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eCommerce: Installing and Configuring your Shopping Cart
You decided you're going to sell your products online. Or
perhaps you don't want to sell them yet, only display your
catalog. So how do you go ahead and implement your virtual shop?
The answer is short: you need to install a shopping cart in your
website. But let's go step by step and expand this simple answer
to a brief explanation of the process. It will be better to know
all the players involved in bringing your store up to life.
There are many shopping cart solutions out there, you need to
find the one that meets your needs. You will find open source
solutions and paid ones. They will have different types of
customer support and some of them may be ready to install in
your hosting account. You need to find the right solution for
you, if you're not an experienced user get one with good
customer support or even hire a professional to help you in the
process of setting it up.
First: you need a domain name for your store, and need to host
it at a hosting company. If you already have the domain, you may
skip this step. If you don't, you need to register the domain
and then place it, host it, at a web server. You need to choose
a hosting company which offers what you need. You will most
probably need a database for your store and programming language
support. Which language depends on the requirements to install
the shopping cart of your choice. Some examples of programming
languages are ASP, Php, Perl.
Second: if you plan to sell products, you need a payment
processor, a company to process the payments you receive online,
in real time. You can use a third party solution like PayPal,
where you do not need to open a merchant account. Or you may
choose a payment
processor company to accept credit cards
online, where you also open your merchant account. Examples of
these are Authorize.Net, WorldPay and SECPay. All companies
charge different fees for their services, it is important to go
over their fee structure and find the right solution for you.
Most shopping carts come with payment processing integration
modules so you can seamlessly connect your cart to the payment
processor of your choice. If your processor is not included, you
should consider requesting the integration development, if
possible, or opt for a different payment processor.
Third: you need to install the shopping cart script in your
domain, and configure it using the Administrator interface. This
is a private, password protected area of your site that you use
for all the store maintenance and admin tasks. You need to:
- choose the layout and looks of your site. - establish your
products categories or groups, so they are organized - load your
products - set your payment processor information - configure
shipping options - configure taxes
This is only a short list including the more essential tasks.
There may be more aspects involved in your particular
implementation, depending on your particular needs and on the
shopping cart you chose to install. If you think all this is
rather confusing, you should consider getting professional help
to get your store working.
About the author:
Veronica Bendersky is a Systems Engineer who specializes in web
programming and online systems. She also offers web hosting at
http://www.ayreshost.com, where you can get help in setting
up your online store.
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