I want an e-commerce - shopping cart website
Thu, 27 May 2010 16:21:43 +1000
I have been asked by many prospective clients, “how much does it cost to setup an e-commerce or shopping cart website?”
We’ll the first thing I need to explain is, what exactly is e-commerce? According to Wikipedia, ecommerce is: “Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, or e-business consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.” This is a pretty broad statement and can mean simply advertising your goods online and then making a credit card transaction over the phone, or transferring funds via internet banking afterwards.
To do this is really not any more difficult than setting up a basic website to display your product and requesting potential customers contact you. The other end of the scale is users who want a custom website that can handle real-time credit card transactions and offers users a shopping cart experience, something like amazon.com or similar. The middle ground here is an off-the-shelf product like zen-cart that you can apply your branding to and most of the hard work is already done.
The amount of work will vary hugely between these scenarios. So when you decide to ask this question, think hard about exactly what you want to achieve with your website. Sometimes it is a good idea to start small and as interest in your product grows, then add features such as a shopping cart and credit card processing. Little steps will save you money in the long run. If you need help in answering some of these questions then don’t hesitate to call us and discuss your options and the relative costs.