subject: Magento Shopping Cart Development Brings-in Various Options For New Website Owners [print this page] If you have made up your mind about setting up an online e-commerce site to sell your creations, while at home and make some fast buck by the side, while keeping your day job. Don't be surprised if you find out the amount of work it involves, a bit daunting. It may be taxing to set up an onlinee-commerce shopping cartat first, but the heavy learning curve that comes with it, is worth it.
It involves three steps. One has to first create a good product, which can be of some use to others, and then create a website to sell it on. And finally find out a way to collect the money from the sale of the product.
One should keep these questions in mind while setting up a site:
What options for payment do you want to integrate with your e-commerce website?
You have to decide what kind of e-commerce solution,you want for your site and how do you get it?
Would you prefer a 'PayPal' or an 'online merchant account' for business transactions? Would you like the buyer to pay by cash, credit/ debit card or by Cheque? Would you put in Visa or Master-Card or both as the preferred payment option for card holders?
What kind of features and button do you want for your website? How do you want them to look?
How can you ensure that the customer can have a safe, secure and easy check-out option, without being defrauded online, and their personal and financial details pillaged by Hackers?
How can you be notified about an order and make sure the money gets into your account before delivery?
For a secure transaction and checkout, one needs a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) and a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate installed on the server and on the domain name.
An online merchant or PayPal account is necessary to accept payments. The payment gateways, like Authorize.net, Verisign Payflow Pro, Verisign Payflow Link, LinkPoint API, LinkPoint Connect, Plug n Pay, etc, connects your e-commerce site to your merchant account, and process orders and charge the credit and debit cards buyers pay with.
Then you need to set themselves up withproviders of Magento ecommerce development in India, which allow you to customize and edit the product details and image of the product on the e-commerce shopping cart and the look and function of the checkout process.
Why choose PayPal?
New online portal owners can start with PayPal, which is the best and easiest payment option to start with, which is bit expensive, and move on and register for an merchant account, gateway and SSL after that.
PayPal is easiest to set up as it doesn't need any verifications/approvals or any monthly fees. You open an account and start selling from day one.
One have the complete freedom to control and customize buy now buttons and set a custom thank you page for a customer who buys your product.
One doesn't even need a SSL certificate, as you are using a PayPal secure gateway.
You can transfer the money earned to your bank account with a click of a button.
But one should know that even though PayPal doesn't charge any monthly fees, it does charge a high fee, every time your product makes a sale. It has limited customization options for starter packages, but the pro-package have it all.
Why get your own e-commerce shopping cart?
For the long run, it's advisable to get yourself registered for a merchant account and get a shopping cart. A shopping cart charges lower fee per-sale from the merchant. You can have complete control over the entire buy and sell process. It's a good option to sell expensive and highly priced online products and services, and the good thing is that everyone uses it.
But, one has to fulfill many formalities, and you have to go through a verification, before an approval is granted, which may take about a week to process. One has to continue with the account for at least one to three years and comes with a hefty fee for early termination. Monthly fees can be as much as $ 30-50.
Conclusion
New entrants should always test the market before they commit to a merchant account and going through all the steps. For selling a product online for some extra income involves some long hours and some hard work, but once you get started, it's very easy to maintain. There are quite a few professional providers of Magento development in India, so your online store can be developed and hosted with ease.
