5. Build your business website: create an online shop18 April 2005
To get all the commercial advantages of the internet, you need to set up a working e-commerce site, where customers can browse, select items to fill a virtual shopping basket and then pay for the goods online.
Unless you have expert knowledge, or have a lot of time on your hands, you're unlikely to design and build your own e-commerce site. Many Internet service and technology providers have packages that let you to build and host a website with an online shop containing a set number of products and a payment point.
If you've followed the other articles in this series and already have a business website you can simply add a shopping feature to it using off the shelf e-commerce software. When choosing software you should check how well it can be adapted to your existing website colour scheme, whether it has a secure socket layer (SSL) - which is the e-commerce standard for protecting credit card details - and the features such as calculation of the delivery charges.
If you're really serious about e-commerce and think that the potential benefits would require a larger investment, then you decide to have your site developed by a specialist. However, an 'off the shelf' e-commerce solution will probably suit you in the short term.
