selling on your website
The term e-commerce refers to buying, selling or ordering goods and services on the Internet. It is a sub-set of e-business.
So e-commerce happens when any commercial transaction is facilitated by the Web or email. The transaction may simply involve a customer ordering an item from your online shop and paying for it by cheque when it is delivered. The more sophisticated e-commerce systems allow users to pay immediately via credit card for items puchased online.
Websites or email can be used to allow customers or clients to order, purchase or pay for things such as:
- products and services
- information in the form of papers, images, video or audio clips - perhaps held in a database on the site
- membership subscriptions
- rates, licences and taxes
- subscription to specialist services, newsletters etc for which you normally charge
- specifically requested research conducted by the organisation's staff
- bookings and tickets
- venue/facilities bookings.
E-commerce does not have to be an expensive or sophisticated function or process. It is simply a tool that makes it easier for customers and suppliers to do business with you, and you with them.
What to do
If your e-business plan involves selling products or services online (via your website or email, or both) then you need to consider a range of issues before the website is built.
The following section assumes that you want to provide the e-commerce solution via your own website or email system. An alternative to doing it yourself is to join an e-marketplace where someone else puts your catalogue online and handles the e-commerce solution for you. If you want to explore that alternative, look at the e-marketplace section of this website - just click on the link.
Assuming your plan is to include e-commerce on your website, it is important to resolve a number of issues before going online because the approach you adopt for each will affect the way the web developer builds the site, what e-commerce software is employed and it will help to ensure that the solution is right for you and your customers.
Consider each of the following issues:
What products and services are to be sold online? Not all products or services are suited to being sold online. For example, CDs and books sell very well online but it is more difficult to sell life insurance over the Internet. Perhaps only a selection of your products or services should be offered for sale online.
Are there any business partners to consider? Before making these products or services available online, consider that once online, anyone, anywhere can see and purchase them. Is this an issue for you and your business partners? For example, do you have re-sellers or fellow franchisees who would regard your e-commerce activity as treading on their territory or even taking business away from them?
What price to charge and what pricing model? Should the pricing/fees be the same as that charged to face-to-face customers? You may want to offer a discount for purchasing online to encourage people to purchase online. Determine how much to charge for freight and handling for the various quantities that can be purchased online.
How to present your products and services? What will be the means by which users see and select products and services? Will you provide images, video clips, animations or samples of your products or services? If there is a range of products and options, how will these be presented? How will the prices/fees be displayed? How do you want users to be able to make selections and edit their choices should they decide before paying that they want to change their selection - referred to as a shopping cart solution?
How are the products or services to be delivered? Directly online, by post, courier, or collected in peson by the purchaser.
Payment method and timing: Do you want to be paid by credit card, cheque, money-order, cash? When is it best to receive payment, given the type of product or service being purchased online? Instantly, at the point of sale, or is it sufficient to take an order via the website or email and invoice the customer at the point of delivery or at the end of the month?
Security and reliability: What level of security of your e-commerce solution is required or appropriate? How dependent will your business be on the security and reliability of the system? eg if a significant amount of your turnover is to be put through the website then it needs to be secure and very reliable.
Fulfilment: What is the availability of the goods and services for sale? If you require instantaneous payment but then cannot supply the goods, you may then waste time crediting their money and you may lose the goodwill of the customer.
Inventory/catalogue: Does the e-commerce solution need to be linked to your product catalogue and/or stock and inventory system, and to what extent? If you have only a handful of products and you don't expect to sell high volumes through the website then this may not be an issue. But if you expect a high volume of sales, and/or the number of products and options being offered online is large, and/or has to be updated constantly, then you may need to have a direct link between the website and the catalogue systems on your office computers.
Maintaining the e-commerce solution: How often will you need to add, delete or update the details of products and services on the website - eg prices, availability? If it will be necessary to update the e-commerce catalogue regularly, then an efficient and effective solution will need to be provided by the web developer. You will need to balance the need for efficiency and ease of updating with the cost of the proposed maintenance solution.
Managing risk: Providing an e-commerce solution carries with it some risks. In order to limit the risks, and to ensure that you mange the expectations of your online customers, you should develop and then explain clearly on the website your policies covering:
- privacy - what you will and will not do with their details
- returns policy - under what circumstances you will accept returned items and how will they be returned?
- shipping policy - freight costs, insurance, import duties, where you will not deliver goods
- fulfilment policy - what you will do if an item/service is purchased but you cannot fulfil the order in reasonable time
- security - of their personal details, their payment records, credit card or account details if given.
There are numerous e-commerce solutions available from Internet Service Providers, web developers and specialist third-party suppliers. Probably the overriding consideration for an organisation in deciding which solution to adopt is its integrity, security and the bona-fides of those organisations that are selling it and supporting it. If you want to offer instantaneous payment by credit card, you will need to arrange it with your bank and obtain a security certificate from a registered issuer (eg Thawte - http://www.thawte.com) so that your website is secure for people providing credit card details.
No comments:
Post a Comment