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Testimonial

"Internet Marketing NW guided me through every aspect of Web site design for my new Web site "PhiloSophos.com", in order to maximize search engine visibility. Their knowledge and attention to detail is impressive. The result is that my new Web site is gaining 500 visitors per day, ten times the number of visitors at the original, well-established Pathways to Philosophy site."

Dr. Geoffrey Klempner,
University of Sheffield

E-Commerce

Internet Marketing NW offers a full range of e-commerce solutions ranging from the very simple to the complex. We also offer merchant accounts and can help you set up a merchant account and establish a secure online payment gateway. The ability to accept credit cards online will greatly increase your volume of sales.

E-commerce involves the purchasing and selling of products and services over the Internet. With the use of a good e-commerce solution, online customers can easily process an order for the products or services that you are offering online. Aside from the convenience that it offers to customers, an efficient e-commerce solution has the following advantages:

Benefits of E-commerce

If you already sell products and services offline, e-commerce can give you access to new customers, many of them in other states, even other countries. You can increase your revenue by opening up entirely new markets that would be difficult and costly to penetrate with a conventional bricks-and-mortar store.

If you plan to sell online only, you can create a thriving business with lower costs than many offline businesses. For example, you can run your online store out of your home instead of renting a retail space, and you can take orders 24/7 without hiring employees to staff your site around the clock.

Selling Effectively Online

To sell effectively online, a business will need a Web site equipped with features not found on typical business Web sites. These include a shopping cart, credit card processing capability, product catalogue, etc. Internet Marketing NW develops Web sites with these features tailored specifically for e-commerce use and your precise needs.

Shopping Carts

A shopping cart is program that features the products that one is selling. We can create great-looking e-store, with many pictures of your products and you can start receiving online payments right away. Your customers can select multiple products on your Web site and pay with their PayPal account or credit card. Shopping carts can automatically total an order, shipping and tax.

Advanced Options

A more advanced e-commerce solution can catalogue and present your products or services most efficiently. An advanced solution might include the ability to modify the site through an interface, tracking of online inventory, management of purchase orders, customer history reports and similar functionalities to make the running of the physical or online business easier.



E-Commerce Solution

A good e-commerce solution is the best way to accept and process orders. If you cannot accept credit cards online, you will lose many sales! Buying is often an immediate decision and people change their minds or will go elsewhere very quickly. E-commerce and online retail can help you secure more business, especially if you are just starting out. No matter which part of the world you are operating from, having a Web site where customers can browse through the products and services that you are offering is the easiest and best way to reach out to your target market.

Some E-Commerce Concepts

Internet Merchant Account

An Internet merchant account is a financial relationship between you and a credit card processor, so funds can be deposited into your bank account. It differs from a regular merchant account in that an Internet merchant account is approved to run Web initiated transactions over the Internet, while a regular account is not approved for Web transactions. Usually it involves a Web site with real time credit card processing.

Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a remotely hosted software application that enables merchants to accept credit cards and electronic payments on Web sites, or the ability to key these into a virtual terminal. A payment gateway uses encryption to ensure that credit cards numbers and private data pass securely between the customer and merchant and also between the merchant and payment processor. It is the online equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets.

Shopping Cart

If you only sell one item, or one service, or just a few items, chances are you do not need a shopping cart. However, most e-commerce businesses require some sort of shopping cart on their Web site. This is especially true the more items you have. A shopping cart allows Web site visitors to pick and choose the items they wish to purchase. The shopping cart then collects the customer’s address, and adds tax and shipping as needed. Finally, the shopping cart connects to a payment gateway for processing of the credit card order.