How to Setup an E-Commerce Website

First and foremost, an E-Commerce website is a website that sells products or services to consumers and/or businesses. If you want to sell books from the internet, for example, you would purchase a web hosting plan with E-Commerce functionalities enabled so it would become an E-Commerce website.

So, how does an E-Commerce website work?
• A customer accesses your E-Commerce website
• He or she chooses one or more products that you display on your website. The images for these products, the categories these products are assigned to, and the pricing for each products are all managed by you using your E-Commerce enabled website.
• He or she will then purchase these products from your website. Your E-Commerce enabled website will provide the functionalities to accept the purchase requests, assist in validating your customer.s credit card or other forms of payment, allow your customers to accept or change their order, and notify you when the customer completes their order request.
• The shipping of the product is left up to you to manage.
• So, basically, an E-Commerce website is a store on the internet with the ability for you to manage your products and the order process.

What do I need to get in order to get my E-Commerce website up and running?
• Purchase a web hosting plan with E-Commerce software from a web hosting provider. TierHost offers a variety of different plans to suit your needs. Click Here for more details.
• Purchase a domain name so your customers can access your website using a domain name such as http://www.mystore.com. For you convenience, you can also register for your Domain Name here.
• Make sure the E-Commerce software is enabled on your website. You may need to contact your web hosting provider's technical support for assistance.
• Access your E-Commerce website and add product images/pricing and assign them to categories
• Purchase an SSL certificate so your E-Commerce website will accept secure transactions. When your customer accesses your website starting with .http://. , the data transmitted between your customer and your website are not secure and can be .intercepted. by unknown users that roam the internet. Therefore, SSL certificates are strongly encouraged for E-Commerce enabled websites so .https://. can be used in order to securely accept credit cards or other personal and confidential information. In order to accept secure transactions, a certificate from an authorized certificate provider must be purchased on an annual subscription basis. This certificate would be installed on your website. Once installed, your users would be able to access your website using .https://. and all transmissions would be encrypted.
• If you choose, you can make changes to your website to make it look the way you like it.
• Now that you have an E-Commerce website and have added your products, there is one step left. You need to setup your E-Commerce website to accept orders and payment from your customers.
• Like a store or a mall on the street that accepts credit cards, you have to contact and apply with a merchant service provider in order to process credit card payments. They will most likely charge you a monthly fee for account maintenance and report generation (ex. $10 per month), a fee for every credit card transaction made (ex. usually .25 per transaction. Sometimes, the merchant service provider will give you xx transactions for free per month), a discount rate which is a percentage of each transaction (ex. 1.59%), and a monthly minimum (which is the total discount rate charged to you per month) which they will charge you per month if your monthly minimum was not met (ex. $25 per month)
• When applying with a Merchant Service Provider, be sure they offer a payment gateway as well (which is another separate fee). In a store or mall, businesses have a terminal for their customers so the credit card can be swiped during payment. On the internet, customers enter their credit card on your website in order to make payment. Once the credit card information is entered, the information is sent to the payment gateway to validate credit card. Once credit card is validated, the payment gateway will settle/capture payment by transmitting request to the merchant who will deposit the payment to your bank account.

There you have it. It will take a while to get this going. But once you understand the way it works, have it all set up the way you want it, and start seeing money flowing in, you.ll know that your E-Commerce website is worth the effort!