Know More About Creating Online Store Design and Development

Let's say you make the world's greatest widget. Revenues have been decent by exploiting word of mouth and other traditional ways to sell. But then someone asks you: “Hey, I'd love to have one, can I get it online?” – And you freeze. Now you're thinking of the wider audience you could reach if only you had an online store. E-commerce has been around for more than a decade and its here to stay but it may not make sense for every business. Is it right for yours? Online store design is a different animal altogether from any other sort of website development, so take a little time to educate yourself before you take the plunge. 1. What do you sell? Who is your market? It's all so easy to try to market to the universe; after all, your site will be available to anyone with an internet connection! However, the smart way to go is to tailor your site and any marketing efforts to your target audience, just the same as you would for any other sales drive. If you have a dog biscuit bakery, you want to catch the attention of dog owners, because they'll be the ones most likely to buy your products.2. Who will host your site? If you're working with an e-commerce web development firm they will be able to steer you in the best direction as far as hosting. Some hosts offer more bells and whistles than you need, so you'll be paying extra money needlessly. And some don't offer enough bells and whistles, forcing you to purchase additional bandwidth, for example. Those hidden costs are something you don't need. Consider price – but be sure you're comparing apples to apples.3. How will you accept payment? You can use a processor, like PayPal, or a gateway, like Authorize.net. Each has its own way of collecting data and its own method of charging businesses to use its service. Your Tennessee web design firm may have recommendations here, as well. Payment processors can be easier to use, but they may take your customers away from your site, to a third-party processing site and that may confuse your customers. You don't want that. Payment gateways require more technical knowledge to set up because your site will need to offer secure transactions, but it often appears more professional to users.4. What shopping cart has the features you want? Shopping cart software comes with a wide variety of options. First and foremost, make sure it is supported by your payment processor. After that, make sure it does what you want it to do, from generating sales tax to tracking complex registrations or shipping options.5. Make sure you're secure! Your customers need to know they're protected from fraud and theft. You do this with an SSL certificate. Studies have shown that online consumers will abandon a cart if they're not certain the site offers secure transactions. An SSL certificate will provide vital encryption for login information, credit card numbers and other personal information. There are hundreds of options for creating your e-commerce site. The more informed you are before you start, the smoother your e-commerce design and development process will be.