We Can provide a variety of e-commerce solutions for your site
Shopping Cart Systems
If you decide to sell over the Internet you will need an e-commerce enabled site. Your online store will be based on an interactive database. Customers will be able to look through the goods on offer and place an order. Most sites then use a shopping cartsystem and payment facilities online using secure payment facilities. These systems
vary greatly in complexity and cost.
We can provide an open source online store system such as Cubecart, OSCommerce, Zen Cart or VirtueMart at cost for the installation work (£30-60). The payment facilities will need to be supplied through a third party payment supplier such as WorldPay or Pay Pal or Nochex. These are easy to set up.
If you want to take credit cards or debit card payments online you will need an SSL, which you can purchase via your hosting provider. This needs to be renewed annually.
You can buy more sophisticated software for your shop that will allow more features.
See Clickcartpro http://www.clickcartpro.co.uk/ at £189.99 (incl VAT) or ShopFactory http://www.shopfactory.com/index1.html at £189.00 ex VAT.
Top range sophisticated systems such as Actinic Catalog http://www.actinic.co.uk/products/catalog.htm (£399 ex VAT). We will install any of these for you at extra cost (about £60)
Open Source Solutions
(1) Cubecart provides a low cost easily maintained online store.
See a demo store: this is cubecart as first installed with no products or store logo yet loaded. Psychicshop is a working cubecart store built by us. The owner has since added a lot of stock to sell online.
(2) Zen Cart is a more complex ecommerce solution. This has more options, but will take longer to install and customise. Live demo available on request
(3) OSCommerce is similar to Zen Cart with a large variety of options. See this live store built by us. Modern Canvas Art and since modified by the owner
(4)VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla! VirtueMart is quite sophisticated and integrates with a number of payment systems. See this developing shop soon to start selling Tropical Waters Online Shop
Online payment service
You will need to organise for payments to be made online. Online payment services are the simplest solution.
Two easily set up and inexpensive options are PayPal and Nochex.
Payment gateways
Here the customer can pay you online using their credit/debit card. The payment details are processed by a payment service provider. These companies provide a secure link between your site and the bank so that the customer's details are properly protected.
For this sort of account you need an Internet merchant account with your bank and a account with a payment processor company such as Protx , SECpay or Worldpay
SSL Secure Sockets Layer
If you want to accept payments online without a payment processor company you would still need an Internet merchant account and will need to purchase an SSL on a yearly basis.
(SSL) Certificates enable secure e-commerce and communications. Secure Sockets Layer technology secures your Web site by encrypting information and providing authentication.
You can purchase these from your hosting company direct or direct from the supplier. Prices vary greatly depending on the services provided and the level of encryption involved.
see VeriSign , Cybertrust and Geotrust