC INGREDIENTS
An e-commerce website should consist of a website with at least
the following components:
- Product catalog - Shopping cart - Shipping and handling
options - Online payment processing
In order to obtain these basic ingredients, the following
technical requirements have to be met: - Server disk space.
E-commerce software contains an online store in the format of a
website. In order for this website to be available on the
Internet, it has to be stored on the harddisk of a server
computer that is constantly connected to the Internet. -
Registered domain name. Once the E-commerce software is stored
on the server’s harddisk, it still needs to be made accessible
for customers using an Internet address. For this, a domain name
needs to be registered, e.g. http://www.yourname.com. - Online
database. E-commerce software stores its data in a database. For
this reason, an online database has to be available on the
server computer. - PHP script preprocessor. An e-commerce
website contains dynamic webpages. To make this reliable and
compatible across all Internet browsers, the PHP server-side
scripting language is used for making the webpages dynamic and
for accessing the online database. - FTP access. This is needed
to upload and install the e-commerce software from ones local
computer to the harddisk of the server computer. - Telnet server
access. Using Telnet, you can access the files on the server’s
harddisk. - SSL certificate. A Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
certificate should be installed and configured on the server
computer for securing the transfer of credit card information.
Most owners and employees in small and home-based businesses get
discouraged about using e-commerce, because they don’t have
sufficient knowledge regarding how to meet these technical
requirements. This is not necessary. There are several Internet
hosting companies available that offer e-commerce hosting
packages that meet all of these technical requirements. They
will configure and maintain an Internet server computer (or part
of it) for you to use.
PERSONAL SKILLS
The problem with e-commerce hosting companies is that they will
only offer you the tools that you need to do e-commerce. It’s
still up to you to figure out how to use them. Personal skills
required to use these tools are: HTML programming; PHP
scripting; FTP file transfers; server computer operation; online
database usage; and graphical web design.
This is a steep and time consuming learning curve. Up to now,
the only solution has been to contract or hire an e-commerce
expert to perform these tasks, making e-commerce too expensive.
What the small business segment really needs is an e-commerce
solution that focuses on them — one that takes into account that
only limited time and financial resources are available. For
these businesses, Feaser eStores are the perfect cost- effective
solution, bringing e-commerce back into their reach.
FEASER ESTORES
Feaser eStores are “turn-key” online store hosting packages that
contain all the basic ingredients and meet all the technical
requirements as outlined earlier in this article. What sets
Feaser eStore hosting packages apart from traditional e-commerce
hosting packages is that they also lower the required personal
skills of the individual operating the eStore. Knowing how to
surf the Internet and how to do e-mailing is sufficient. Opening
your own eStore is a straightforward 3-step process:
1. Select an eStore layout. We offer a wide variety of eStore
layouts that we can install for you. Upon your request, we will
even add your company logo to the layout. We also offer services
to design a complete new layout for your eStore. 2. Select a
hosting plan. A hosting plan consists of everything needed to
make your eStore accessible on the Internet. This includes
server disk space and an e-mail account. 3. Add your own
products. By default, your eStore contains a number of products
for example purposes. After you add your own products to your
eStore, you can start selling them on the Internet right away.
After we receive your request to open an eStore, we will create
an eStore hosting account for you on our Internet server and
install and configure the e-commerce software for you, including
online database setup. We take care of the technical
nitty-gritty work involved to get your eStore up and running and
guide you along the way.
In the support section of our website
(http://estores.feaser.com), you can find a wealth of
information regarding running your eStore. This includes answers
to frequently asked questions and multimedia how-to instructions
showing you step-by-step how to use your eStore.
CONCLUSION
What sets eStores apart from conventional e-commerce hosting
packages is that they are developed with you, the small business
owner, in mind. By targeting this specific market, we’ve been
able to create complete and full-featured e-commerce hosting
packages that are simplified and easy to use. All you need to
know is how to use an Internet browser and how to do e-mailing.
This makes eStores complete, cost-effective, and easy to use
solutions for small and home-based businesses wanting to get
started with e-commerce.
For more information on Feaser eStores, you can visit our
website at http://estores.feaser.com or contact me at
info@feaser.com
About the author:
About the Author
Frank Voorburg is an
ecommerce consultant and owner of Feaser LLC. Feaser LLC offers affordable
ecommerce and webdesign services.
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