E-commerce has become a buzz
word over the last few years and many have seen the potential of doing
business over the internet. There are a number of ways of
establishing E-commerce:
-
A custom
developed solution using third party payment gateway software offers
the most flexibility, with customisations to support non-simple
product lines and services.
-
A hosted
shop-front provides the quickest route to selling your products
on-line but limits flexibility and becomes costly for large product
ranges. See
RedStore for a sample...(online)
-
A
cataloguing software, such as ShopFactory, provides the best of both
worlds and can be managed on your local PC.
ShopFactory is an Australian
developed e-commerce package that allows you to easily create your shop
from templates (or let us create one for you), then manage it through a
simple interface on your PC. When you've added your products click
the 'upload' button and you're finished. Payments are handled
through a secure payment gateway hosted by ShopFactory creators or you can
choose from a number of on line payment gateways.
ShopFactory can also connect
to OLE databases to provide an automated import of your products and can
be used simply as a catalogue rather than full e-commerce solution.
Visual Automation sells and supports ShopFactory e-commerce software.
Business-to-Business (B2B)
e-commerce covers any form of online interaction between yourselves and
your customers e.g. electronic product display or online ordering
facilities. The real power of B2B web development comes to bear when
you provide an 'end-to-end' solution for your customers allowing
them to communicate or order from you more easily. This type of
solution not only reduces your cost per sale but gives you the edge over
your competitors.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
e-commerce has had a chequered history to date. No doubt you have
heard of many of these ventures closing down or losing money. The
real problem being a lack of understanding of how to serve customers over
the net. It is important for any venture of this kind to clearly
develop a business model and marketing plan and to map out processes for
dealing with customers remotely. Consider developing a privacy
policy, a returns policy, fraud procedures and a grievance procedure
before embarking.
It's not all bad news though,
B2C has been successful where businesses use web-based ordering systems in
conjunction with other more traditional sales methods and have a clear
understanding that a remote customer requires as much (if not more)
attention than one in your shop.
|
