Category ECommerce

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The complete guide for creating an eCommerce website.

You have been wanting to add “Available Online at www….” to your business advertisements.

In 2020, when the Corona pandemic set in, sitting at home, you promised yourself “to start my online store NOW”. At that time, you probably bought a domain name, spoke to a few web design agencies, got their quotes for building your online store. But the project never took off.

Now in 2021, you hear about the second wave of Corona Virus hitting some countries, and fear another lock-down.  But the online store isn’t ready yet. If only the eCommerce website aka Online Store was up and running, it would be wonderful for your business.

Why should you build an Online Store?

The share of Online Sales as a percentage of Total retail sales (for U.S. merchants) has been steadily increasing over the years. (Source: Digital Commerce 360)

• 2018: 14.3%
• 2019: 15.8% (increased  15.1% over 2018)
• 2020: 21.3% (increased 44.1% over 2019)

Sales from online stores has been recording the highest growth in the last two decades. And the growth in 2020 (44.1%)  is nearly triple the 15.1% jump in 2019.

You are well aware that the Corona Virus pandemic has had a negative impact on in-store sales worldwide. But sales from online stores increased by 44.1%.

Who will buy from my online store, when Amazon is there.

You might say that most people buy from Amazon, so how will my online store generate business. Well, here are the statistics.

Amazon accounts for nearly one-third, about 31.4% of all online sales in the U.S. And this figure was 43.8% in 2019. So, essentially, Amazon’s share of online sales has reduced. Or, in other words, while other online stores had just 56.2% share in total online sales in 2019; increased their share to 68.6%

Walmart, Target, Best Buy, all have made significant shifts in their rankings.

Coming to small businesses in the U.S., just over half of all small business owners are doing business online. This percentage is much lower in other countries. Considering these facts, now is the right time to set up your online store.  

In this post, you will learn how to build your Online Store yourself, that too without spending any money. That is, other than the cost of your domain name and web space.

Here are the steps involved in building an Online Store.

I assume you have already decided on a domain name for your Online Store and already registered it. If not, you may want to read my post on how to register a domain name.

You will also need web space to host your Online Store. If you have not bought your web space, do it here, now.

These are the only two things you have to pay for. Now let’s move forward.

1. Decide the platform to build your online store.
2. Install the eCommerce platform on your web space.
3. Alter the design of your online store.
4. Organize your product catalog.
5. Set up shipping methods.
6. Set up payment methods.
7. Activate your online store and start selling.

Decide the platform to build your online store

This is the biggest decision you will be making related to your online store.

Most platforms will give you all the basic features that you need to manage your online store. It is only when you need some features, specific to your need that you might be forced to look at other platforms.

The options are multifarious. If you start comparing the features, you will still be searching for the ideal platform even after one year. Here is a list of desired features and the advantages they have over others.

Install the eCommerce platform on your web space.

You have two ways to install the eCommerce platform software.

Download it from the Prestashop site.

You can browse to the Prestashop website and download the software for free. It is a zip file which you then need to unzip (uncompress) and then upload the unzipped files to your web space using a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client. If you do not have a separate FTP login and password, you may login to the cPanel and look for File Manager. Do not upload the zip file directly to your web server.

1. Create a database for PrestaShop shop on your web server if it is possible. In case there is no MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying this database, create it as well.
2. Upload the three PrestaShop files to the chosen location on your web server, including the .zip file (it will unzip itself afterwards).
3. Run the PrestaShop installation script by accessing the public URL for the chosen location in a web browser. This should be the URL where you uploaded the PrestaShop files.
4. Follow the instructions on each screen of the installer.
5. Once the installation is done, delete the /install folder and write down the name of the /admin folder, which has been generated in order to be unique to you, for security reasons.

Many web hosts offer a quick installation of Prestashop.

Login to your cPanel and scroll down to Software –> Quickinstall as in the screenshot below.

Once you click on the Quickinstall, you can either select Prestashop from the horizontal menu

or search for it by typing in the search bar.

The installation process is fairly simple with the installer taking care of everything.

Follow the on screen instructions. However, it would be good if you read the online instructions and then click as required by the installer.

Alter the design of your online store.

Your online store is now ready with a Classic theme. Though this classic theme is fully functional on its own, you may want to make your eCommerce website more aesthetically pleasing using one of the many themes available at the Prestashop site.

Based on my personal experience I must share that your eCommerce website will load fastest with the inbuilt Classic theme. So, if you want a Google friendly site, stick with the Classic theme.

However, if you find the Classic theme too simple or bland, and want your eCommerce website to have some sliders and floating text and special effects, select a template or theme here. Most of these special effects use Java script and CSS, which tend to make your website heavy on resources, and loading slow.

It is worthwhile to give a thought that if you are offering a good product at a competitive price, your customers will not really bother about the special effects on your website. They will come to the right landing page, see the image, read the instructions and click “BUY”. On the other hand, if your website is slow to load and respond to the customer clicks, he is bound to abandon your online store and make the purchase elsewhere.

Organize your product catalog.

You now need to organize your products in the online store. Products are best organized category wise. So, divide your products into categories.

Let’s say you want to sell gifts in your online store. You could devise categories like Anniversary gifts, Birthday gifts, Teacher’s day gifts, Mother’s day gifts etc.

Once you have made categories, you can add products to your online store using the menu option Catalog–> Products

The process to add a new product is fairly simple, and it offers you a lot of data fields. You may not have data for all the fields, but try to populate as many fields as you can. This will help the customers in their search.

Prestashop also offers a filter which your customers can use to narrow down their choices. Which means your customers will be able to filter the products by price, or type – flowers, cakes, dress, brand, size etc.

So, effectively, this would mean, if a customer browsed to category Birthday gifts; he could use the filter to select a Red Velvet cake which weighs 1 pound and costs between $25-50. This way you can actually help them save time and make a purchase.

 

Set up shipping methods.

A product is not fully sold until you have offered arrangements to ship the product to the customer’s location.

Use the menu on the left to go to Improve –> Shipping –> Carriers to add more carriers of your choice. There are ready to use modules for Postal services of most countries and also for the major shipping carriers like DHL, FedEx, UPS etc.

Use the Shipping –> Preferences menu to configure  the cost of shipping and taxes if applicable.

If you require any special configuration of shipping costs, you can always add more modules from Prestashop add-ons site.

Set up payment methods.

The sale isn’t complete unless you have received the price for the goods (or service) sold. Add payment modules to your online store now. Here again, lots of modules are available, ready to use in your Prestashop eCommerce website.

Try to add as many payment options that you can handle. Include the options like PayPal, Stripe etc that are popular worldwide. You never know where your customer is coming from.

That reminds me, you can also display prices in different currencies in your online store. You simply need to add one price in your preferred or default currency. And then add the currency exchange rate. Prestashop will handle the rest.

Your customer will be able to choose the display currency of his choice from a drop down menu in the top menu.

It is also a good idea to have your online store in more than one language.

Prestashop has packs for many international languages. So, you just need to translate your product information to the language you want; and the eCommerce platform will handle the rest.

Activate your online store and start selling

You can now do a test transaction, and if everything is working well, you are now ready to launch your online store.

Happy Selling!

You wish to sell online in Australia. Here in this guide, you will learn everything from registering a .com.au domain to setting up an ecommerce website to finally receiving payment in your bank in Australia. Along with the costing for each head. There are many options to Australian domain names and we will discuss them, further, in this article. Also, is it better to have a website host based in Australia?

While selling you have to account for taxes, mainly the GST, and a website creator who has hands on experience with taxes in Australia, will be able to give you a better ecommerce website.

We will discuss

• Setting up a business in Australia
• Domain name look up in Australia
• Website hosting in Australia
• Ecommerce website Australia
• Payment gateway in Australia

 

Setting up a business in Australia

At the outset, I must suggest that it is always better to take up all government permissions, registrations, licences and sanctions that a business may require. Take advice of business consultants, check the relevant government websites, ask your friends who are already in business about the ones necessary for your business. Sometimes, if these sanctions are not taken, they pose problems at a later date and prove very expensive, either in terms of money or time or loss of goodwill.

The first and foremost decision that you need to make is about the structure of your business. Your business could be structured as a

• Sole trader
• Partnership, or
• Company

Sole Trader:

A sole trader is the simplest and cheapest business structure to set up. If you’re an individual, planning to run a business singularly,  you can be a sole trader. You will be the sole owner of the business; and the income this business generates, belongs to you.

You have to report the income generated from this business in your individual tax return. Tax on your business income is calculated at your individual income tax rate.

You have complete control over your business, and you are responsible for taking all decisions. Your personal assets are at stake, if things go wrong.

If you hire employees for this business, you will be responsible for giving them their minimum employee entitlements as per the stipulate regulations.

You should apply for Australian Business Number (ABN) (https://abr.gov.au/For-Business,-Super-funds—Charities/Applying-for-an-ABN/). Australian Business Number is free. Only if you have an ABN, you will be eligible to register a business name and register an Australian Domain Name.

Partnership:

A partnership structure is a level in between Sole Trader and a Company. Compared to a Company, it is relatively inexpensive and easy to set up and operate. In a partnership structure, you along with your business partners, own the business, and also share its income and losses. Two or more individuals can form a partnership. If the partners are members of a family, the business structure is said to be a family partnership.

Every business partner’s share is mutually decided among the partners. Each partner is required to report his / her share of the business income on their own individual tax return, and pay tax at their individual income tax rate.

In addition, the partnership business must lodge a partnership income tax return every year with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). (This means that a partnership needs its own Tax File Number (TFN). You don’t need to register separately for a TFN. The ATO will automatically issue a TFN to a partnership business if it does not have one already.

You should also get your Australian Business Number(https://abr.gov.au/For-Business,-Super-funds—Charities/Applying-for-an-ABN/) (ABN) which makes you eligible to register a business name and register an Australian Domain Name.

All partners share legal responsibility for the business. This means that the personal assets of all partners are at stake, if things go wrong. However, if some partners want to limit their responsibility for business losses, it would be a good idea to consider forming a limited partnership structure. If your business hires employees or staff, all partners shall be responsible for giving the staff their minimum employee benefits and entitlements (such as superannuation and leave).

Company:

A Company structure is more difficult to set up and has higher running costs. I am not trying to frighten you, it is just that you have to comply with reporting and other requirements under Australian Company Law. The Company structure is better suited to medium and large businesses.

A company is a separate legal entity from an individual. This means the company has the same rights as a natural person and can have debt, sue and be sued. A company has its shareholders, who are the owners. The day to day affairs of the Company are managed by its Directors.

The personal assets of Directors and shareholders are separate from the company, so they can’t be used to pay company debts. In certain cases where directors breach their duties, they may be held personally responsible for company losses.

The income and losses that the business makes belongs to the company, and is reported on a company tax return. The company tax rate applies to the business income. Tax File Number (TFN): A company needs its own TFN. The good news is you don’t need to register. The ATO will automatically issue a company with a TFN (if one doesn’t already exist).

If the company employs staff, the company is responsible for giving them their minimum employee entitlements and conditions (such as superannuation and leave). You can find more information on starting a company in Australia at http://www.asic.gov.au/for-business/starting-a-company/how-to-start-a-company/.

Again, You should get your Australian Business Number(https://abr.gov.au/For-Business,-Super-funds—Charities/Applying-for-an-ABN/) (ABN) which makes you eligible to register a business name and register an Australian Domain Name.

Domain name lookup Australia

Most popular Australian Domains are .com.au and .net.au. So, you can register a domain name like mystore.com.au or mystore.net.au if they are available and subject to fulfilment of a few more terms and conditions.

Other than these, the domains .org.au, .asn.au, .auz.info, .auz.net, .id.au, .melbourne can also be registered.

As mentioned above, you need to have a Australian Business Number (ABN) before you can register any of these domains. In addition, you, the registrant, need to be an Australian, as defined under the eligibility and allocation rules.

Domain names are allotted on a ‘first come first served’ basis. So, you cannot reserve a domain name or pre-register it. Further, you have to follow certain guidelines to register domains for domain monetisation. And you cannot register a domain name for an existing brand name or trademark if it does not belong to you. Something which happens commonly with .com domains.

The domain name you are registering should be an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s name or trademark.

You can read the complete allocation rules for domain names here(https://www.auda.org.au/policies/index-of-published-policies/2012/2012-04/).

To renew the domain name, you again have to ensure that most legal compliances are in place.

It is important to mention that you do not get proprietary rights in the domain name system (DNS). You, the registrant, do not “own” a domain name. Instead, you hold a licence to use a domain name, for a specified period of time and under certain terms and conditions.

If you are not an Australian, you can register an auz.net domain without any restrictions. Using an Australian Domain name demonstrates ample proof of your commitment to local customers.

Web Hosting in Australia

Though there are hundreds of parameters on which web hosting services can be rated, we will primarily focus on download speed, cost and availability of CDN . Google does not differentiate a web page based on its country of hosting. What really matters is that the content should be relevant to the search. Some search engines like Yahoo! and Baidu give preference to local content.

ECommerce Website Australia

As a business owner selling online or getting into ECommerce, what matters most is the ease with which the website can be maintained on a day-to-day basis. Once the website is designed, developed and hosted, you will definitely want to add, delete or modify product listings on your own.

Also, you should have a dashboard to view the vital statistics of your ecommerce store. So that when you get an order, it should be listed boldly right there on your dashboard, or if there is a product that needs to be stocked up, you should know it.

Similarly, you should be able to update the prices and stocks with a few clicks, and not have to wait for your web developer to do it for you. You want to put up a Christmas clearance sale, here, do it in a jiffy. You want to write an article or a blog item, here’s the link to go to.

On the shop front, your website should load quickly, both on the desktop as well as the mobile. The website should be responsive, and should render suitably on any handheld device. Your customers or website visitors should be able to access any product with a few (normally three) clicks from the home page. Ideally, a product should be searchable from anywhere on the web site.

The ecommerce website should suggest relevant products to your customers. The customer registration and checkout process should be smooth. Shipping methods employed should be user friendly and the payment gateways should be secure and protected.

Customer should get information about order dispatches and its tracking at every stage of its progress. Moreover, if you are selling globally, your website should be presentable in different languages and currencies.

You get all the above features and many more with an ecommerce website built by us. We have worked extensively with ZenCart, VirtueMart, WooCommerce, OpenCart, OSCommerce and Prestashop. I say this from the developer, customer and website owner point of view.

It is always beneficial to show prices on the website. If, however, for any reason, you do not want to show prices on the website, or you want to show prices after the customer has registered on your portal, or you want to show the retail prices but not the wholesale prices, you can very easily do it from your ecommerce website.

In addition to the above features, your ecommerce website should also be SEO friendly. Your customers can share your webpages on their own social media pages where they are seen by their friends, who can further share these products with their friends. This way, your product pages get viral. In a way, you only have to focus on making your website or web page appealing to others. Social media will take it up from there to get you more and more sales.

So, how much does an eCommerce website cost?

We base the pricing of an ecommerce website based on the features it offers. To give you an example, our standard ecommerce website with these features costs AUD1,750 inclusive of one Payment Gateway and one Shipping Module set up. This fee includes

1. One Domain Name (for first year)
2. Web Hosting for one year on Standard Plan
3. Website Logo Design
4. Layout design of home page, product pages, cart and checkout pages
5. One Payment Gateway Setup
6. One Shipping Method Setup
7. 5 Information pages like About Us, Shipping Policy, Privacy Policy, GDPR, Terms of Use
8. Demo products added to database
9. Setting up taxes for base country
10. Sample “SALE” set up
11. Configuration with bulk mail account
12. Technical support for 3 months

With such a website, you can host unlimited products in unlimited categories. You can display brand names and manufacturers you are associated with (optional).

Renewal costs are approximately 20% of the first year cost if you do not require any modifications. However, if modifications are required, those are priced very moderately.

Payment Gateway

Another area you need to focus on while setting up an Ecommerce website is the choice of a Payment Gateway. While, most Australia based businesses try to get an ANZ Payment Gateway, I must share with you that the process is tedious and it may take up to 3 months to get an approval. At the same time, there are many other Payment Gateway providers in Australia that give an almost instant approval.

Hosted or Integrated Payment Gateway

It is important to understand here that Payment Gateways are of two types – Hosted and Integrated.
Hosted gateways redirect your customers, at the time of payment, from your website to their own secure platform. The customer enters his Credit Card / Debit Card / Bank information on the Payment Gateway’s page. Needless to say, the payment gateway is equipped with the highest level of security settings.

In an Integrated Gateway, your customers will never have to leave your website to type in payment details (Credit Card / Debit Card / Bank Account information) and to place orders. In this case, it becomes absolute necessary that you have an SSL certificate to ensure website security.

In my opinion, hosted payment gateways are better than Integrated gateways, as they offer peace of mind to the website owner. You cannot look after everything.  And since it concerns another person’s credit card or bank details, let the financial institutions best equipped to handle them, do it.

Payment Gateway Fees

While a good Payment Gateway enhances customer confidence, it should not charge you an exorbitant fee for accepting online payments. Another feature you should check before finalising on a Payment Gateway is the fee on disputed transactions.

Some Payment Gateways are all out bent in customer’s favor. They will penalise the Seller with a high chargeback fees in case a customer asks for a refund. You have to decide if you are ready to give refunds, as well as pay a chargeback fee to the Payment gateway Provider or otherwise.

Extra features

Though some features are basic to every ecommerce website, some others are specific to your needs. If you wish to levy a shipping cost based on the buyer’s State or County, you will need to pay about AUD95 extra to include this feature.

Similarly, if you sell locally and home-deliver the goods, you may need to charge a delivery fee beyond a certain distance. You can have a module which calculates the distance (or time) from your warehouse to the place of delivery.  You can charge a per kilometre fee. This fee will be calculated automatically when the buyer enters his delivery address. This additional feature too will cost you about AUD95.