DJMsoft - e-commerce

Increase your turnover, integrate e-commerce into your site.

What is e-commerce?

If you want to sell your products or services on-line, you will have to use some form of e-commerce. An e-commerce enebled website will typically have in addition to regular pages: a section where you display your catalogue; a shopping cart where visitors can store their purchases; and a checkout section where visitors will supply their delivery and payment details.

A well-written e-commerce site will handle all this transparently; with no interaction required from the merchant other than to despatch the goods. The client should be sent a confirmation by email and the company's database(if a database is being used) should be updated automatically. You should also be able to print your shipping invoices and labels from your sites administration pages.

It should be possible to update, amend and edit the site in real time, with the alterations(e.g. price changes, additions/deletions from the catalogue) showing on the site immediately.

How can I accept payments on-line?

The first thing you should be aware of is that all methods of accepting payments on-line are subject to a commission charge. This charge varies between the differing methods and, in most cases, on the amount of business that is passed through the clearing/payment scheme.

There are three main methods of accepting payments:

Method 1

If you are anticipating very large sales, it might pay to set up your own clearing arrangement which will enable you to accept payments directly. This however requires a large investment in infrastructure(hardware, network connections/hosting and programming etc.) and should not really be considered unless you are aiming to be the next Amazon or Jungle.

The benefit of this method is that you only pay one commission charge: to the credit card company. This charge varies with the amount of business.

The main disadvantage is that you, the merchant, take on all the responsibility for reclaims and complaints etc.. You would also have a legal requirement to set up a database server which is not accessible from the internet(i.e. on a private network). This can make administration difficult without dedicated support staff.

If you feel that this is where you are aiming, feel free to call us with your requirements.

Method 2

Most businesses trying e-commerce for the first time would be better advised to use one of the third party clearance schemes such as Netbanx (Netbanx will be used in the following description). A simplified description of the way this works is as follows:

Firstly, you set up a merchant account with your bank and use the details from that account on your registration with Netbanx.

Your site uses a shopping cart or some other method(e.g. a simple drop down list) of selecting the item(s) to be purchased. When the customer goes to check out and pay, first a page is displayed where they fill in details of where the goods are to be sent. Then a 'Confirm Purchase' page is displayed listing the item(s), total cost and delivery details.

If the customer proceeds with the transaction, they are taken to the Netbanx secure site where they are again shown what they are purchasing.

Unless the customer cancels at this point, they are then taken to a page where they supply Netbanx with their card details and confirm the purchase.

Netbanx then deducts the purchase price from the customer's card account and sends a success or failure email to both the customer and the merchant.

If your site is set up to be database driven, Netbanx will also return(to a script running on your server) details of the transaction which will automatically be added to your database.

There are several benefits to this method of payment: you, the merchant, do not have to keep sensitive details of card transactions, which means your database is more easily administered; all responsibility for reclaims and complaints about payments are handled by the Netbanx; The transaction amount, less commission, is directly transferred to your merchant account by Netbanx.

There are no real disadvantages, other than set-up costs and the fact that you pay a higher commission. The commission that the credit card company charges is passed on to you by Netbanx along with their own commission, which is calculated on a sliding scale. The more business you do, the less commission you pay.

This is the method we recommend for businesses which anticipate online sales of £5,000 p.a. or greater.

Method 3

If you only anticipate a low level of sales, you can use one of the 'email' payment methods such as NOCHEX or PayPal. These cost a minimal amount, or even nothing, to set up and work in a similar way to method 2 with the following differences:

You do not need to set up a merchant account.
It may not be possible to automate the updating of your database.
You pay a higher commission for the convenience.

We recommend this method if you are just dipping your toe into the e-commerce water.

Speak to us about your requirements

If you feel that an e-commerce site would enhance your business, please give us a call to discuss your needs.