What is E-Commerce?

E-Commerce in it's simplest terms means selling products (goods or services) over the internet from your website. This usually means creating a website which describes and/or shows the products you wish to sell, being able to take an order for one or more of these products and processing customer payment in one method or another.

Do I always have to have a complete E-Commerce solution?

No, depending on your requirements there are several options available to you :-

• The most basic form is to have your website list your products and simply invite the customers to phone or fax in their order.
  
  
• An intermediate level of e-commerce is where the customer can use the website to take the customers details and CreditCard number. This information is then presented to you for manual processing.
  
  
• The most advanced level is where the payment details from the customer are processed automatically and the funds transferred directly to your bank.

Are there different E-Commerce solutions available?

Yes, you can opt for two different methods, an 'off-the-shelf' package or a complete custom design.

An 'off-the-shelf' package is an excelent way of getting your website up and running very quickly. We recommend osCommerce which is free, easy to set up and use. We offer a special osCommerce package which includes setup, customisation and a years hosting. Please see our pricing page for more details.

A custom package is for those requiring much more than what the 'off-the-shelf' package can provide. While providing much more flexibility, these websites will take much longer to create.

Sherwood Business Technology can provide solutions to all levels of e-commerce requirements. For more information, or to discuss your requirements, then please contact us.