Software makes e-commerce easy

By PETER GRIFFIN

These days if your business hasn't got a presence on the web, it's dead in the water - or so we are told.

But an increasing number of "website-in-a-box" software packages that allow home businesses to easily take the selling process online are now on the market.

Most do not require users to learn script languages or have spectacular layout skills - perfect for New Zealand's cottage industry of home-based craftspeople.

An example is Ezimerchant Professional from Australian Windows Publishing, which says the path to e-commerce - or selling your wares online - generally takes five steps to complete. We gave it a try.

First you are asked for business and contact details, and a description of the business that will sit on the site's "About" page.

Next, all important product details are entered with descriptions and images. This is an important step as web surfers will use this information to make their buying decisions. The choice is yours - blind prospective buyers with information or give them just the basics. Details of freight and shipping charges are also entered here.

The third step involves choosing a theme and overall look for the site. Ezimerchant comes with dozens which range from the corporate look to more casual and colourful creations.

Here you can add promotions and sales, or attach "read-only" files to give customers a more detailed description of products offered.

Adding a shopping cart is just as easy.

Although Ezimerchant's shopping cart is not as sophisticated as what you will get at Amazon.com, it performs the same function.

Getting your website on to the internet and sorting out payment methods is possibly the trickiest part of the process. You need to organise a hosting arrangement with an internet provider and get an FTP (file transfer protocol) password and login.

The next step is to get a connection with AWP's secure transaction server, which you connect to for a monthly fee of $A19.95 ($24.23).

This server passes your customers' credit card details safely to a "payment gateway" company, which will in turn process those details with one of the banks. The bank then either approves or declines the credit card transaction and sends back a message to the payment gateway which in turn sends the message back to the secure transaction server. The process is done in real time - the money is usually transferred into your merchant bank account at the time of the order. Other forms of payment such as non-real time credit card payment, cheque and cash on delivery are also supported. A number of banks and payment gateway companies now offer e-payment services - check with your bank somewhere at step one.

Finally, promoting your online creation completes the process.

Ezimerchant allows you to give submissions to search engines to create "meta-tags" that trigger matches when people enter key words in a Google or Alta Vista search. Banner exchange programmes also allow you to insert HTML code into the pages of other programme users to inform them of your site.

The software also allows you to synchronise your online operations with accounting packages. Ezimerchant supports MYOB and QuickBooks. Such interaction lets you export products, orders and customer lists to compatible accounting files.

The rest of the site creation steps involve little more than pasting in text and selecting graphics. You can then preview the working site in your web browser.

But does it work? Well, if the experience of Australian website Dance Express is anything to go by, yes. The site specialises in selling dance music compact discs over the internet. By 11 am the day after it went live, the firm had recorded $A4000 in online sales.

Links:

Ezimerchant

Dance Express

ebib.com

Peak hour

BNZ Business Solutions

Webfarm

ASB