Organizing your on line Store:

Inventory & Shipping:

Your first job is to consider where the stock for the estore is coming from, where it will be stored and how you will ship it. If you are going to use the same inventory as the ‘bricks and mortar’ location, then you will have to consider an inventory control system that works on the web site as well as on your internal computer system. You probably will have to share a database or upload balances to the web site frequently, so that you do not agree to sell product that you do not have available. Then there is the shipping issue. Most of the courier companies, as well as the USPS have web sites that will tell your web site, when queried, what the shipping charges to the customers address will be, You can then have your web sales order processor simply add on the shipping charges to the invoice being prepared for the customer.

Shopping Cart:

Your site will need a shopping cart. Without it, you cannot process any sales. What is a web site shopping Cart? The Shopping Cart is a group of programs that enables visitors to your site to process a purchase of the products that they select. The Shopping Cart software must identify each visitor to your site, and give each one a unique Id (probably a Cart Number) so that what John Doe selects will not get mixed up with what Richard Roe is trying to buy.It tracks the quantity and price for each item and maintains a running total. It then allows the visitor to cancel the cart, or to checkout and complete the order. It then must interface with your shipping module so that shipping charges can be calculated, and added to the bill. It then must provide a way for the visitor to pay for his order with a credit card. It must confirm the sale to the customer via an email, and store the data in a database so that you can print a sales report and picking slips, so that you can complete shipment and do your invoice. You have many options with respect to your shopping cart. You can buy one that can be integrated into your site. You developer may already have one that is ready to go. You can also license the use of a cart. The main thing is that the cart that you select handles you inventory items properly. If you have long descriptions for your products, paragraphs of information, you need to know that the cart will accommodate these descriptions. Product options must be appropriate for your items. For example, lets say you sell sports clothing, and that the Ben Hogan Golf Shirt is one item number in your inventory, but that it comes in many different sizes and colors. The cart must accommodate all of these options. Selecting the right Shopping Cart is a key decision point in setting up your store.

Receiving Payment:

Almost all web sites accept payment by credit card only. This is the case because it is the most convenient way to get paid by a customer that you cannot see, and whose identity is unknown to you. There are many, many companies (they are called payment gateways) who can arrange for your site to accept credit cards. Certainly discuss it with your bank first. If you need more help your web site developer will be able to sort this out for you. Further, you will have to determine a returns policy for sales from the web and state that policy very clearly on the site. Promoting The Site: So now you have a web site that is ready to sell merchandise, but nobody the world except you and your developer is aware of its existence. In order to succeed, you have to get traffic to your store, just as you have to get it for your ‘bricks and mortar’ location. Because average conversions rates run from 1% to 5% of visitors, you will need a substantial number of visitors to the site every day for the site to be a success. How do you go about making this happen? I am writing a separate article on Web Site Promotion. But lets cover the basic points here anyway. The most basic way of developing traffic to your site is by developing in-bound links. That is, other sites have a link to your site. This sounds simple, but it is a laborious process to implement. Some sites will want reciprocal links, some will want you to pay. But if you are able to build a large number of in-bound links, they will generate traffic for your site. Have your site optimized for search engines (SEO or Search Engine Optimization), and submit your site to the major search engines. Then there is pay per click. You can set up a pay per click plan with Yahoo or Google, and a host of other facilitators. Basically, you must use one or all three of these methods to develop traffic to your site. Then you are in business.