How to Build an Ecommerce Web Site

By Joshua Duvauchelle

  • Overview

    An electronic commerce (eCommerce) website can help extend your business' reach and create a significant, new revenue stream for your company. eCommerce websites have significantly changed the marketing and business world by allowing businesses to sell products and services to customers anywhere in the world without having a physical presence. In this way, eCommerce websites may help increase profits while reducing the connected expenses. It is important to know how to build a successful eCommerce website. There are many pitfalls to selling goods and services on the Internet, especially for new businesses who have never attempted to do so.

    • Step 1

      Purchase a website domain name (e.g. yourname.com) and a website hosting service. Popular hosting and domain service providers include companies such as GoDaddy, Yahoo!, and 1and1. To begin, purchase a basic plan. You can upgrade your service and bandwidth allowance as your online business grows.

    • Step 2

      Determine whether you want to manage the transaction side of eCommerce yourself, or whether you want a third-party to manage sales for you. Managing transactions on your own gives you more control over the business and the prices you charge consumers. On the other hand, hiring a third-party business to handle your transactions lets you focus on marketing and customer service without having to worry about the software and transaction side of things. Both have extra costs and savings. The former requires you to purchase your own transaction software but lets you keep the entire profit made on sales. The latter saves you money and time on handling transactions, but the third party will take a cut of all of your profits.

    • Step 3

      Purchase eCommerce management software if you determined that you want to manage transactions on your own. Skip to the next step if you want a third-party to manage your sales. If you want to manage sales on your own, you will need software running on your website that will handle the database and technical side of things (e.g. online shopping carts, calculating shipping, etc.) Popular eCommerce software includes LiteCommerce, StoreBox, and A-Shop.

    • Step 4

      Register an account with a third-party sales management company. Skip to the next step if you are managing sales on your own. If you are using a third-party, choose a company that allows you to embed their software into your website. Companies that allow you to sell products through their system include Amazon.com and eBay.com. Both will handle the eCommerce side of things, such as calculating sales, taxes, and shipping. When a consumer purchases a product through their server, they'll notify you and you simply ship the product to the consumer and collect the money.

    • Step 5

      Setup a new bank account to handle all of your business transactions. This will keep your finances organized and save you time when tax season arrives. You can either use an online bank (such as HSBC Direct) or a local bank, as long as it allows for direct deposits.

    • Step 6

      Upload your product information (e.g. digital photos, descriptions and prices) to either your eCommerce software (from Step 3) or the third party sales management company (from Step 4.) If the latter, include links (or embed the third-party's sales pages) on your main website.

    • Step 7

      Promote your website by putting it on your business cards, advertising online and offline, and telling friends.
    • Skill: Moderately Challenging
    • Tip: Unless you are proficient with technology, save time and have a third party manage your sales rather than installing eCommerce software on your site.
    • Warning:
    • If using a third party, be sure to check the fees they charge to manage your sales. Some companies (such as Amazon) have a threshold in which fees are lowered the higher your volume of sales.

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