e-Commerce Websites

E-Commerce can be an excellent way to create another income stream for your company, but how do you know if an internet business is a right match for you?

Some industries may be hurting with a slowed economy, but not every industry. Money is still flowing, people are just looking twice before making a decision and the internet is becoming more and more useful tool for comparitive shopping.

What To Expect With e-Commerce Sales

Clickz.com reviewed multiple case studies in 2003 and suggested the following: "..although offline retail sales continue to struggle, e-commerce sales will increase at a steady 19 percent year-over-year growth rate, rising to 229.0 billion in 2008 from $95.7 billion in 2003. Online retail sales will account for 10 percent of total U.S. retail sales by 2008." read more..

Although Internet sales didn't reach 229.0 billion in 2008, the Internet only fell short by 100.0 billion dollars. E-Commerce sales have continued to see a growth of 21% from 1999.

Oct 31, 2008 - "PRNewswire-FirstCall , a leader in measuring the digital world, released its Q3 2008 retail e-commerce report, which showed that online spending grew 6 percent in Q3 2008 versus the same period last year, a slowdown compared to the year-over-year growth rates of 12 percent in Q1 and 13 percent in Q2 2008. Total U.S. online retail sales (excluding travel) were approximately $30 billion in Q3." read more...

So how you determine if online retailing is the right move for your company? The following chart will provide you with an overview of various product categories and chand in Internet sales.

                                                  Percent Change
    Product Category                           Q3 2008 vs. Year Ago

    Total Retail Category (Excludes Travel)               6%
    Video Games, Consoles & Accessories                  60%
    Furniture, Appliances & Equipment                    52%
    Sport & Fitness                                      40%
    Event Tickets                                        18%
    Flowers, Greetings & Misc. Gifts                     14%
    Home & Garden                                         6%
    Consumer Electronics (excluding PC Peripherals)       1%
    Computers, Peripherals & PDAs                         0%
    Apparel & Accessories                                -2%
    Toys & Hobbies                                       -3%
    Jewelry & Watches                                   -11%
    Music, Movies & Videos                              -29%

Keep in mind, that just because we see a significant drop in online sales some categories, we don't know what their total sales or market share levels are. If you haven't gained enough information from this overview, hopefully it will provide a start to your own market study.

What Is The Best E-Commerce Solution?

Magento was launched in 2009, but it has become the preferred choice for advanced e-commerce development for many web designers working with Open Source solutions. The main reasons for it's fast acceptance is a combination of design improvements with an administration panel that includes everything needed to manage any kind of e-commerce site. Magento has the professional, Web 2.0 look many site owners love, and it sets itself apart immediately from OScommerce, Zen Cart, and the other existing e-commerce systems with well laid out templates and easy set up of site sections for catalog display. Magento offers a shopping cart with a large number of payment gateways integrated out of the box, product comparisons, tags, polls, internationalization support, advanced reports, analytics, and SEO optimized URLs. There is support for coupons, discount codes, catalog management, wishlists, cross-sells, and related items. You can create orders from the admin section for offline or call center sales, and managing shipping is easy with built in calculation for USPS, UPS, DHL, Fed Ex, and other delivery services. Magento will also automatically calculate sales tax on orders and supports multiple currencies on the same site.

Screenshots

Feature List

Professional e-Commerce

It still surprises me that there are Web Designers offering customized e-Commerce Applications for your business. To me, I don't understand the theory behind re-inventing the wheel, or charging a customer for months worth when there is a fantastic system aready available that can be implemented and customized to meet every businesses e-commerce needs..

We offer an e-Commerce Package that includes installation, setup, design customization, branding incorportaion, product uploading (up to 100 items), category design, staff training and the registration and setup of your hosting and domain name if required. This package results in a complete, working e-Commerce site for your business*.

* Some businesses that require functionality outside of the features listed, or services beyond configuring these basic components will incur additional costs.

Complete e-Commerce Package $9,999