E Store

Online Store

An online storefront is a web site that enables visitors to find, order and pay for products and services. Running a successful store involves getting qualified buyers to visit your store, helping them to understand their problem (and the pain or desire that it is causing them), giving evidence you can solve their problem (credibility), and making it easy for them to acquire the solution from you (steps they use to gain ownership of the item).

Online storefronts typically include storefronts, shopping carts, payment processing, and order fulfillment systems. There are many store hosting options that can influence the effectiveness of a user experience and web analytics can be used to determine which mix of web pages, content choices, and product offers are most effective.

The online storefront provides various types of information to the visitor such as company description, product types, product description pages, store policies, and contact information. A shopping cart allows customers to select and temporarily store products that they want to purchase.

Payment processing is a system that allows the user to select which payment method they want to use, gather payment information (e.g. credit card number), and processes or records the payment information. Fulfillment is the process of picking or obtaining the items the customer has ordered, shipping the item(s), and maintaining delivery tracking information.

This figure shows that an online storefront usually contains a combination of storefront, shopping cart, payment processing, and fulfillment functions. The storefront is the display that the user sees which contains company description, store policies and product information. The shopping cart is a process that allows the user to select and temporarily store items that they want to purchase. Payment processing is the capability to gather payment information (e.g. credit card information) and receive payment for the order. Fulfillment is the tracking of the delivery of items the customer has purchased.

5 Reasons Why Ecommerce Is So Important For Your Business

Can Broaden Your Brand

Ecommerce is an ideal way you can take your brand from a traditional brick and mortar store to an innovative, well loved brand. By offering great products 24 hours a day along with online customer service, blogs and social media, no longer is your business one singular store, with an online presence your business can be the home of your products and the general home of your business, allowing you to fully expand your product ranges without having to worry about moving locations or worrying about not being able to expand your business.   

It’s More Convenient
Increase Your Reach
Gives You Marketing Opportunities
Scalable

Retail e-commerce sales worldwide from 2014 to 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Related Online Stores Terms

  • Store Navigation
  • Store Hosting
  • Online Catalog
  • Product Page Layout
  • E-Commerce Host
  • Online Mall
  • Shopping Cart
  • Payment Processing
  • Transaction Cost
  • Fraud Detection
  • Online Coupons
  • Product Fulfillment
  • Online Store Interfaces
  • Database Connectivity
  • Inventory Management
  • Fraud Management
  • Online Auctions

Your 10 Point Checklist to Starting an Ecommerce Business

Start With Your Business Name

The first thing to do (after you decide what you want to sell, of course) is choose a fabulous, memorable business name that no one else is using. You can conduct a corporate name search to make sure it’s not already in use. Once you’ve chosen the name, register it. (If you form an LLC or corporation, this will happen automatically in the state where you file your paperwork.)

Secure Your Domain Name and Website
Select The Best Business Structure and Register Your Business
Get Your Employer Identification Number
Apply for Business Licenses and Permits
Find the Right Vendors
Start Marketing Early
Get More Productive with the Right Software
Stock Your Inventory
Make Sure Your Business Stays Compliant

9 Tips to Make Your Ecommerce Business Wildly Successful

1

Don’t rush the launch.

One of the biggest mistakes unsuccessful ecommerce entrepreneurs make is forcing or rushing the launch of a website. You only get one shot at launching your website and you can’t mess this up. While it’s okay to purchase your domain name and throw up some sort of “Coming Soon” page, you should avoid the big reveal until you’ve laid some substantial ground work (SEO, content marketing, social media, paid advertising, etc.).
2

Put the focus on the user.

It’s no secret that the biggest shortcoming of ecommerce businesses is the inability to let their customers touch, feel, smell, and see (firsthand) products before making a decision. While there’s currently no solution for solving this problem, you can compensate for this deficiency in other areas of the business. Some of the best tips include offering appropriate pricing, giving free shipping and making the checkout process easy with simplified shopping carts.
3

Test absolutely everything.

Before, during and after you launch any ecommerce business, you should invest in testing and analytics. Think like the customer and figure out what’s working, what’s not, and the why behind those answers. Here’s a look at some of the best A/B testing tools.
4

Incorporate social elements.

Any ecommerce entrepreneur that tells you he outsources social media or delegates it to other team members is crazy. Social media is the heartbeat of your business, as it gives you an uninterrupted glance into the lives of your customers. While it’s perfectly fine to have a social-media manager, it’s pertinent that you’re involved with it, too.
5

Work closely with social.

Going along with the previous tip, it’s a great idea to include social elements on your ecommerce sites. Things like product reviews and testimonials follow buttons and even social login options all help the conversion funnel.
6

Go mobile.

Bill Siwicki of Internet Retailer references Goldman Sachs, saying, “Tablets will play an increasingly important role as worldwide consumer spending via mobile jumps from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018...” If you aren’t building ecommerce businesses with mobile in mind, you may be irrelevant in three to five years.
6

Go mobile.

Bill Siwicki of Internet Retailer references Goldman Sachs, saying, “Tablets will play an increasingly important role as worldwide consumer spending via mobile jumps from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018...” If you aren’t building ecommerce businesses with mobile in mind, you may be irrelevant in three to five years.
7

Stay on top of SEO.

As the ecommerce economy experiences rapid growth, more and more businesses will be entering this increasingly crowded space. That means it will be more important than ever to stay on top of SEO in order to stand out from the competition. Connecting with a skilled SEO will help you stay competitive in the long run.
8

Collect information.

Unless you plan on launching a single site and stepping away (most entrepreneurs are tempted to keep trying), it’s critical that you collect customer information and build databases to aid future launches.
9

Continue evolving.

Finally, never stop evolving. Technology, trends and customer tastes will change, and so must you if you want to succeed in such a variable market.

10 Most Popular eCommerce Platforms to build your Online Store

1Shopify

This tops the list of one of the popular eCommerce platforms because of its easy setup, faster loading speed and secure payment gateways in addition to customisable templates for all your landing pages. With respect to SEO,

Shopify also enables custom Meta tags, auto-generated XML sitemap with superior customer support to assist store owners with chat, email or phone.

2Magento
3Zen Cart
4PrestaShop
5WooCommerce
6OpenCart

One of the top choices for online stores, OpenCart is simple, perfectly designed and has an unlimited range of products and categories, product ratings and product review sections including multiple currencies and language feature and also advantage from logging error.

7Symphony Commerce
8BigCommerce
9Drupal Commerce
10osCommerce

How Much Does an eCommerce Website Cost

How much does an eCommerce website cost to build and host?  You probably guessed there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. In fact, the costs could range from $5 thousand to more than $5 million, depending on the platform and requirements. Also consider you should continue to invest money to improve the function and experience of your online store when the initial development is completed (And don’t forget marketing spend, of course.). Waiting until everything is outdated and then tackling it all at once isn’t a successful or proactive eCommerce strategy.

So the range of costs could be anywhere from about $5,000.00 to millions of dollars, but let’s just use $350,000.00 as a theoretical first phase upper limit. Our firm generally recommends breaking work down into manageable chunks no matter what the scope is, and $350k is a manageable chunk even if the full project is much larger.

To narrow the costs down a bit based on your needs, read through the key areas that influence cost below and then check out the cost summary tables at the bottom of this article.

eCommerce Web Design

Many platforms, and especially SaaS offerings, have design galleries, themes, or templates you can apply to your site yourself. While these may not be a perfect fit for your business or dramatically set you apart from other businesses who may use the same designs, these templates are a quick and cheap option. Expect to spend from $0 to $250 to purchase a theme and another $1,000 to $2,000 making minor changes and customizations (more than just a logo change, but not a custom design either).

When you get into custom design, the sky is the limit on possible expenses. Similarly, a custom theme may cost $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the specifics, requirements, and depth of the process.
Source

A Breakdown of Ecommerce Website Pricing

Image

What is a Payment Gateway?

Payment Gateway is an eCommerce application that processes payments on a website, or an App or over any other digital channel through credit card or debit card or online bank account.

Payment Gateway service automates the payment transaction between the shopper (buyer) and merchant (seller). It is a third-party service that is a system of computer processes (that process, verify, and accept or decline credit card transactions) on behalf of the merchant through secure Internet connections.

The payment gateway infrastructure allows a merchant (seller) to accept credit, debit card and another form of electronic payments.

Several independent service providers provide Payment Gateway services. It facilitates the transfer of information between a payment portal (such as a website, mobile phone or interactive voice response service) and the Front End Processor or a bank.

6 Tips to Choose a Payment Gateway

1Payment Methods Preferences

The customer’s payment methods preference is important for your company. If you simply subscribe a payment gateway without knowing the possibility people will use it, it will be useless. For instance, if you are targeting a location where people are comfortable to pay with Credit Cards only, then giving them other options could be redundant. It could even become worse if your online store has all other payment methods except credit card. You may end up losing your sales. So, please do some research to find out your customer preferences.

However, in other parts of the world,  there are still a lot of cash payers that need to be catered. For example, in Southeast Asia alone, a high number of people still want to pay with cash. 

2Fees
3Recurring Billing
4Company Background Check
5Business Nature
6Mobile Payments
PayPal

One of the most well-known payment apps, PayPal has been processing payments online since 1999—and was built by such notable figures as Tesla co-founder Elon Musk and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Even today, it's one of the easiest ways to accept payments.

Customers can connect their bank accounts or credit cards to PayPal to pay for products, or can store money in PayPal to use directly with PayPal acting as an online bank of sorts. It's the only way to accept payments inside eBay, and its payment button is one your customers will recognize at first glance.

As an account-based tool, though, all money you receive will be stored in your PayPal account. You can then use it to buy products from other PayPal vendors, use a PayPal debit card to access the funds, or can transfer the funds to a bank account. It's an extra step that makes PayPal feel a bit more like having an extra bank account.

PayPal Pricing: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction for sales inside the US; 3.9% plus fixed fee for each currency for international transactions. Transfers to non-US bank accounts may incur transfer and exchange fees as well.

Amazon Payments
Square
Stripe
Dwolla
Braintree
Authorize.net
Payline
Adyen
Shopify
Advering Digital Marketing