e-Commerce

One of the most productive uses of a website can be to interact with customers online. This is known generally as e-commerce or e-business.

Definitions of e-commerce/e-business vary and potentially cover a large variety of online processes and technologies. These include development, deployment and maintenance of e-commerce software; online security; order and payment processing.

It can be a vast area of study and conflicting definitions; however, at its core it is the use of database technology to enable business to be transacted online.

For this reason, we prefer to call it e-business and, for our target clientele, we split it into three main components: online catalogues and order processing, shopping cart integration, and online payment processing.

We will set up any of these for you as stand-alone services, but together they form a powerful means of transacting business, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, worldwide, and with minimal involvement of staff.

Each component is described in more detail below and you should consider whether some form of e-business is appropriate for you.

Shopping on the Internet is well-established in many parts of the world, especially the United States. It is steadily increasing in popularity elsewhere worldwide including the United Kingdom and Europe.

As a consequence, many Internet surfers, particularly those who regularly shop online, now quickly become impatient with the prospect of telephoning, mailing or even emailing a company for further information, action or goods. They want whatever it is, now!

Transact business, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, worldwide,
using e-commerce technology.