Electronic commerce or e-commerce is the idea of doing business electronically over the Internet.  No longer bound by time or geography, e-commerce provides store owners with ever-present access to their customers. This notably expands a store owner's opportunity to satisfy demand for products, services, and information of each customer. 

Hyperlink Host servers support a wide range of Shopping Carts and Payment Gateways to ensure that you can launch your website into the Age of Electronic Commerce and give your business the competitive advantage it needs.

Here are some steps to setting up an E-Commerce site:  

Products: You will need to determine the products you wish to sell online. In addition you need to know what options you wish to provide with your products ex. Shirts that come in different color options (White, Gray etc.)

Pricing: You need to determine what prices you will be charging and if you are going to accept payments in multiple currencies (US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euro etc.)

Languages: You need to determine if you will be creating your site in other languages. This depends on whether your market is primarily English speaking or if you need to have your site in other languages such as Japanese etc.

Shipping: Shipping and related shipping costs need to be determined, eg. FedEx Shipping Options, UPS Shipping Options etc. You also need to determine whether Shipping costs will be determined based on whether your clients are shipping to regions of a country or to various parts of the world.

Merchant Account: A Merchant Account is an industry term meaning a banking relationship which allows a business to accept credit cards. Existing businesses that already have an established Merchant Account with the Bank need to make sure that the same Merchant Account is acceptable for Internet Transactions. It is also important to find out the gateways over which the bank conducts its transactions. Smaller businesses that have not yet established the banking relationships necessary to accept credit cards should do so.

      Please click here for further information on obtaining a merchant account.

Payment Gateways: Payment Gateways process the cards in real-time. The most popular gateways are: 

     CyberCash   ·        AuthorizeNet   ·        GoRealTime   ·        Signio   ·        Linkpoint  

    Please click here for further information on Credit Card Processing.

Shopping Cart: The shopping cart that you select must meet all of your requirements. In addition it must be scalable so that as you grow and adjust your marketing you are able to offer different options to your clients. It may happen (though rarely) that your e-commerce requirements are unique and that existing commercial shopping carts may not meet your needs. In such cases a shopping cart can be designed to meet your needs. However most commercially available shopping carts are feature rich, scalable and can be varied to meet individual needs. Selection of the right shopping cart makes the difference between a good working e-commerce site and a frustrating one. 

    Please click here for further information on obtaining a Shopping Cart.

Secure Server: All forms that accept credit cards must use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt credit card information. If you are using a payment gateway generally the gateway will provide the SSL certificates. At other instances, Hyperlink Host provides you the option of using a shared certificate or ordering and installing your own certificate for your company.

Setup your site and start marketing: Once your e-commerce site is in place, the important task of marketing your products begins. In this area Hyperlink Host offers some cutting-edge solutions. A website no longer has to be a static, user defined experience. Why wait for your potential clients to visit your site and then try to contact you. Its time for your website to reach out and grab potential clients.

  Please click here for further information on our E-Commerce Plan.

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