[Kunle. O]

What type of team does it take to create a site that sellls items, ships it, and pays the owner.

I am new to e-commerce, and I would like to know how many people are responsible for making a transaction (Shipping and payment).

I am really looking forward to hearing your reponses

If you can help, please send me an e-mail at Kunleoyesola@yahoo.com

I am looking forward to hearing your responses.

Thank You

[grassmunk]

Short answer: It Depends.

Long answer.
In canada an online transaction can look like this (using moneris):
1- Buyer selects product, adds it to their cart and checksout
2- Buyer is taken to a secure site ot finish transaction
3- Buyer types in CC# and billing info
4- Server takes CC info and double checks it for errors then sends it off to a third party (moneris).
5- Moneris process' the CC and charges the ammount your server sent to them and then sends you back a confirmation that the card + transaction went ok
6- Moneris sends the money to your account
7- You send the item in question to Buyer

There are many more way to do this. Some sites offer a checkout system, all you do is provide a link to the site with some fields in the url and the site takes care of collecting CC info etc.

Another way i to use PayPal. You drastically reduce the people who can buy from you but it takes a few seconds to add to your site if you have a paypal account.

[Kunle. O]

Thanks for your help. I have written down those procedures, and I will share them with my partner. Do you know of a really professional and strong company that provides e-commerce solutions such as (hosting, domain registration, and shopping cart). I was researching some potential companies, and I came across a company called storefront.net. They seem like they might be a good fit.

I would really like more input on this subject from the other members of this forum.

Thanks

Kunle Oyesola

[jpomerenke]

Try www.handzon.com I think they will be perfect for you and they are very cheap.

[magellan2020]

Hello Kunle,


Your question is a very good one.
A simple primer on e-commerce can be found here:

http://ecommerce.about.com/od/faqstutorials/
(.. and stay away from the 'ecommerce offers' section -- it's advertising)

I have established a number of successful e-commerce ventures and now overseeing the production phase of establishing a trade portal in Africa.

You can find many cheap hosting firms who offer "free shopping carts" .. but do some comparison shopping before you commit. Also, bear in mind that saving $5/mo in hosting is only $60/yr. Cheapest is not always the best; so don't pinch pennies on the 'engine' of your ecommerce venture.

After establishing your hosting/shopping cart, you may need to establish a merchant account, depending on your industry, business model and, of course, available capital. When you come to this point, you will need to ask yourself:

1) How much sales/transaction volume will you generate monthly
2) Will it be worth paying merchant account fees (monthly), along with variable transaction fees? OR should we wait until we generate a certain level of revenue before establishing a merchant account? Should we use PayPal .. or Yahoo!
3) Which merchant account provider should I use with my hosting/shopping cart provider .. in the beginning? ... when revenue reaches (fill in the blank)?

Feel free to ask questions.
*** By the way, this is a great site! My first post. Thanks! ***


Best of luck with your ongoing endeavors Kunle.