Advice on Ecommerce business

[rassic]

Dear all,

Please can I have the assistance of any person(s)who are presently running an ecommerce website.

Looking to ask numerous questions on all aspects of ecommerce.

Security
Hosting
Online payment processors
Website
Delivery
Advertising

Many thanks in advance
Rassic

[kyber]

I think that your request is a little too broad and you need to focus on what it is you are hoping to achieve business wise before anyone can give you sensible answers.

1. What is your customer proposition?
2. Anticipated volumes (and growth pattern)?
3. Size of transactions?
4. In house capability with technology?
5. Competive positioning?
6. Marketing strategy?
7. USPs?

Security depends on the nature of your business and the in house capability; what sort of information you will handle; will you be going back to customers; etc.

Hosting is done by a-thousand-and-one companies. Who you choose depends on how much you are prepared to pay for capability, bandwidth, support, physical protection, network positioning, etc.

Online payment processors vary widely. Do you have merchant status? Fee vary depending on transaction volumes, sizes and risk amongst other things.

Website options are equally wide. Again, what is the proposition, who are your customers, what will they need, etc.

Delivery depends on the nature of the product and service. Volumes, fragility, weight/volume, tracking requirements.

Advertising is a very very broad topic and again depends very much on your proposition and the market.

There is a huge amount of information on all of these topics available on the web especially from some of the business networks mentioned on here and from the Federation of Small Businesses. Some hard research with the help of Google to find the right sources (and your own judgement as to how much to trust each source) is called for I think.

Stuart

[Ozzy]

Hi Rassic,
Stuart really has hit the nail on the head, it really does depend on what you are planning to do.
Help us so we can help you ;)