E-Commerce Websites

An e-commerce or electronic commerce website facilitates the buying and/or selling of products and services over the Internet for business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C).

WHAT DOES AN E-COMMERCE WEBSITE INCLUDE

This all depends on the size of the website and the features that have been implemented to complement the businesses online sales strategy. At the bare minimum a good e-commerce website will include a shopping cart and checkout process, however depending on budgets and the knowledgeability of the design agency an e-commerce website may only include PayPal buttons. Only having a PayPal button when selling one product is fine, however when more than one product or service can be purchased it is better to include a shopping cart, otherwise you may start to alienate users, especially when they wish to purchase multiple products or services in one visit.

More advanced e-commerce websites will tend to be database driven, include a client login area, an administration area or content management system and a shopping cart.

WHAT ARE SHOPPING CARTS?

A shopping cart is an electronic version of a shopping basket. As you browse an online shop and see products or services that you wish to buy you add the items to your shopping cart, large online retailers such as Amazon.com have a shopping cart. The main advantages of a shopping cart is that users can add, update and delete items from the basket until they are happy that they have everything they need. Due to the fact that shopping carts are so prevailent on the Internet not having one can put the website at a considerable disadvantage to it's competitors.

WHAT ABOUT PAYMENT

Payments over the internet are very secure. Credit card details are generally not entered at the e-commerce website (for security reasons), what usually happens is the user is redirected to the payment website where they enter their credit card details. Good web design firms will generally style the payment system to look like the e-commerce website so that
a. the user never knows that they have left, or
b. the user sees the e-commerce's website branding flow through the process.

There are several different EPOS systems that can be used for taking payments over the Internet and these include PayPal, WorldPay and Nochex. Each EPOS system has several different charges and some do cost more than others. Breed Creative Solutions can help with choosing an EPOS system by offering an objective view on each.

WHY A CLIENT AREA

One of the jobs of a website is to enhance the user experience encouraging repeat visits. A client area helps to build a relationship with the user by making the process of ordering products and services as easy as possible. A good client area will allow the user to modify there details including billing and delivery addresses, change passwords and view historic orders. The more functionality that can be given to a user and as long as the site remains easy to use the better the chance that they will continue to use the online shop.

WHY A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Like any shop, products and services change over time, some products become discontinued, new products and new versions of products get released and the price of products can change, more recently the VAT charge changed and was reduced from 17.5% to 15% and shortly come January 1st 2010 will rise again to 17.5%.

A major benefit of a CMS system or administration area is the ability to alter product descriptions, images and prices. The main advantage of such as system is that the reliance on a 3rd party is removed and the management of the e-commerce system is almost entirely in the owners hands.

To read more about content management systems please follow the link.

For more information about how Breed Creative Solutions can develop the perfect e-commerce application for your business please contact us via our electronic contact form or by calling
08456 43 92 43. For a free no obligation quotation please complete our web design quote form.