How to Setup and Build a Ecommerce Website

Creating and setting up an online store/shop/ecommerce web site  has gotten considerably easier over the last few years but it can still be a very confusing area for even experienced website builders due to the large number of options and specialised providers that are available.

In order to choose the best ecommerce solution for your website you should acquaint yourself with the basic concepts and components that make up an online shop/ecommerce store, and the various implementation methods.

However before you start are you really sure that and ecommerce solution is necessary at this stage,- Do you need an ecommerce store/solution .

 Very often you can start selling with a simpler solution than a fully fledged shopping cart.

Online Store/Shop Components and Systems

An online store can be divided  into two main areas- Product Management and Product Payment. Which, in turn, are implemented by two distinct and separate online systems- a shopping cart system and a payment processing system.

Therefore creating an online store involves choosing a:

1. Shopping Cart/store System
2. Payment Processing System

Hosting an Ecommerce Website

There are three store types/ecommerce hosting options that you will encounter and you will need to decide which type best suits your needs. They are:

• Hosted Website and Store
• Own Website Plus Externally hosted Shopping cart.
• Own Website Plus Self Hosted Commercial Grade shopping Cart.

Which solution is best for you will depend amongst other things on

• Your current situation i.e. Do you currently have a website
• What and How many products you wish to sell
• Your technical ability
• Your Current website Host capabilities

Hosted Store Shopping Cart

This type of solution is provided by many website hosting providers as an alternative to simple web hosting, as well as by specialist shopping cart hosting companies.

This solution is probably the simplest for new website owners to implement and is meant for businesses that just want to sell products, as in this scenario the website is the store/shop.

See hosted Shopping Carts for more details

Own Website Plus Externally hosted Shopping Cart

This option offers much more flexibility than the fully hosted option but requires slightly more technical ability to setup and configure.

In this case the website is setup and then the shopping cart is integrated into the website.

The website is hosted on a server of your choice and the shopping cart provider is sourced from a third party provider of your choice.

See Own Website External Shopping Cart

 Own Website Plus Self Hosted Shopping Cart

This option offers much more flexibility than the externally hosted option but requires  more technical ability to setup and configure if using a fully featured solution.

In this case you will be responsible for installing and setting up the store and integrating it into your site (if existing).

The website and store software sits on your server (usually a shared host -standard small business website) but for larger stores you would need to consider a virtual or dedicated server.

For smaller less functional stores/shops then you can also use WordPress with an ecommerce plugin.

see -Own Website And Self Hosted Shopping Cart

Accepting Online Payments

Selling online usually involves accepting online payment via credit and debit cards or alternative systems (e.g. PayPal), which in turn requires a payment processing system.

The payment processing system integrates with the shopping cart system, and therefore you need to choose a shopping cart before you choose a payment processer.

The payment system is almost always external to the website and is hosted on secure servers.

Here is a quick overview of the payment process:

1.  The customer connects to your web site and chooses the product or products using either the templates provided by the payment provider or your own.

2.  When ready to purchase the customer activates the payment link and he is then presented with a delivery form. This form is usually stored on your web server. After the form is complete and submitted he is transparently sent to the payment providers secure server.

3.  When the payment form is complete and submitted the purchase needs authorisation.

4.  The acquiring bank is contacted and the customer credit card details, payment amount along with the Merchant account number is passed to the acquiring bank for authorisation.

5.  The customer is redirected back to the web server usually to an order thank you and confirmation page.
    

Although the process can appear a little complex the bulk of the work is carried out by the payment provider- See Payment Providers-Services and Gateways