Web based shopping cart
systems come in all shapes and sizes. There are custom built
enterprise wide systems, which we do, and there are
inexpensive solutions available through your Web host as well.
There are many variations of shopping carts but for this
article we will focus on the basics.
Having a shopping cart on your Web site will allow you to sell
services or products. Your shopping cart needs to present the
services or goods to buyers in a convenient and familiar way.
People are now totally comfortable with the concept of using
an online shopping cart, and a good shopping cart will make
the buying process easy for them.
Presenting your products - Remember, you are
selling the sizzle, so your products must be presented with
sharp, up to date photography. If your manufacturer does not
provide product photos, you will have to take them. This is
something that we can help you with. Services can also be sold
online in a cart, just as goods are marketed. Of course they
also need descriptions and representations of what they are.
Shipping - People like choices because they
are either in a hurry or want to save money. You should offer
a fast way of shipment and an inexpensive way, plus one or two
options in the middle.
Collecting funds - Some companies are adamant
about real time processing where the customer enters his or
her credit card number and then the money is immediately
transferred to the merchant account. Other companies don't
like this method because they prefer to do all of their
transactions - both online and offline - through one daily
batch at the end of the sales day.
Payment Gateway - In order to accept
credit cards online (or offline), you will need a merchant
account. |
|
Usually, you can open an
account with your local bank. In addition, you will need an
online merchant account and a payment gateway (which is a
software connector) so monies from your store may be
authorized in real time and deposited in your bank account
immediately.
Once you have the capability
to have people check out and accept money automatically, you
are ready to "load" your online cart with your products or
services.
Loading your new shopping cart
Batch upload of your product "catalog" - If
you have more than a few hundred items to place in your online
store, it could take you weeks to do the data entry manually
into the shopping cart admin interface. A better alternative
is doing a "batch upload" which usually involves uploading an
Excel or .csv product list. After the batch upload is
complete, you can add to it, and of course add the product
images.
Uploading product images - One of the most
persuasive things you can have in your online store are the
product photos. You should have larger "detail" product photos
of say 200 x 300 pixels and thumbnail photos which are a
smaller dimension.
A lot of time can be spent optimizing the photos so good
quality pre-sized photos will save on time and costs.
Extending your online store software - As
companies become more sophisticated about selling online,
dcart software functions may interface with product
inventory databases, shipping management utilities, marketing
recommendation engines plus a host of other systems that are
crucial to doing business online.
|