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ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS…THE CALL OF THE TIME
There really is no doubting the impact of Information Technology on our lives. And a significant example of this is the application of ecommerce in business. Conducting business transactions has been changed to a great extent. Just what are...
Getting Started in ECommerce - Part Two
In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that, much more. To have a really good online presence that gets people to stop and shop you need a strategy...
Hosting Options for an Ecommerce Web Site
Deciding how your ecommerce Web site will be hosted can be daunting. There are several approaches available, each with different advantages and disadvantages. Online Storefront If you have a small business, you may want to consider a storefront...
Merchant services add ecommerce functionality to any business
According to paymentonline.com, this includes credit cards
processing systems with a Merchant Account to receive payment
from the customers. Merchant Accounts are an important element
in any ecommerce venture. Merchant services provide...
What's Toll Free Numbers Got To Do With Ecommerce?
What's Toll Free Numbers Got To Do With Ecommerce?
Sometimes skimping on things can save you good money. But
skimping is not always the wisest business strategy. For
example, I could've written this article in the windows program
notepad as...
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Small Business Ecommerce Web Design
If your small business is venturing into ecommerce, you may be
daunted by the technical wizardry you think is involved. But
fear not: complete web store software packages will keep all the
technical wizardry safely behind the screen, so you don't have
to worry about it. All you have to do is choose a design, stock
your store, and promote it. Here's how to do that.
Designing Your Online Store: Choosing a Template
When starting a brand-new online store for a small business,
you're better off choosing a pre-existing design template rather
than having a design done from scratch.
* Templates. If you're not quite sure what kind of design you'd
like, you can browse through the design templates included with
most hosted online store programs.
* Themes. Some online store builders take the design template
concept one step further, with "themes." Themes are essentially
templates that include not only basic design elements but also
text styles such as font faces and sizes. Themes also allow for
slightly different pages across a website with a single unified
design, without having to configure each page individually. For
instance, a web store theme might include a product description
page, a product category page, an "add to cart" page, and a
checkout page. Just by choosing a single theme, you have all the
pages in the shopping cart designed with a single, unified
professional design, just like big, successful web stores.
* Theme builder. If you want to make changes to a theme-say a
different font or a different color-some web store software
packages make it easy with a "theme builder." With the theme
builder, you can select values for features such as color and
font. You can even choose to build a theme from scratch, though
for most web stores this will be a case of re-inventing the
wheel unnecessarily. You don't need to know anything about HTML;
the interface is much like a word processing program.
* Professional design. Once you've created your store using
templates or a theme builder, you can turn to a professional
designer to make your site really special. Still, you may want
to stick with the basic template or theme-builder site until you
have a firm idea of how users are interacting with it and what
elements are working. That way you'll have concrete requests to
make of the designer.
Building Your Online Store: Inventory
The foundation of any online store is the products or services
being sold. With most web store and shopping cart software
packages, the functions for adding, removing, and pricing items
are collectively called "inventory."
Even if you're selling intangibles such as downloadable
software, you will use the inventory functions to specify how
the items will
be sold. There are options for setting the
available quantity in stock to unlimited, or handling just about
any kind of permutation of selling products or services online.
Web store software makers have seen it all.
One of the great things about using a hosted web store software
package is that if you do have trouble setting something up, you
can get help quickly from customer service.
Adding New Web Pages to an Online Store
If you want to add new pages to your online store, the store
creator software can help. If all you want is to add a new
product, you only have to use the "add a product" feature, which
is often listed under "inventory." However, if you want to add
pages for sales copy, manuals, privacy policies, terms and
conditions, the store creator interface is the way to do it.
Most online store creators have a way of adding pages to a web
store without having to use HTML; you simply type in your text
in the form and upload any images.
Getting Your Store Found in Search Engines
In order for your online store to generate the most business
possible, you'll want to make sure that your store is easily
searchable for Internet shoppers. Unfortunately, some web stores
create pages using a dynamic script that search engines cannot
index.
Often you can tell if a web store cannot be indexed by search
engines by looking at the URL of an inside web page (the
homepage, also called the index page or "front page," will
usually be search-engine-index-able no matter what). If the URL
is a long string of characters that is slightly different from
one user to the next (say, when you open the page on your
computer and someone else opens the page on another machine),
that likely means the site is using "session IDs" which search
engines have a notoriously difficult time interpreting. If the
URL is something simpler, such as
"domain.com/category-5/product-6.php", the page is much more
likely to be search-engine friendly.
The best way to check whether a web store or shopping cart
software produces "search-engine-friendly" pages is to check the
documentation; software that's search-engine-friendly will
usually say so.
Of course, as with any website, doing well in search engines
still requires your site to have links pointing to it and some
text on the pages. Just because search engines can index a page
doesn't mean they'll return it for any searches.
About the author:
Joel Walsh is a web business owner and writer. For a hosted web
store software package, check out this: online store builder: http://www.easystorecreator.com
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| E-Commerce Times: Because E-Business Means Business |
| Everything you need to know about doing business on the Internet. Information for C-Level executives and small-to-mid-sized business managers. |
| www.ecommercetimes.com |
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| ECommerce-Guide to News, Reviews and Technology Solutions |
| ECommerce-Guide provides ecommerce business owners with e-commerce news, hardware and software reviews and tutorials, technology solutions and information ... |
| www.ecommerce-guide.com |
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| Electronic commerce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| en.wikipedia.org |
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| E-Commerce News for IT Managers |
| Daily e-commerce news for managers of business covering marketing, transaction processing, security, retailing and service delivered over the Web. |
| www.internetnews.com |
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| New Zealand Government E-Commerce |
| Resource containing information on electronic commerce, including law, trade, tax, privacy, consumer protection, and help for businesses. |
| www.ecommerce.govt.nz |
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| eCommerce Guidebook for web hosting |
| The eCommerce Guidebook provides many resources, including a directory of online transaction providers, a tutorial, and many other resources. |
| www.online-commerce.com |
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| ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
| Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
| www.clickz.com |
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| Shopping cart software integrated into Frontpage, Dreamweaver, CSS and Golive ecommerce software templates. |
| www.ecommercetemplates.com |
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| E-Commerce & the Internet |
| Information from the FTC on E-commerce and the Internet. Includes anti-fraud tips. |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| Economy & Work: eBusiness | Europa - Information Society |
| The e-business concept goes well beyond e-commerce (buying and selling ... A pilot study on E-commerce and the Internet in European businesses (2002) was ... |
| ec.europa.eu |
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| Online Business |
| If your e-commerce site currently accepts online payments, and is really, really, ... They are looking for entries from ugly e-commerce sites to win a new ... |
| onlinebusiness.about.com |
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| eCommerce Info Center- ONE-STOP for eCommerce info, services ... |
| eCommerce Info Center, created and maintained by Slim Baltagi, will make it easier and faster for you to find out relevant eCommerce information, ... |
| www.ecominfocenter.com |
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| eCommerce Innovation Centre |
| Practical resources for small business involved in or considering eCommerce implemetations. Expert Advice and Assistance. |
| www.ecommerce.ac.uk |
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| Web Marketing Today -- E-Commerce, E-Mail, Internet Marketing, and ... |
| Articles, tips and advice on e-commerce and effective Internet marketing strategies. |
| www.wilsonweb.com |
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| Web Marketing Today Research Room for E-Commerce |
| The largest collection of annotated links to web marketing and ecommerce articles and resources to be found at any single place on the planet. |
| www.wilsonweb.com |
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| The 2005 E-commerce Awards - Welcome |
| The UK national E-commerce awards organised by the DTI and Interforum. |
| www.ecommerce-awards.co.uk |
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| Mal's e-commerce |
| Mal's e-commerce ... Customize the look and feel of your store; No scripts or applications to install; Build as large an e-commerce site as you want ... |
| www.mals-e.com |
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| Howstuffworks "How E-commerce Works" |
| E-commerce has exploded in the last 10 years. Find out how e-commerce works and how you can harness the potential of e-commerce, from affiliate programs to ... |
| www.howstuffworks.com |
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| Ecommerce Guide - Terms You Need to Know to Do Business on the ... |
| An online computer dictionary and internet search engine for internet terms and techincal support. |
| e-comm.webopedia.com |
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| Shopping Cart Software Ecommerce Solutions |
| Ecommerce solutions by Volusion will take your business to new heights. Volusion offers the best prices in the industry for a complete ecommerce web ... |
| www.volusion.com |
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