Ecommerce & Shopping Carts are key factors in revenue generation
Shopping Cart & Ecommerce Explained
Put simply, a shopping cart or "ecommerce" is generally referring to the software that runs on your web server that enables people to purchase and pay online for your products and or services. Shopping cart software ranges greatly from open source systems such as Wordpress' latest release called "WP e-Commerce" which enable high degrees of customisation, off the shelf products that include Amblique, Interspire etc all the way through to highly custom systems that are tailored to your requirements. The shopping cart acts as the engine room for your ecommerce site and holds all images, product descriptions along with the price of items. Shopping carts need to interface with a 'payment gateway' in order for you to receive money from credit card purchases directly into your nominated bank account.
Payment Gateway
A payment gateway allows credit card information to be collected and passed over the Internet securely. A payment gateway can be thought of as a digital equivalent to a credit card processing terminal. It provides a central point of contact with the banking network and your Merchant Account. You will need to have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) License which can be easily purchased from a range of trustworthy providers.
Merchant Account
If you're doing business online and you need to process credit card payments, then you will need a Merchant Account. Australian banks provide this service. Speak to your bank manager to set up your Merchant Account. This needs to be done 3-4 weeks prior to the launch of your shopping cart as it will not work if you have no merchant account. Some people opt to use services like PayPal to handle their transactions as a replacement of a Merchant Account with a banking institution in Australia however the down side here is that most do not want to open a PayPal account just to purchase a $5.00 product. They prefer to use their credit card.
Shifted Pixels has deployed over 50 successful ecommerce websites. We know what the critical success factors are that make or break a shopping cart. The customer experience is one of the greatest issues that needs to be properly optimised so that all online payments and orders places are satisfied and delivered on time, well packaged (where applicable) and with proper and professional branding. This is a very important aspect that most online retailers fail to apportion properly time and budget to fine tuning.
Technology Neutral
Shifted Pixels will recommend the best ecommerce solution for you based on your exact requirements and type of online business. We have no vested interests in promoting one system/solution of the next. It is often overwhelming when looking at all the technical options available in ecommerce and we partner with our clients to ensure that they are 100% confident that the solutions and products we recommend meet both their requirements, their budget and most importantly are able to scale for growth.
Online Marketing
Once you deploy a shopping cart, you cannot expect that traffic will flock to your site and purchase. You need to properly market yourself and ensure that all of your marketing is centred around establishing credibility, trustworthiness and is product sale oriented. Shifted Pixels are online marketing and digital strategy experts in areas of commercialisation. Call us to discuss which online marketing strategies will work best for your business.
