Whether you are selling services
or products, raising funds, accepting donations,
or taking tips, e-commerce is the most
immediate way to benefit from your website.
Several things have to happen before
a transaction can occur between you and your
visitor. He or she must be able to send you
credit card information securely, after which
you must verify the funds, fulfill the order,
and process the payment. Part or all of this
process can be performed online
RP AXIS can provide solutions at any
level, from secure transmission of
credit card information via fax or Paypal, to
online processing using your merchant account,
to finding you a merchant account. We can create
the shopping cart if you need it, for a small
number of products or for a very large catalog.
A Little background:
It's no secret that E-commerce has gone through
a tremendous boom and bust. Many business models
drew an enormous amount of investment, yet failed
in the implementation. Still, there are successes.
More importantly, Websites for companies and
organizations that aren't purely devoted to
e-commerce add an important revenue stream by
adding e-commerce, as well as satisfying the
expectations of many of your site visitors.
While a full-blown e-commerce site that exists
entirely to sell on-line is looking at costs
around $100,000 per year, adding e-commerce
to your site doesn't have to be expensive at
all.
Some on-line template-based site builders offer
e-commerce capability for less than $100 per
month. If you are satisfied with an off-the-shelf
one-size-fits-all solution, this could be for
you.
If your product is entirely electronic, or
you are soliciting contributions or membership
fees, there are solutions that can be put in
place for less than $100 per month. These solutions
are flexible and can be easily customized to
fit into a professional, custom-built site.
If you are offering a catalog on-line, you
will need a merchant account, shopping cart,
and catalog. These are typically custom-built
into a site, using database-programming languages,
such as PHP, ASP, ASP.net & Cold Fusion.
The costs for custom database programming begin
in the $1,000 to $3,000 range, but for larger
sites, you can expect to pay anywhere from $5-$15,000,
depending on the complexity of the programming.
You will also have to consider the costs of
a merchant account.
