What with all the buzz surrounding e-commerce lately you
probably expect the kids down the street to be hawking homemade
lemonade over the web. And really why not? Although larger
enterprises require custom e-commerce solutions to meet their
demands, for the small business owner it's never been easier to
set up cyber-shop. With a little planning and some good web-
based tools you too can be the next new kid on the e-commerce
block.

Presumably you've already got a promotional website up and
running - tailored to meet your customers inquiries and service
needs while promoting your products in a clear and concise
manner. All you need now is one of those plug-and-play style
solutions you keep reading about in all the magazines. Well,
first you need to know one or two things about doing business
over the internet.

When you set up shop on the web you effectively set up shop
across at least all fifty states, if not around the world. From
a marketing perspective that probably sounds great. But from the
tax angle it's a huge headache. Calculating the various state
and county taxes in accordance with the different regulations
that your now national audience brings into each and every
online transaction. Naturally your out-of-state customers are
going to expect their products delivered to their doors so you
won't want to put down the calculator until you've figured out
the shipping costs for the varying weights and distances of
those orders. Of course, once you've finally got it all totaled
up don't hit the enter key on that cash register because doing
business online is similar to doing business through mail order
and the law says that you can't collect payment until the
product has shipped.

Luckily all these calculations are just what computers were made
for. So the only thing you need to do is choose from amongst the
dozens of different tax, shipping and payment processing
packages -- keeping in mind that they're compatible with each
other and supported by your ISP. That kid with the lemonade
stand is beginning to look like some kind of prodigy
wouldn't you say?

The truth is that e-commerce can be a vastly complicated
undertaking but it doesn't have to be. A number of companies
begun to offer web-based solutions which vastly simplify the
process.  The current leaders in the field are Intershop ePages,
iCat Commerce Online 
http://www.icat.com, and Yahoo Store
http://store.yahoo.com
All provide a fast, cheap entry into e-commerce. They provide
varying degrees of customization options and statistical
analysis tools both of which are important to maintain and
grow your product identity along with sales.

How secure is all of this? Technically speaking exchanging
credit card information over the internet is far safer than
doing so in a phone conversation for the simple reason that
electronic transfers are encrypted and phone conversations are
not. A long time ago as we measure time online, back in 1995
Netscape introduced SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) into its
Navigator web browser. SSL is an encryption technology that
scrambles messages in such a way that only the recipient can
unscramble them. To get SSL working requires an "authentication
certificate". The certificate acts as an electronic passport
providing you with a unique,
verifiable identity. In addition to SSL many groups today have
adopted the new SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) standard
which contains extra security measures and antifraud
technologies. If you are hosting your e-commerce shop through a
third party such as the ones mentioned above you will most
likely be using their certificates and the only thing you
need to know is that between SSL and SET credit card
transactions don't get much safer than this.

Working with a web-based solution such as the award winning
Yahoo! Store is so straight forward it makes building that
cardboard juice stand seem complicated. Essentially the only
thing you are responsible is creating the look of the pages and
arranging your inventory -- they take care of all the
complicated backend stuff. Your product details and pricing can
be entered by hand or by uploading from an existing database.
The Yahoo! ordering system supports automatic tax and shipping
calculation and the orders can be sent to you or called up on
demand. Lastly, the system provides you with extensive tracking
tools to keep statistics on your customers' preferences and
needs so all you have to do is call up the reports.

Sounds easy doesn't it? Well you certainly don't have to take my
word for it because both Yahoo and iCat provide guided tours of
their setup processes that are so enjoyable you'll wonder what
all the fuss has been about.

Click below for to peek at some "Custom Web Site Designs & e-commerce store and INDEX of MUSIC and Accustic electronics!"

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