Getting Started in Ecommerce

1. An online shop

This is the part of your website where customers can browse your products, select the ones they want and decide what options they need e.g. colour and size. Once they are happy with their selection they can add it to a 'shopping basket' which simply displays a list of all the products currently in the order together with subtotals, VAT and overall total as appropriate. If you choose any of our 'Plus' hosting packages you will have the ability to install 'osCommerce' on your site at no additional cost - a fully featured ecommerce website that's ready to use out of the box.

2. Payment Gateway

Once the customer has all the items they require in their shopping basket they proceed to the 'checkout' stage where they enter delivery and billing addresses. It is often at this point where postage and packaging charges are calculated to give the final amount payable. The final stage is for the customer to provide their credit / debit card details. Payment gateways are provided by third party organisations such as Barclaycard, SecPay and Secure Trading. In a nutshell your website would work with one of them like this:

1. Order information such as the total amount and clearing currency e.g. GBP is sent from your website to the payment gateway.
2. The customer enters their credit card details which are validated in real time by the payment gateway.
3. If the card is approved the payment gateway sends an 'approved' response back to your website so that an order confirmation can be generated and you can fulfill the order. Email receipts are sent to both you and the customer.

3. Internet Merchant Account

Now that the payment gateway has processed the card they need somewhere to deposit the revenue generated from your sale. You will need an Internet Merchant Account in order to receive these funds. Speak to your bank about applying for an internet merchant account. Banks normally require you to have at least 6 months of trading history in order to qualify (Barclaycard Merchant Services have a much more flexible approach designed for new businesses who might not have a trading history). If for any reason you are unable to obtain one from your bank (it can be quite tricky depending on what type of business you have and the product or service you want to sell) there are other services, often called 'bureaus', that can provide both the payment gateway and the internet merchant account for you. Probably the best known example is WorldPay. All you need is a standard bank account into which WorldPay deposits your money. Other examples are PayPal and NOCHEX.

3rd Party Fees

On top of our fees for building your online shop and integrating the payment gateway you will be subject to certain 3rd party fees. These vary between the different providers but in general here is what you should expect to pay (Please note these are very general guidelines only. Please check with the individual providers for their latest fees):

Payment Gateway

Set Up: £50 - £150 Yearly: £50 - £150 Per transaction: 1% - 4% of transaction value Plus remittance charge to your merchant account

Internet Merchant Account

Set Up: £100 - £150 Yearly: £100 - £150 Per transaction: 3% - 6% of transaction value

Bureaus

(an alternative service that provides both the payment gateway and internet merchant account)

PayPal

Set Up: Free Yearly: Free Per transaction: 2.7% - 3.4% of transaction value Withdrawals to your bank account: Free if over £50.00.

NOCHEX

Set Up: Free Yearly: Free Per transaction: 2.7% - 3.4% of transaction value Withdrawals to your bank account: 1% of amount being withdrawn or £0.99 - whichever is highest

WorldPay

Set Up: £100.00 Yearly: £160.00 Per transaction: 4.5% of transaction value Remittance to your bank account: £0.35