Build Yourself a Cost-Efficient Online Shop

By Rachelle Benson

When it comes to setting up your online shop, you have three areas to consider:

• Visual look and feel
   
• The shopping cart
   
• Order processing and payment collection

If you want people to feel comfortable enough to spend some time and browse through your online wares, and confident enough to make a purchase, your online shop needs to present an appropriate face to the outside world. It needs to reflect your company image and allow people to easily find their way around.

You will need to decide whether you will design the shop yourself or avail of the services of a professional web designer. While hiring a professional may seem the more expensive option at the outset, it could save you money both literally and in terms of the time it takes to get the project off the ground.

If you, or a member of your staff are web-savvy, have a flair for design and possess a clear vision of how the site should look and function, then by all means, tackle the project yourself. Website development packages like Microsoft FrontPage will make this job all the easier.

If on the other hand, you're a newcomer to the web and have a vision for an eCommerce venture but aren't sure where to start, you may well find that an experienced designer can offer welcome guidance.

Microsoft FrontPage is a website publishing and management programme that puts the tools to create professional marketing and eCommerce web sites and intranets in your hands.

FrontPage not only gives you the tools to build your site, but lets you seamlessly manage your site and the team involved in developing and maintaining it.

Your shopping cart is your inventory and product management tool. The shopping cart's function is two-fold. From your own administrative viewpoint, it offers you an environment in which to arrange and manage your stock. Whereas from your site visitor's point of view, it acts as their trolley, into which they load their purchases before they proceed to checkout.

Now when it comes to building and implementing your online shop, you have a number of options available to you:

• An off the shelf template-driven package
   
• An integrated solution
   
• A virtual store

An off the shelf package like Actinic, Cart 32, osCommerce or Shopfitter offers you a template-driven environment in which to build your eCommerce site.

These programmes can either be used to tack an eCommerce component onto an existing website, or can be used to construct an online shop from scratch. These packages offer an integrated shopping cart, and varying degrees of customisability to enable you to adapt the templates to your company look and feel using a programme like Microsoft FrontPage.

With this solution you will still need to arrange a merchant account and a means by which to process transactions.

If this sounds like too much trouble, you may wish to consider an integrated approach. WorldPay offers a Start Up package specifically tailored to small business. The package offers a convenient solution to quickly getting your site off the ground, providing you with software to build your online store, a merchant account and transaction processing facility under one roof.

Another option is to subscribe to a virtual store like Free Merchant or DX Storm. These 'stores' are web-based systems where everything is configured through your browser.

Such online systems are a good starting point if your eCommerce requirements are fairly basic. They will generally offer a facility to collect payment and process your orders for a percentage fee or flat rate. However they aren't particularly customisable both in terms of visual design and functionality.

The most beautifully designed site and seamless transaction process will come to nothing if the order fulfilment side of your business isn't up to scratch. In years gone by this has often been the doom of a promising online venture