How to Create an E-Commerce Web Site

Introduction: The Elements of E-Commerce

Your business may be small—but the Internet lets you think big. Whatever product or service your business offers, the Internet levels the playing field and lets you compete with bigger businesses, reaching customers around the world who can conveniently buy from you 24 hours a day.

But in the competitive world of the Web, growing your business and increasing your profits online requires some careful planning. For every successful e-commerce businesses, there are dozens that fail by not addressing basic risks and pitfalls along the way. So to take full advantage of the e-commerce opportunity, make sure you base your Web business on a solid foundation that covers every element of e-commerce:
  • Establish your identity. The right domain name, or URL, can make the difference between a memorable e-commerce identity and getting lost in the online crowd.
  • Find the right online home. For brick-and-mortar stores, location is everything. Your e-commerce business needs the right home, too. Purchase and set up your own Web server, or find a home for your site with the right Internet Service Provider or Web host.
  • Build an attractive storefront. With the right tools, creating a Web site is easier than ever-but following some basic guidelines will help make your site easy and fun for customers to navigate. And that means more sales for you.
  • Let customers know they can trust you. In the anonymous world of the Internet, customers will communicate private information, like credit card numbers or phone numbers, to your e-commerce site only if they're sure your site is legitimate and the information they send you is protected. Make sure your site is secure-and that your customers know it.
  • Make it easy for customers to pay you. You can set up your site so customers can pay by simply keying in a credit card number. But then how will you process that transaction? Make sure you not only offer customers a variety of convenient payment methods, but that you can process them all.
  • Let the world know about your site. A memorable domain name, a great-looking design, and top-notch products and services can make your site successful only if customers know about it. Don't neglect promoting your site to drive traffic to it.

Clearly, building the elements of e-commerce into your Web business is a big job, but it's too important to ignore if you want your e-business to grow and thrive.

I. Step One: Establish Your Online Identity with the Right Web Address

The first step toward e-commerce is selecting the name of your site. Your Web address (also called a URL—Uniform Resource Locator—or "domain name"), tells customers who you are and how to find you on the Internet. It is the core of your Internet identity—your online brand. And because no two parties can have the same Web address, your online identity is totally unique.
  1. What's In a Name?
    Quite a lot, actually. Remember that not only does your domain name tell customers exactly how to find your business on the Web, but also it communicates and reinforces the name of your business to every Web site visitor. It can also be used as part of your e-mail address to establish your online identity.

    Keep these tips in mind before you choose:
    • Make it memorable. "Amazon.com" is much catchier than "booksonline.com."
    • Describe your business. Another approach is to simply and logically describe your business. "Flowers.com" works perfectly for a florist. And if you are setting up an online presence for an established business, keep the name of your site the same as the name of your business.
    • Keep it short. The best domain names are those that customers can remember and type into their browsers after seeing or hearing them only once, so complicated strings of words like "onlinecdstore.com" don't work as well as a simple phrase: "cdnow.com."


  2. How to Get and Manage Domain Names
    Once you've decided on your Web identity, the next step is to determine if it is available and then register it with a domain name "registrar." Registering is easy and inexpensive, so do it as soon as you've decided on your domain name to make sure you get the name you want. Many businesses register a number of variations, just in case they want to use them later—or to avoid the risk of competitors obtaining similar names. A Scandinavian financial service company, for example, recently spent more than $1 million to register 3,080 domain names (Business 2.0, August 22, 2000, p. 32). You also may want to register common misspellings so that all customers who incorrectly type your address still find their way to your site instead of receiving an error message.

    E-commerce businesses most often register a name with "com" as the domain name suffix (the letters after the dot; also called a top-level domain, or TLD), but often also register their names with ".net" and ".org" (for "organization"). Other suffixes include ".tv" and ".edu" for schools and universities. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced seven new TLDs - .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .museum, .aero, and .coop.

  1. How to Buy an Existing Domain Name
    What happens if the domain name you want is already registered? You can either choose another name or buy your first choice from whoever got it first. The fact that the name you want has already been registered doesn't necessarily mean it is not available for sale. You can easily find out whether a domain name that has already been registered is for sale.

  2. How to Register Domain Names Worldwide
    The Internet is global—shouldn't your business be, too? Registration of multiple domain names for use around the world protects your intellectual property, brand name, and trademarks against infringement by global cybersquatters. If you plan to do business in other countries, you can register country-specific Web addresses (in country-specific TLDs such as .ita for Italy and .uk for the United Kingdom) with Network Solutions' idNames search and registration service.

Once you've established your Web identity by selecting and registering your domain names, it's time to build your site.

II. Step Two: Build a User-Friendly Site

With a domain name in place, you're ready to start building your e-commerce storefront. But before you begin, take some time to plan.
  1. Plan Your Site Carefully
    First, identify clear marketing goals for your site, such as generating leads, building a database of potential customers' names and e-mail addresses, or putting a product catalog online to save the time and expense of printing and mailing. Quantify your objectives—such as increasing sales by 15 percent—so you know whether or not your site is successful.

    Then, figure out what your potential customers need to know before buying your products and services. This might include:
    • An overview of your company, its products and services, and their applications
    • Complete product or service descriptions, including features, key benefits, pricing, product specifications, and other information, for each product or service
    • Testimonials, case studies, or success stories so customers can see how similar individuals or organizations have worked with you
    • An FAQ section that anticipates and answers customers' common issues


    Plan the structure of your site, focusing on making it easy for customers to learn what they need to know, make a purchase decision, and then buy quickly. Create a site map that outlines every page on your site from the home page down and how customers get from one page to the next. Use tools that quantitatively measure site activity—where customers are clicking, how often, and whether they end up purchasing—and then compare the results with your goals.

  2. Choose the Right Site-Building Tools
    With a solid plan in hand, you're ready to start constructing your e-commerce site. Many e-commerce businesses turn to professional design studios to create their Web sites. But if your budget is limited, many Web site building tools make it fast and easy for you to create a polished, professional-looking site—with no in-depth HTML knowledge necessary. Image Café from Network Solutions, a VeriSign company, is one of the easiest. It's an online Web site building tool that lets you choose from a variety of professional-quality templates and then customize them with your own identity and information. Y


  3. E-Commerce Site Design Tips
    Following these basic guidelines will help make your site not only attractive, but also easy for customers to use—and that means easy to buy from you.

    1. Carefully examine your own favorite e-commerce sites. Creatively adapting the most compelling marketing and design techniques will enhance your site's effectiveness.
    2. Your home page is your site's—and your business's—online front door. It's essential that it make a good first impression on visitors. Make sure it clearly presents the following basic elements that customers are always likely to look for:
      • Your company name, logo, and slogan, prominently displayed. Take full advantage of the opportunity to showcase your brand identity.
      • A link to an "About the Company" page for customers to quickly learn who you are and what your business offers.
      • A site menu listing the basic subsections of your site. Keep this menu in the same place on every page throughout your site to make it easy to navigate.
      • A "What's New" section for news, announcements, and product promotions. Frequently updating this area will encourage customers to return often.
      • Contact information. Don't make it difficult for visitors to find your phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, and fax number.
      • Your privacy statement, clearly describing your business's policy for protecting customer's personal information.
    3. Make it easy for customers to explore your site. As you build your site, try to minimize the number of clicks it takes the customer to go from your home page to actually being able to click "buy" and checkout. Four to six is a useful rule of thumb. Make sure links make sense, so customers know what to click to find what they're looking for. Don't make your navigation buttons or links too dominant an element in your site design: instead, focus on product information.
    4. Keep things simple. Don't fill up your site with graphics, animations, and other visual bells and whistles. Stick to the same basic color palette and fonts your company uses in other communications, like your logo, brochures, and signage. Ensure that images and graphics serve to enhance, not distract from, your marketing goals. Make sure your text is easy to read—black letters on a white ground may not be terribly original, but they are easier on the eyes than orange type on a purple background.
    5. Keep download times short. Test pages to make sure they're not too overloaded with graphics that slow load times-and minimize the size of your images when possible. According to the Boston Consulting Group in American Demographics (August, 2000, p 46), nearly half of online shoppers surveyed said they left sites when pages took too long to download. Zona Research estimates that most Web pages take anywhere from 3 to 11 seconds to load, depending on the user's modem and Internet connection (remember: many e-commerce customers shop from home using slower connections). Most users click away to another site or log off if a page takes more than 8 seconds to load, costing e-commerce businesses billions in lost potential revenue.

As soon as you've completed this step, you're ready to put your site on the Internet.

III. Step Three: Set Up Your Web Server—or Select an ISP to Host Your Site  

Your Web site is a series of files that reside on a special computer, called a Web server, connected to the Internet. For customers to visit your site, they must actually connect to that Web server via the Internet and view the files. Web servers and the Internet connections that link them to visitors must be fast and powerful enough to quickly respond to all the visitors' requests to view your site.

Many businesses prefer the complete control of purchasing, setting up, and managing their own Web server hardware and software. Other small- and medium-sized e-commerce businesses prefer to turn to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Web hosting company, instead of investing in the hardware, software, and infrastructure necessary to get online. For a monthly fee, ISPs and Web hosting companies will connect your site to the Internet at high speed via one of their Web servers, allowing the site to be viewed by anyone with an Internet connection and a Web browser. The host provides your site with space on a server, and also offers Web server software, access to its high-speed Internet connection, tools for managing and maintaining your site, customer support, e-commerce features, and more. There are hundreds of ISP and Web hosting options to choose from, so look for one that can meet all your needs.
  1. What to Look for in a Web Hosting Company
  • Shared hosting or dedicated server? Shared hosting is an arrangement in which your site is housed on the same host server with several other Web sites. This is an economical solution for smaller sites. Paying the host for your own dedicated server, a solution used by larger and busier sites, provides faster access and ensures that your site will be accessible to visitors 100 percent of the time (instead of sharing Web server speed and power with other sites). Does your ISP or Web hosting provider offer both options?
  • Hard-disk storage space. Smaller sites may need only 300-500 MB (megabytes) of Web site storage space, while busier e-commerce sites may need at least 9 GB (gigabytes) of space—or their own dedicated Web server. As your site grows, your ISP should be able to accommodate you with a range of options.
  • Availability. If you run an e-commerce business, your site must be accessible to customers 24 hours a day. ISPs and Web hosts maximize the availability of the sites they host using techniques like load balancing and clustering. Can your ISP promise near-100-percent availability?
  • E-mail accounts. E-mail accounts that match your domain name are often available from your ISP. Are they included with your monthly access and hosting fee?
  • SSL Encryption: The security of the credit card numbers and other personal information customers send you should be a top concern. Does your ISP or Web host protect your site with an SSL server ID? See Step IV below to learn more about Web site security.
  • Support. A big part of the value of turning to an ISP or Web host is that you don't have to worry about keeping the Web server running. Does your host offer 24x7 customer service?

IV. Step Four: Secure Your Site

With your Internet identity established and your site built and hosted, it's time to turn your online storefront into a thriving e-commerce business. To do it, you must win your customers' trust. Eighty-five percent of Web users surveyed reported that a lack of security made them uncomfortable sending credit card numbers over the Internet. E-merchants who can win the confidence of these customers will gain their business and their loyalty—and an enormous opportunity for grabbing market share and expanding sales.
  1. The Risks of E-Commerce
    In person-to-person transactions, security is based on physical cues. Consumers accept the risks of using credit cards in places like department stores because they can see and touch the merchandise and make judgments about the store. On the Internet, without those physical cues, it is much more difficult for customers to assess the safety of your business. Also, serious security threats have emerged:

    • Spoofing—The low cost of Web site creation and the ease of copying existing pages makes it all too easy to create illegitimate sites that appear to be operated by established organizations. Con artists have illegally obtained credit card numbers by setting up professional-looking Web sites that mimic legitimate businesses.
    • Unauthorized disclosure—When purchasing information is transmitted "in the clear," without proper security and encryption, hackers can intercept the transmissions to obtain customers' sensitive information—like credit card numbers.
    • Unauthorized action—A competitor or disgruntled customer can alter a Web site so that it malfunctions or refuses service to potential clients.
    • Eavesdropping—The private content of a transaction, if unprotected, can be intercepted en route over the Internet.
    • Data alteration—The content of a transaction can be not only intercepted, but also altered en route, either maliciously or accidentally. User names, credit card numbers, and dollar amounts sent without proper security and encryption are all vulnerable to such alteration.


    To take advantage of the opportunities of e-commerce and avoid the risks, you must find the answers to questions like:

    "How can I be certain that my customers' credit card information is protected from online eavesdroppers?"

    "How can I reassure customers who come to my site that they are doing business with me, not with a fake set up to steal their credit card numbers?"

    "Once I've found a way to authoritatively identify my business to customers and protect private customer information on the Web, what's the best way to let customers know about it, so that they can confidently transact business with me?"

    The process of addressing these general security questions boils down to these goals:

    • Authentication: Your customers must be able to assure themselves that they are in fact doing business with you—not a "spoof" site masquerading as you.

    • Confidentiality: Sensitive information and transactions on your Web site, such as the transmission of credit card information, must be kept private and secure.

    • Data integrity: Communication between you and your customers must be protected from alteration by third parties in transmission on the Internet.

    • Proof of communication: A person must not be able to deny that he or she sent a secured communication or made an online purchase.


  2. The Trust Solution: SSL Server IDs for Authentication and Encryption
    Digital certificates for your Web site (or "Server IDs") are the answer for these security questions. Installed on your Web server, a Server ID is a digital credential that enables your customers to verify your site's authenticity and to securely communicate with it. Server IDs allow your e-business to provide customers with the world's highest level of trust. A Server ID assures them that your Web site is legitimate, that they are really doing business with you, and that confidential information—such as credit card numbers—transmitted to you online is protected.

  3. How Server IDs Work
    Server IDs take advantage of the state-of-the-art Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, developed by Netscape. SSL has become the universal standard for authenticating Web sites to Web browser users, and for encrypting communications between browser users and Web servers. Because SSL is built into all major browsers and Web servers, simply installing a digital certificate, or Server ID, enables SSL capabilities.

    SSL server authentication allows users to confirm a Web server's identity. SSL-enabled client software, such as a Web browser, can automatically check that a server's certificate and public ID are valid and have been issued by a certificate authority (CA)—such as VeriSign—listed in the client software's list of trusted CAs. SSL server authentication is vital for secure e-commerce transactions in which, for example, users send credit card numbers over the Web and first want to verify the receiving server's identity.

    An encrypted SSL connection requires that all information sent between a client and a server to be encrypted by the sending software and decrypted by the receiving software, protecting private information from interception over the Internet. In addition, all data sent over an encrypted SSL connection is protected with a mechanism for detecting tampering—that is, for automatically determining whether the data has been altered in transit. This means that users can confidently send private data, such as credit card numbers, to a Web site, trusting that SSL keeps it private and confidential.

    The Server ID process works as follows:

    1. A customer contacts your site and accesses a page secured by a Server ID (indicated by a URL that begins with "https:" instead of just "http:" or by a message from the browser).
    2. Your server responds, automatically sending the customer your site's digital certificate, which authenticates your site.
    3. Your customer's Web browser generates a unique "session key" to encrypt all communications with the site. The user's browser encrypts the session key itself with your site's public key so only your site can read the session key.
    4. A secure session is now established. It all takes only seconds and requires no action by the customer. Depending on the browser, the customer may see a key icon becoming whole or a padlock closing, indicating that the session is secure.


    SSL Server IDs come in two strengths: 40-bit and 128-bit (the numbers refer to the length of the "session key" generated for each encrypted transaction). The longer the key, the more difficult it is to break the encryption code. 128-bit SSL encryption is the world's strongest: according to RSA Labs, it would take a trillion years to crack a 128-bit session key using today's technology. The primary difference between the two types of VeriSign Server IDs is the strength of the SSL session that each enables. Microsoft and Netscape offer two versions of their Web browsers, export and domestic, that enable different levels of encryption depending on the type of Server ID with which the browser is communicating.

    1. The Seal is designed for display on your Web site as a symbol of security and trust, encouraging your customers to confidently provide credit card numbers and other sensitive information. The Secure Site Seal is sent automatically to the technical contact that you specify during the Secure Site or Commerce Site enrollment and purchasing process, 24 hours after the Server ID is issued.

      When the Seal is posted on your Web site's home page, security/privacy policy page, or credit card transaction pages, you can connect it to your Server ID. When your customers click on the Seal, they instantly see a pop-up screen of information about the Server ID, assuring them that transactions with your site are encrypted by SSL, and allowing them to verify your site's identity and check the ID status in real time.


  4. Code Signing IDs
    If your e-commerce site offers downloadable software, content, or code, you can digitally "shrink-wrap" it so customers can be confident that it hasn't been altered or corrupted in transmission. All you need is a special code-signing digital certificate, or Digital ID.

  5. E-Mail IDs
    Installed in your Web browser or e-mail software, an e-mail digital certificate, or Digital ID, serves as your online passport, allowing you to digitally sign e-mail messages. Your e-mail Digital ID assures recipients that messages really came from you, and also allow you to encrypt messages, using your recipient's Digital ID, so only your recipient can decrypt and read your messages. Installing and using e-mail Digital IDs is easy with virtually all Web browsers and e-mail programs.

  6. Your Privacy and Security Statement
    A vital component of every e-commerce Web site is a comprehensive security and privacy statement that describes exactly how your business secures information and uses it.


  1. Set Up Your Internet Merchant Account
    After you've selected and set up your payment processing solution, all you need to start accepting online payments is an Internet merchant account with a financial institution that enables you to accept credit cards or purchase cards for payments over the Internet.


VI. Step Six: Test, Test, Test

You may be eager to launch your e-commerce storefront, but take time to review and test your site thoroughly before going live. You will only have one chance to make a first impression on each new visiting customer, and broken links, incorrect phone numbers, and grammatical or spelling errors diminish the professional polish you're striving for.

Walk through the entire ordering process to test its usability. Is it clear exactly what customers need to do to purchase? Try buying a product: is the page on which you supply payment information secure? Is the payment processed correctly through your payment gateway? Make sure you use both Macintosh and PCs for testing, and different browsers and modem speeds. You want to be able to support even low end systems (i.e., slower computers with a 28.8 modem line).

Also, don't forget about customer support: it's the key to creating loyal customers. Are you prepared to confirm that a customer's order has been received? Are you ready to follow up with an e-mail message for good measure? A personalized message from a real customer service representative is best, but sending an automatic reply works as well. Set minimum response times and standards for replying to customer questions and concerns, and ensure that your customer support staff is fully knowledgeable about all your products and services, their features and benefits, pricing, and availability.
VII. Step Seven: Promote Your Site

Now, you've established a compelling, secure, and easy-to-use Web storefront for your products and services. It's time to let people know about it. Here are a few tips for driving traffic to your site.
  • Register your site with search engines. Over 90 percent of Internet users search one or more of the top engines to find what they need. Make sure your business is part of the results when customers look for the products and services you offer.


  • Put your domain name everywhere. Brochures, advertisements, business cards, and even hats, jackets, and t-shirts can be effective ways to promote your site and establish your corporate identity. Don't forget to include your domain name in your press release, too.

  • Advertise. Placing a banner ad on other well-trafficked sites can attract huge numbers of prospective customers—and doesn't have to cost a fortune.


VIII. Now, Start Selling

With an online identity, a Web host, an eye-catching, professional-looking Web storefront, rock-solid security, easy-to-use payment management, and the right promotions, your e-commerce business is ready to succeed in the competitive world of the Web.

Special Note : The implementation of ecommerce always has local rules considering the local environment, if you would like to get assistance in this contact local exert advice
  Source Verisign ; www.ibiz.lk