Ecommerce newbie needs help!

[EggDesign]

Hi guys

Im meeting a potential client about a fairly big ecommerce site selling clothes online. He says he may want me to maintain & update the site and get a percentage of sales etc. I said Id meet him next week but to be honest Ive never done an ecommerce site before.

Is there alot to learn & what would the best option be for me in terms of software? I looked into magento & managed to install it locally with no problems. How does the whole payment thing work though? There would obviously be security issues etc.

I dont fully understand how these sites are run i.e. the whole process from when the client enters his credit card details to when he recieves the product. It all seems a bit overwhelming!

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[mneylon]

At a basic level:

shop system (oscommerce and many others available)
payment processing (Paypal, Cheques, EFT and Credit Cards)
security

Shopping cart systems - they vary in functionality and may or may not have the options you want / need

Payment processing - it will depend on what is being sold and to where, but for something like clothes I suspect people want fast processing of their orders so CC processing would be the obvious thing. Your client would need a merchant account + Realex (gateway) to handle it

Shipping costs would need to be factored in as well

And those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head ...

 

[Wild Thing]

Take my advice and do not take a percentage of sales or you will work for nothing, e-commerce is a hard game especially clothing as anyone can go to the high street and try b4 buying. E-commerce is a learning curve like everything else, adopt one cart software system and get to know it intimately before unleasing it to a client.

 

[StuartC]

Wild Things advice is the best your gonna get. Ecommerce systems are tough to get your head around initially.

 

[link8r]

Be honest with your client and disclose that you have no experience. You wouldn't take driving lessons from someone who has never driven before and this is the same. The following issues need serious consideration:

• Database Security
• Page Injection Attacks
• File Security
• Scalability (it its a multi-national site, will you need to run across multiple domains?)
• Platform - should you use ASP.net or PHP?
• Backups and live support
• E-Commerce security - are you going to store credit card details? do you need to?
• Fraud - how will you help your client combat fraud, which can be a very serious problem for Irish Web Masters
• How will you handle usability?

In terms of online marketing - this is an online business. Your client should talk to someone who has achieved some level of success through online trading. You can't guess your way into a successful online company - it has many complexities which an off-line doesn't - you have to bring people to the site.

You'll find that newsletters, PPC, SEO, Referrals, Viral Marketing, Social Media are all great tools but are not automatic tools.

 

[Pixelcraft]

H
and get a percentage of sales etc.

Is this your only method of payment for the work? If so, run, run as fast as you can.

 

[EggDesign]

Ok now Im worried!

Thanks for the very informative replies lads. Ill probably need to wait to hear what exactly he needs first. Im ready to give it a shot anyway and learn as I go. I can explain that its going to take a while.

He mentioned the percentage of sales but Im going to charge on an hourly basis also for any maintenance etc. and obviously charge well for building the site.

Blacknight you mentioned a clothes shop needing merchant account + Realex but would something like paypal pro (where you stay on the clients website & Paypal does all the cc processing in the background) be an option?

Also guys, what about Cubecart?

cheers

 

[mneylon]

Blacknight you mentioned a clothes shop needing merchant account + Realex but would something like paypal pro (where you stay on the clients website & Paypal does all the cc processing in the background) be an option?

Paypal can't handle Laser payments

 

[EggDesign]

Dang. Any similiar option that does?

 

[mneylon]

Dang. Any similiar option that does?

Not that I can think of

 

[EggDesign]

Fair enough, I think most people use credit card online anyway as opposed to laser but obviously having both would be an advantage. thanks for the help.

 

[mneylon]

Fair enough, I think most people use credit card online anyway as opposed to laser but obviously having both would be an advantage. thanks for the help.

According to the statistics that Realex were giving the other day the opposite is true ie. people use Laser more than credit card

 

[EggDesign]

It just gets better! Ill have to talk to the client then and give him the options.

 

[raul]

If you're concerned about security ( and you should be, of course ) you can use this : go&pay

But then you loose on other aspects so...

 

[davedave]

Fair enough, I think most people use credit card online anyway as opposed to laser but obviously having both would be an advantage. thanks for the help.

If your target customer base is Irish then you could be losing a large percentage (30%+) of this customer base by not supporting Laser. I would recommend you go down the Merchant Account and Payment Processor route as suggested by blacknight but also offer PayPal as an alternative payment method. I am assuming you can get an Internet Merchant Account if not then you have a few options but PayPal due to their reputation and brand is probably the best option.

If you're concerned about security ( and you should be, of course ) you can use this : go&pay

Thanks for pointing this out, I have heard of allpay.net but did not realise their service was available in Ireland.

Dave

 

[EggDesign]

Thanks guys. Ill check that out.

Edit: had a look. Good idea and its an option ill run by him but it may not suit alot of people who want to just order online & wait for the delivery man! Could use it as an alternative to laser combined with paypal though. Cheers.

 

[John Clarke]

Dang. Any similiar option that does?

Hi,

for the pro's & con's of the various approaches, check out the webpayments dot ie web site (I'm not allowed post URL's!).

PayPal (even withour Laser support) can be used to get up & running, but to maximise the opportunity (i.e. minimise the number of cart abandonments at the payment stage) you will need to get a Merchant Account from one of the Acquirers (Elavon or AIBMS).

Regards
John

 

[EggDesign]

Thanks john.

Just back from meeting the client. Hes happy to use paypal and hes going to have 50-60 products only on the site. This simplifies things a bit.

What are my best options then in terms of shopping carts that are easy to custom design etc? I was looking at zencart & cubecart, any experience?

Ill check out that site anyway.

 

[John Clarke]

Thanks john.

Just back from meeting the client. Hes happy to use paypal and hes going to have 50-60 products only on the site. This simplifies things a bit.

What are my best options then in terms of shopping carts that are easy to custom design etc? I was looking at zencart & cubecart, any experience?

Ill check out that site anyway.

Hi there,

I'm on the payments side of the business, have not used many shopping carts directly. The most buzz is currently around Magento, as the most powerful & flexible solution, but I've heard it has quite a steep learning curve, and may not be appropriate for you at this stage.

I'm sure there are others who can give you a better steer on the pro's & con's of zencart & cubecart.

 

[EggDesign]

sound, thanks for the link anyway John.