E-commerce: Answer These First

It pays to plan for e-commerce BEFORE you jump into it.

E-commerce websites are never cheap; they are costly to build and need time and commitment before you actually get results. It’s not just getting a bunch of your products online and sitting back, waiting for the orders to come rolling in.

It’s never THAT easy.

But do people want to hear that? Nope. They want to hear the ka-ching’s and see cash deposited into their bank accounts. They just don’t want to know the real work which goes on behind the e-commerce website.

The real work comes before you engage anyone/any firm to design your e-commerce website.

It comes from your answers to important questions – questions which you should answer if you want to grow a successful e-commerce.

If you’re seriously thinking of launching your e-commerce website soon, here are some questions you should answer first. These questions are an excerpt from a whole (long) list of questions we ask our clients during the exploration stage.

What Every Good Ecommerce Provider Should Be Doing

When we meet you, we first investigate what you want to sell. We don’t just set up an e-commerce store for you. That’s not how we work. We work by advising you what can be done. Other providers just set up the store for you and that’s it.

What you want to sell, who you want to sell to, and how you want to sell all determine the type of e-commerce solutions most suitable for you.

Some want to sell physical products, others prefer to sell downloads/digital products like e-books. Different systems cater to different needs.

So here are some questions to get you thinking if you intend to set up an e-commerce site. Think about your answers deeply too. It’ll save you a lot of pain, money and heartache if you start with the basics – superb planning!

• What type of sale will you be conducting at your site?

• Would you be selling to direct end users or selling to resellers or both?

• How many products do you plan to sell on your site?

• What categories will you use?

• Which payment gateway will you use? Some examples: Paypal, 2CheckOut, Ikobo, Worldpay, etc.

• What shipping options will you offer? For example, ground, 2nd day, or overnight shipping.

• What carrier will you use? For example, Pos Malaysia, DHL, Fedex, Kangaroo Express, Nationwide, UPS, or other?

• What shipping calculation method will you use?

• What are your shipping areas or zones?

• What ongoing promotions will you have on your site?

• What about restrictions? Are you aware of restrictions with regard to sending your products overseas? Think about GST or applicable taxes. Many off-the-shelf e-commerce systems need to be customised to handle GST especially if you’re in Malaysia.

Related e-commerce posts:

Do your photos entice?
Payment options for your online store
What you can do to improve the buying process
Own your online store now – here’s how

Redbox Studio offers 2 types of e-commerce systems to help you get started. One is a self-managed system that you or your team handles (backed by our full tech support) called Redbox Easyweb Pro. The other is a fully customised e-commerce website where we handle all updates and management of the e-commerce for you.

If you’d like a quick way to start your own online store, use Redbox Easyweb Pro. Our affordable all-in-one system at RM999 per year lets you start selling online easily with our one-click e-commerce feature. You can even integrate a third party e-commerce shopping cart such as ecwid into Redbox Easyweb Pro.