Ecommerce | Ecommerce News

Are you considering selling your product, or any product on line? There are many ways you can get an e-commerce store off the ground. This can be more of a dilemma than you think. This series of articles will help you decide which method is best for you.

The are three basic methods to getting started in e-commerce.

1. Using an All-In-One method (Which is what we will discuss in this article)
2. Hiring a website developer and webmaster to install, modify and run your e-commerce store (This will be discussed in part two of this series of articles)
3. Doing it yourself (This will be discussed in part three of this series of articles)

While there are many more methods for starting an e-commerce store these are three basic solutions. You can also combine some of these to suit your needs as you feel best. For instance some people may feel that they have enough technical expertise to install, set up and run their e-commerce store but will leave the design portion to a good website developer.

In this article we will look at and discuss the All-In-One method of starting an e-commerce store. You can use one of the many All-In-One providers that give you a host, shopping cart software already installed and hopefully a merchant account. Some of the more get rich quick type of providers will offer you their products to sell as well. This is probably the quickest, easiest and cheapest (up front costs) way to go. But is it the best way? An all-in-one provider makes things simple and quick. Especially for those who have little to no experience in setting up and getting started. There are other upsides to this method especially if you use a legitimate provider. The upsides are that most everything is installed, set up and tested for you before you even sign up. You will have no problems with all the different pieces working together and you will have one point of contact for whatever you need. In most cases all you have to do is choose a color scheme, a store layout and learn how to upload your products and you will be ready to go. The upfront costs are usually very reasonable.

But there are down sides to using this type of provider. A lot of All-In-One providers will also sell you your domain name. Be VERY careful when buying your domain name through a provider whose main business is not selling domain names. Your domain name is your unique address on the Internet. It is where your customers will find you. Besides being your address it is your trademark and brand. Most of the time when you purchase a domain name through a provider that is not a domain name registrar you do not hold control of your domain name. Which means if the provider goes out of business who controls your domain name? Not you. Make sure you purchase your domain name directly from one of the large registrars on the Internet. Set up your own account so you maintain control of your domain name at all times.

Another thing to consider when choosing an All-In-One provider is that you have to use their shopping cart software. This can be good and bad. The good side is that they will install it for you and set it up so all you have to do is upload your products. But the down side is that you do not own the software license. What is so bad about that you ask? What if your provider doesn't renew the software license? Or what if the provider goes out of business? All the work you put into your store is now all gone. And there is not one thing you can do about it. There are other cosiderations here. Let's say you grow and you want to add certain features to your store such as an affiliate program. What do you do if your store software does not support this feature or there is no add-on module for it? Now you have to look for another provider with a different software package. This means all the work you have done on your store may be useless. Software written by different companies are not usually compatible. So under most circumstances it pays to own your own software.

Along with purchasing your domain name you have to use their web host. If you use an All-In-One provider you do not have a choice. Let's say you put 30-40 hours of your time into developing and stocking your online store. And now it runs VERY slow or worse it disappears. What happened? The web host could have gone out of business. Web hosts are a dime a dozen. Good web hosts are hard to find. Thousands of web hosts will go out of business every year. And many more will overload their servers so your site runs slow. If your store is slow your customers will stop shopping and go somewhere else. If your store disappears then what do you do? Chances are if your web host disappears your All-In-One provider will too. So make sure the provider you use has been around for a long time and has a good reputation on the Internet.

The last piece to this solution is the merchant account. This is where you really have to be careful because the merchant account costs are not usually included in the fees charged by the All-In-One provider. And this is where your cost of doing business can skyrocket! When you shop around for a merchant account you compare the rates that each merchant charges for using their credit card and bank services. These charges vary widely from merchant to merchant. But what if you don't have a choice? The chances of you having the merchant account with the best rates is slim to none. And this is where you can get stuck paying exorbitant fees. So it obviously pays to be able to shop around for the merchant with the best rates that fits your particular needs. Most All-In-One providers will tell you that you must use their merchant otherwise they cannot guarantee that your merchant is compatible. Try and find a provider that will allow you to use different merchant accounts and gateways.

Overall an All-In-One provider can be a great solution for those who know nothing about the Internet and do not want to take the time to learn. Also, anyone who wants to operate a small store should consider this method as the fees for doing doing a small amount of business will not be much different between the three methods. But as you can see from this discussion there can be numerous down sides to using this method.

One piece of advice, always back up your website and databases weekly if not daily and keep your backups on a different server. At least if disaster strikes you may have a fighting chance of quick and easy recovery!