Getting Your Products Online

Setting up your shopping cart is the first step to generating online sales.

 

A well-planned, secure shopping cart should make it easy for visitors to purchase from your website.

 

Shopping cart software typically consists of three components:

 

1. A Product Catalogue, which organises all of your products and services into categories on your website

2. A Checkout and Payment System, that allows shoppers to securely register their details and process payments

3. An Administration Area, that allows you to manage the day-to-day running of your business (e.g. fulfilling orders, managing inventory, adding and removing products and so on).

 

The Product Catalogue

 

The product catalogue allows visitors to:

 

• Browse and view detailed information about each product.
  
• Add, remove and change the quantity of items in their cart.
  
• Calculate total prices including taxes and shipping.
  
• Review purchase policy information such as the refund/return policy.

The Checkout Process

 

The checkout process refers to the steps a customer must go through to purchase goods from your website.

A typical checkout process may involve a customer:

 

1. Adding a product to their cart

2. Opening an account by providing their contact information

3. Processing their payment

 

If you want to gain a better understanding of how a good checkout process works, we encourage you to visit Amazon.com and eBay.com.

 

Making a small purchase from either of these eCommerce giants will help you better understand the steps involved in the checkout process.

 

The Administration Area

 

The area of your website that is viewable by your customers is known as the 'front-end' of your site.

 

The administration area of your store allows you to manage the day-to-day running of your business and is known as the 'backend' of your website. This area of your site requires a username and password to log-in and is not visible to the general public.

 

In the backend of your website you can manage tasks such as:

 

• Fulfilling orders
  
• Managing inventory
  
• Adding and removing products
  
• Changing the design of your store

A good administration system will also allow you to export your customer and order information into accounting programs like MYOB or QuickBooks.