IT’S HOT! The sun is shining and the last thing on your mind is the largest retail opportunity of the year. If you have something to sell, are you ready for Christmas? If not, the time to act is now. In this short article I’m going to attempt to give you a crash course in e-commerce. It’s my hope that if you’re ready to act, you’ll come with most everything needed to get started. So let’s get started.

The most obvious thing you need is a place for people to find you and place orders. If you do not have a domain name, we can register it for you. Once you have a domain name we’ll need to set up hosting and a secure certificate. The secure certificate (also known as SSL or TLS) keeps all data between the browser and your website safe, allowing your customers to feel comfortable sharing their personal information and payment information. Hosting has become a commodity where you get what you pay for. We only offer enterprise grade hosting services in hardened facilities connected where the internet meets to exchange data across networks. This enables our servers to route around network congestion providing the best service to the greatest number of people.

Now we need something to sell with. E-commerce solutions are varied and we have settled on a 3 tier approach that can service the individual selling a product or two to multi-brand/storefront solution tied into a single administration point providing dashboard style reporting on sales activities. Let’s describe each tier and decide which you fit into:

Tier 1: You have a product or three and you need an inexpensive method of selling your product. You have a flat rate that covers your shipping, handling, and any applicable taxes. You do not anticipate any changes to products offered or total calculations.

Tier 2: You have a single storefront selling products that need to be categorized and searchable. You have a single point of origin for all shipping and would like to calculate shipping costs across one or more carriers or shipping methods. You also would like to either securely capture credit cards for offline transacting or setup an automated online method.

Tier 3: You have a catalog of products that need to be sold through several websites. Websites can share shipping and billing methodologies or have unique settings. Some of your products may overlap stores, and or find themselves bundled with other products. You need to be able to target different target markets or market segments and orchestrate your marketing efforts to each website while maintaining a single point of administration and tracking of products inventories and sales.

Moving from tier to tier has it’s own development costs, so it’s a good idea to consider where you will be in 2 years and make your choice accordingly. Each level has it’s pro’s and cons that are specific to your vision. Give us a call, we want to make sure people can find you in time for Christmas.

Posted via email from jeffmilton’s posterous