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So you’ve decided to set up an e-commerce site?

I’ve run a few e-commerce sites of my own, and years ago used to help others to do so. When the Internet started, we charged clients $25,000 minimum to build a site, which was cheap at that time. The back end of the system would be sparse and clunky, but get the job done.

Nowadays, starting an e-commerce site is very easy. If you have a product, you can get up and running in no time. Many software companies offer template e-commerce web sites for very little money usually charged on a monthly basis with no contract required. You can even get a free trial from many of them.

Don’t underestimate the power of these sites. They can handle hundreds of transactions per day and millions in sales with no trouble, I’ve done it. No need to get too fancy unless you are already making millions in profit, in which case you may want something more custom.

The back end features offered are extremely powerful and allow the seller to manage many key functions including:

• tax
• shipping
• customer relationship management
• email marketing
• inventory management
• SEO
• affiliate programs
• coupons
• gift certificates
• automated email response
• customer invoicing
• and more

These features are all easy to use with self service tools that are already set up when you start. You can choose from template designs or have a custom design done by you or by the software provider for an extra fee.

There are also sites that offer template graphic design for very little money like www.templatemonster.com.

Template e-commerce sites can start from as little as $10 per month but allow you to only list a few items. Higher end systems without limit can go up to $150 per month depending on who you go with.

SOME are listed below,

• www.volusion.com
• www.3dcart.com
• http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/ (Yahoo web store)
• http://www.amazonservices.com/content/webstore-by-amazon.htm?id=hm1 (Amazon web store)

But if you can search the web for many others:

• e-commerce web site
• e-commerce hosting
• e-commerce software
• e-commerce store

Once you select your e-commerce site you will need a merchant account to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express. Most banks will have an arm that offers this or go to the web and search “merchant accounts”. You will end up paying a higher rate then a face to face business because of the fraud risk factor of online transactions, but should have no trouble.

Once you get this done, you simply plug in a simple number they give you into the back end of your e-commerce store and you are ready to conduct transactions.

If you want to speed up the process you can sign up for Paypal or Amazon Payments. Both offer easy integration into the site with very little set up barrier. These services are not as elegant and can cost more, so if you can, set up an e-commerce merchant account.

It will take some knowledge of computers and you will have to invest the time into understanding how to load products, manage sales and use the system to execute orders etc. , but it can’t get much easier then it is today.

So should you start an e-commerce site? That’s a future article

The e-commerce environment is, in many respects, simply a new geography for the market economy and for this new market economy to take root firmly it has to overcome the same institutional obstacles as the offline economy Key among these is trust.

• Secure check out
• Phone number
• Address
• Written policies including a friendly return policy
• Trust seals