e-Commerce Solutions on the Cheap?

April 25th, 2007 by

Amish Parashar

We field a lot of inquiries about e-commerce specifically in seting-up a solution and optimizing an existing system.

Two recent (3/24/07) articles in the Business Technology section of the Wall Street Journal shed some light on this.

Elizabeth Holmes questions the need for a website. Of 500 small businesses surveyed, 57% in the services sector don’t have a website, 39% in retail, and 67% in Construction. The primary reasons given for not being online include costs of time and money. The question to be asked isn’t “can i afford to be online” but rather “can I afford not to be online” especially if your customers, competitors, partners, and investors are. Getting a website online, or setting up an e-commerce solution to start seling doesn’t have to be a large project requiring extensive capital investements. This can be done very economically with extremely good results. Even the bakery owner on the main street can benefit from a well thought out internet presence - 20 years ago what business would have said “I don’t need to be in the phone book, an unlsted number will be just fine”

Kelly Spors, on the same page of the same issue, under the Small Talk column, answers a question we often receive: “How can I set up a low-cost e-commerce solution (i.e. I want to start selling online)”. The best option is hiring a professional that specializes in small or new businesses and has the flexibility to grow as your venture does. The right partner will be able to increase your sales while increasing the conversion of site visitors to customers and increasing overall site traffic. If an entrepreneur is really set on bootstrapping and eager to do it herself, here are few suggestions:

Yahoo Merchant Solutions - for your domain name, some basic templates, a customer shopping cart, and many other features.

Go Daddy Group -again, for a domain name, hosting service, site-building, and a basic shopping cart

Both services are similar and are competitors. There are many others worth exploring including offerings by Siteground, Google, and others.

I think Ms. Spors and I agree that these are good starting points, not long term solutions as these generally lack originality, integration, or customizability your venture may require.