What is Ecommerce?
E-Commerce allows you to sell your goods on the internet. First you get website hosting with a domain name. Then you build a website with a shopping cart to take payments through a Paypal or a Merchant account for your goods or services. You then ship the goods, or provide the service to your customer.
How do I get a shopping Cart?
If you get a hosting provider who has Fantastico included in their hosting packages you can easily install and use OSCommerce as your shopping cart. It’s an easy to use shopping cart for beginners and easy to install with a few clicks. And with Fantastico there is no need to upload files or install the database. You should remember to write down the admin username and password that you use when you install the cart as your hosting provider will not be able to retrieve this later for you if you lose it.
Credit Cards or Paypal?
If you want to take Paypal you can go to Paypal.com and setup an account there and add this to your E-commerce store settings. If you would like to process credit cards then you would get an SSL, static IP address and Merchant account. For new stores it may be cheaper to try Paypal for 6 months and as your sales increase switch over to a Merchant account. You can get a Merchant account for just about any type of content but Paypal is more convenient for most users starting an E-Commerce business.
How do I get an SSL?
An SSL (secure socket layer) encrypts the data and pages being used to process orders on your site. In order to use an SSL you need a static IP address from your hosting Provider. To use an SSL for your store located at 123.com in the folder store you would use https://www.123.com/store. For all your other pages, that don’t need security, you would just use http://www.123.com/. Only use the https when you need data encrypted. Data encryption can slow down your pages. When you order the SSL the provider will ask you to specify whether you want the www.domainname.com or just domainname.com so be sure to order the right one, because your links have to reflect which SSL you purchased.
Which SSL is right for me?
Self Signed SSL
A Self Signed SSL is a free SSL that your hosting company can generate for you. This is not as secure and some customers may not want to process orders on your site using this as anyone can generate one. This will have a pop-up warning your customer that it is self signed and does not provide a lock in the browser.
Starter SSL
You pay an anual fee for a starter SSL and it comes in many forms depending on the vendor. Your hosting provider can usually provide you one for a lower cost since they buy them in bulk. An example of such an SSL is a GeoTrust QuickSSL. This SSL does not produce a pop-up to the consumer and has a lock in the browser bar. Most consumers are use to seeing this type of SSL.
There are other SSLs that provide higher encryption and also fraud protection and security. Geotrust.com provides the most SSL’s to websites today.
