Did
you know that over $31 billion dollars were spent in
retail e-commerce sales in the 4th Quarter of 2008? Did you also know
that despite our struggling economy, the internet is continually
showing an increase in online sales. People are turning to
the internet to save money and save time!
If you're relying solely on your brick and mortar store - we hope you're at this site to find out how you can get online and expand to the global market of the web. Even if you don't want to sell your products online, we can help you set up an online catalog so that visitors can see what you have to offer 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
We've got the information you need to make the right decision for your ecommerce site and a great solution on a budget....
10 Things For a Properly Set Up eCommerce
Site
Important Questions to Ask Yourself BEFORE Contacting
a Web Designer
Merchant Accounts & Payment Gateways
On a Budget, Out-of-the-box Solutions
Custom Programmed Shopping Cart / Catalog & Built
from the Ground Up
10 things
needed for a properly set up e-Commerce Site
• A great Web Designer (you’ve already
found one!)
• Reliable Web Host
• Shopping cart software
• Merchant Account and Payment Gateway
• Shipping Account(s) with USPS, Fed Ex, or UPS
• Products in excel spreadsheet and organized by category
• Photos of each product, organized by category
• Bookkeeping Software (we recommend Quickbooks)
• Search Engine Optimized Site
• Patience
Important
questions to
ask yourself before contacting a web designer:
• What are you selling?
• Who is your target audience?
• Do you have an existing brick & mortar store?
• How do you plan on keeping track of your inventory?
• Do you have photos of your items?
• Do you have a list of all your items with product numbers in
an excel sheet?
• How do you want your customers to interact with your site?
• What options are you offering for shipping
• Most importantly – what is your budget?
• How many items do you have? (each size and color of a t-shirt
is one item)
did you know that if you have 3 shirts in 4 sizes
& 2 colors – you actually have 24 items NOT 3?
Payment
Gateways & Merchant Accounts
This is how you’re going to be able to process
payments on your web site and allow customers to purchase using their
credit or debit cards. We recommend: iTransact,
Authorize.net,
or QuickBooks merchant services for the most streamlined, low cost,
trusted and easy to use services.
Can you use Paypal or GoogleCheckout?
Yes, you can start with one of theses IF you have less than 5 items,
don't really plan on expanding or you're not sure of your sales volume
and don't want to pay any monthly fees. There are payment limits, but
they are also trusted worldwide.
E-Commerce
Web Site Options
We have scoured the internet, tried numerous shopping cart systems
and have narrowed the field down to 2 basic options to offer for your
eCommerce enabled web site.
If you are selling more than a couple of items and plan on expanding, these are the options you will need to consider. Due to the complexity in nature of eCommerce web sites, these are the best prices we are able to offer at this time. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
I AM ON A LOW
BUDGET, NEED A SOLUTION THAT WORKS!
starting at
$2899
This
solution is a great out-of-the box solution that allows for a lot of
customization and expansion as your business grows. The design has to
fit within certain parameters of the software, however, we have found
this solution to be quite flexible, even in terms of design and will
meet most clients needs.
Includes the following:
• Free demo
• User friendly cart for both you and your visitor
• Set up attributes such as size & color
• Unlimited amount of items
• Visitor Stats including who’s online in real-time, abandoned
carts & more
• Product Wishlist
• Shopper product reviews
• Import / Export capability
• Order history for your shoppers
• Pan & Zoom product image preview
• Link up with a powerful internet marketing company
• Control your own Search Engine Optimization
• Add / Edit / Delete products
• Shipping options (FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL & others)
• Integrates with payment systems (Google, Paypal, iTransact -
recommended)
• Reporting tools
• Email newsletters to your clients with the newsletter tool
• 10 GB of storage space
• Enter first 50 items of the catalog for you
• Flash header
• 10 content pages (you may add more yourself later) – not
including product pages
• Custom design by our partner team
ADD-ON Options:
• original idea + 2 revisions (layout is limited to software parameters)
• send layout to our partner team for integration into cart software
• assist with developing keywords
• industry competition research
• how to write your text content
• install & setup of Google Analytics
• assist with link connections
• assist with Social networking to drive traffic
• assist with Pay-per-click advertising, if necessary
• submit your site to all the major search engines
• assist with developing keywords
• industry competition research
• how to write your text content
• install & setup of Google Analytics
• assist with link connections
• assist with Social networking to drive traffic
• assist with Pay-per-click advertising, if necessary
• submit your site to all the major search engines
• Includes technical support, live chat, hosting, email & more
I NEED SOMETHING
BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP
CALL FOR QUOTE
This
solution is for those customers whose site just won’t fit into
the out of the box solution mentioned above and requires highly customized
programming and / or design. Usually after meeting with our clients
and showing a free demo of the software above, we find that this solution
is either too costly for their budgets OR that the above solution will
work just fine. However, there are those projects that need extra special
attention or functionality that an out-of-the-box solution just can't
accomplish.
Includes the following:
• For stores that are highly specialized
• Design built from scratch
• Catalog built from scratch – NOT based on any already
existing software
• Partner with Gothic Software to develop site
• Built to specific requirements
• Requires an in-depth initial consultation with all parties before
providing quote
• Quote may take 1-2 weeks to develop to assemble and / or research
all aspects
• Includes technical support, hosting, email, plenty of bandwidth
Please feel free to contact us with questions, to set up an initial consultation or to see a free demo of our cart software. Whatever your needs, we can find a package to suit.