Ecommerce

Ecommerce is a way of doing business online that allows you to sell your goods and/or services through your website. There are several open source ecommerce solutions, including several content managment systems with ecommerce modules that can be utilized to create an online store for a very affordable price. These include zen cart, WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.

With ecommerce, security is one of the number one priorities and concerns.  Utilizing a payment gateway like <a href=”http://www.1shoppingcart.com/”>1ShoppingCart</a>, <a href=”http://checkout.google.com/seller/developers.html”>Google Checkout</a> or <a href=”http://paypal.com/”>Paypal</a> can save you the hassle of dealing with having to encrypt and store personal financial information on your website. (Trust me, you don’t want to go there and neither do I).  These payment gateways offer you peace of mind for a reasonable fee.

In addition to these options, you may also want to consider affiliate programs.  These programs allow you to sign up to sell products through your website for a commission, while the ordering, payment and delivery are all handled by the affiliate company and not by you.  This is an easy way to sell products without having to turn your living room into a shipping department and your bedroom into a storage area. However, the profit margin is usually much less and therefore requires many more sales to create a positive cash flow.

For the service industry, an ecommerce solution would allow you to sell your services directly through your site, or to sell gift certificates for your services.

If you’re interested in setting up an online store, please contact me or call (520) 300-0973 so we can discuss if Magic in the Desert is the right company to help you implement your ecommerce solution.