The internet gives you the opportunity to do business with millions of people all around the world, 24 hours a day. To do business online you'll need an e-commerce website that lets customers buy what your business has to offer. Here’s an overview of the basics...
A good e-commerce website can boost your business in many ways – not least by simply giving your customers well-organised, up-to-date, searchable information which makes it easy for them to find and buy what they want.
Your website can:
- take payment in a variety of ways (such as credit or debit cards, PayPal, telephone)
- tell customers what’s in stock and what’s sold out
- give information on expected delivery times and how products will be sent
- email order confirmations to customers
- help them track their orders online
- give contact details for enquiries
- make your policies on cancellations, returns and refunds clear.
Setting up an e-commerce site
Most small businesses don’t want to devote time and resources to building an e-commerce site from scratch themselves. There are two straightforward ways to get one up and running:
- Use a template-based e-commerce website. Some web hosting companies offer ready-built e-commerce web sites, with basic product page templates to which you can add product pictures, information and pricing, and a shopping basket facility. These also include a checkout facility enabling customers to make payments using a variety of methods such as credit or debit cards
- Get a custom built e-commerce site. A more expensive alternative is to employ a professional web design company to build you a bespoke e-commerce site. If you choose this option you can customise how the website looks (to match your existing website if you have one) and choose extra services such as order tracking if you need them.
Selling online: the legal issues
When you sell online you have to take care about what you offer and how you handle the data your customers share with you. There are several important laws that have special relevance to selling online, including:
- Distance Selling Regulations
- E-Commerce Regulations 2000
- Electronic Communications Act
- Disability Discrimination Act
There’s more information on these laws and regulations in Business Link’s introduction to e-commerce: if you’re in any doubt about the how they apply to your business, you should consult a lawyer.
Taking payments online
Most customers will want to pay for their purchases using a debit or credit card, and unless you use a template-based e-commerce package which includes a payment system you will need to make your own arrangements for taking payments.
- The easiest way for new or small businesses is to take payments through a specialist payment service provider such as PayPal. During a transaction your customer is transferred to a secure site where the provider processes the payment on your behalf – for a fee.
- You may also be able to set up your own merchant account with a card company through your business bank, allowing them to accept payments directly. If your business has a high volume of transactions this is usually the cheaper option.
When evaluating either of these types of services, consider:
- how much it costs to set up the service
- the percentage of each transaction that will go to your card company or processor
- any per-transaction fees
- any fixed monthly fees.
Fulfilling online orders
After customers buy your goods or services online, you can choose to pick, pack and despatch each order yourself, or you can use the services of a fulfilment house to carry out some or all of these functions for you. The advantages of using a fulfilment house include:
- no need to distract yourself from management tasks or take on extra staff
- no need to provide your own warehousing space
- flexibility to cope with very busy periods.
Customers will expect you to email them when goods are dispatched, with a consignment or tracking number where applicable. If you decide to use a fulfilment house, check that they can do this for you as well.
Online customer service
If you are doing business with customers online, it makes sense to use your website to handle a significant part of your customer service function. Allowing customers to find the information they need themselves is likely to be much cheaper for you than providing it over the phone, and can be much faster and more convenient for customers, especially if they are overseas or if they need help at unusual hours.
So consider including on your site:
- downloadable product manuals
- a list of frequently asked questions and answers (known as FAQs)
- how-to instructions to support your products or services – these could range from factsheets to instructional videos, depending on the complexity of your products
- troubleshooting tips
- parcel tracking: this can include links to courier company websites so that customers can find out where their goods are quickly and easily.
How uSwitch for business can help
Read our guide to setting up a website