Increasingly more businesses these days are beginning to sell and distribute their products and services through the Internet. It’s a win-win situation – consumers get the best assortment at the lowest prices, and retailers get access to markets outside their geographic location. But dependent on the type of e-commerce website the business is using, the cost to implement the project could vary from a couple hundred to a few thousand bucks.
E-commerce on the Cheap
It is a common misconception that so as to conduct business over the Internet you have to have a pricey merchant account which will permit your customers to pay you by credit card. This was previously the scenario, but today there are a number of services available that make e-commerce a very affordable choice. These services come in the form of third party credit card processors.
A third party credit card processor functions as an intermediary between the customer and your website. In general, a customer will click on a link to buy a product and be brought to the third party’s website to process the credit card information in a secure environment. The payment for the purchase is deposited in your account, and the order information is forwarded to you. The only cost to the e-commerce retailer is usually a small fixed charge and / or a small percentage of the sale.
Even though using a third party credit card processor can be inexpensive, it does have its drawbacks. The shopping cart system may not easily incorporate with your web site because it’s not easily customizable. Furthermore, it looks a little much less professional when the buyer should leave your website in order to enter their credit card information. However, when weighing these disadvantages with the costs linked with building a professional e-commerce website, they truly don’t appear to be a big deal.
Really Taking the Plunge
Opening a fully functional online store with the ability to process credit cards on-site could be a pretty expensive production. Here is a list of elements that all need to be integrated: a shopping cart system, secure web server, payment gateway, and a merchant account.
You will find several shopping cart systems which are available for free, and many web hosts offer the ability to integrate a shopping cart system into your website. But, if you would prefer your system to be completely featured, easy to use, easily integrated with your website, and consist of advanced functions such as automatically calculating tax and shipping charges, the cost could run some hundred bucks.
The most costly and difficult part of the process is obtaining a merchant account to process credit card numbers. These accounts generally have monthly and transaction fees linked with them. Luckily, most businesses already have merchant accounts, and these could be used to process credit cards over the Internet as well.
In addition to the extra expenses linked with processing transactions right on your website, there’s also a significant difference in the cost. Your webmaster will charge to setup the various solutions. Using a third party to process transactions usually just entails inserting several lines of code into the website which should not cost very much.
As with any project, it is probably best to start small prior to shelling out large bucks for a professional e-commerce solution. And do not forget, even after you’ve spent thousands of dollars obtaining your e-commerce web site launched, you’re most likely going to have to spend thousands more marketing your website so as to recover your investment. E-commerce isn’t inexpensive!
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