Building E-commerce website

Why you want to build e-commerce site

Not only with e-commerce website, but one should always ask himself/herself during start of new project/process/business, why we are doing this adventure. As everything in today’s fast moving world is linked to TEM (time/energy/money), one should take every step to avoid landing into pitfall!

Now let’s spend a minute focusing on e-commerce stuff. Before jumping into, this new adventure, its good to have quick look on following FAQ

i) What’s wish list on products/services?
ii) Should allow customers to order products/services on the fly
iii) Technical support for products/services
iv) How will be advertise our products/services and website itself?
v) Collect information about current and potential customers
vi) Skilled/ technical Manpower requirement for running show
vii) Build e-business image and brand
viii) Also showcase links to related websites
ix) Capex and opex calculations ?


What will be website/portal structure?

Need of hour in today’s fast moving era, “how fast and accurate you are able to provide information to customers”; …one has to believe this after google grand success!

Similarly for e-commerce website, we must organize the information/content very carefully and how fast/quickly you are able to provide info to info seekers / potential customers. Some of noteworthy things to mull upon:

i) Name of new baby, i.e. e-commerce’s name
ii) Your identify marks, logo/trademarks
iii) Database for capturing customer information
iv) Search option, to dig out info quickly
v) Vision and Mission Statement
vi) Contact us
vii) Site Map
viii) Copyright info
ix) No of visitors of day
x) Forms for registration process
xi) Press release and testimonies
xii) Offers on the shelf
xiii) Careers
xiv) Links to associate websites
xv) Domain name registration and web space

Apart from aforesaid stuff, one must follow 2 simple principles a) your website should provide what is speaks for b) Keep it as simple as possible! Multiple layers of associated web links/pages make things complicated, which could eventually frustrate customers.
Also creating logically like with flow-chart in hand to set navigation would be really helpful. Registration forms should be kept very handy and ask to the point information.

Techniques to be used

Basic Techniques:
- Maintain consistency in flow
- Internal hyperlink to connect different pages
- Navigation bar for quick search
- Using Splash pages – Some websites needs showy entrance, with animations and sound effects to highlight effects
- Text and icon hyperlinks can be positioned in body of a webpage to help viewers navigate a website
- Using color, its critical as it should showcase theme and concept
- Font to be carefully as Arial for headings, time roman for text, etc
- Background images, small images are preferred then large ones
- Adding thumbnail is also trendy concept these days
- Frames and form to be kept simple, with to the point questions


Web Development tools

As we all know web development has been one of the fastest growing industries,courtesy popularity of Internet cloud. By 1995 there were fewer than 1,000 web development companies in the US and by 2005 there were over 30,000 such companies (officially registered). It has been observed that the web development industry is expected to grow over 20% by 2010. The growth of this industry is linked with e-commerce, as it opens global market to push selling products /services. Further, cost of Web site development and hosting has dropped dramatically. This has become possible mainly due to too many players joining the boat.

Speaking about, web development tools and platforms there are many options available on the plate. Many are even available to the public free of charge to aid in development. LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) is a popular example of web development software which is usually distributed free of charge. Availability of freely available tools and software have manifested into many people around the globe. New Web sites are being launched daily and this ha contributing to increase in s no doubt contributed to the web development popularity.

Web Development can be further split into many areas. Basic web development hierarchy includes Client side and Server side coding.Client Side Coding includes scripting languages,web designing software and more:

• HTML/XHTML/XML for presenting content in a webpage.
• Scripting Languages like JavaScript/Jscript/Vb Script and more for adding little interactivity
in HTML webpages.
• New technologies like AJAX which provide facilities for adding user friendly options on the
webpage. It is becoming popular as it improves the user experience with the website.
• Macro Media Dream weaver and any more software available to easily code website.
• Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft's browser plug-in are now available that enables animation,
vector graphics and high-definition video playback and more.


Server Side Coding can be done using following technologies:


• ASP (Active Server Pages)
• Cold Fusion is an application server and software language used for creating dynamic websites.
• CGI and/or Perl: Common Gateway Interface (CGI) provide dynamic WebPages to their users and provides interaction between client and server. Perl programming language is simple, provides solid features for powerful string manipulation, can be easily integrated with C and C++.
• Java, e.g. J2EE or WebObjects:Provides strong features for web server programming.
• Lotus Domino: It s an IBM server . It provides enterprise-grade e-mail, collaboration capabilities and custom application platform.
• PHP: It is a open source programming language which is easy to use
• Smalltalk e.g. Seaside, AIDA/Web: It is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language.
• SSJS e.g. Aptana Jaxer, Mozilla Rhino: Server-side JavaScript (SSJS) refers to JavaScript that runs on server-side.
• Websphere : Integration and application infrastructure software (IBM product)
• .NET Technologies(Microsoft proprietary):Provide features to develop user friendly dynamic page.
Implementing an E-commerce Site

Let's say that you would like to create an e-commerce site. There are three general ways to implement the site with all sorts of variations in between. The three general ways are:
• Enterprise computing
• Virtual hosting services
• Simplified e-commerce
These are in order of decreasing flexibility and increasing simplicity.
Enterprise computing means that you purchase hardware and software and hire a staff of developers to create your e-commerce web site. Amazon, Dell and all of the other big players participate in e-commerce at the enterprise level. You might need to consider enterprise computing solutions if:
• You have immensely high traffic - millions of visitors per month
• You have a large database that holds your catalog of products (especially if the catalog is changing constantly)
• You have a complicated sales cycle that requires lots of customized forms, pricing tables, et cetera
• You have other business processes already in place and you want your e-commerce offering to integrate into them.
Virtual hosting services give you some of the flexibility of enterprise computing, but what you get depends on the vendor. In general the vendor maintains the equipment and software and sells them in standardized packages. Part of the package includes security, and almost always a merchant account is also an option. Database access is sometimes a part of the package. You provide the web designers and developers to create and maintain your site.
Simplified e-commerce is what most small businesses and individuals are using to get into e-commerce. In this option the vendor provides a simplified system for creating your store. The system usually involves a set of forms that you fill out online. The vendor's software then generates all of the web pages for the store for you. Two good examples of this sort of offering include Yahoo Stores and Verio Stores. You pay by the month for these services.