E-commerce can be EASY-commerce!

People don't pay by cheque any more. In a few years they won't be able to, when cheques disappear for ever. But even today, few people are happy to put together an order on a website, and then print it out, write a cheque, and leave it all to the post. Instead, they want to pay online - especially when they are building their order on a website.

There need be nothing demanding or dangerous about taking orders and accepting payments (and even, sometimes, delivering products - e.g. information or software) over the web. Let us take the mystique out of e-commerce, and demolish a few myths at the same time:

Myth One: Only big businesses can handle e-commerce

The idea that e-commerce is out of the ordinary person's league is completely wrong. If you are considered suitable to carry a credit card, then we can pretty much guarantee that you can accept credit and debit card payments over the web too. And no demanding checks and authorization procedures are required. It's all very straightforward: you can be e-trading within days.

Myth Two: Starting out in e-commerce is complicated and expensive

Actually, starting out in e-commerce is simple and cheap. We can set up a basic e-commerce site, securely accepting card payments, from under £100. When all you need are Buy Now buttons or a simple shopping cart - and you can handle all of the stock control and data entry yourself - the typical cost would not exceed £250. Ongoing merchant charges for card transactions are typically well under 5% (depending on the value of the sale items), with no "monthly" or "annual" fees.

Myth Three: Card processors make you wait two months for your money

It's true that some card processors will not allow you to access your payments for a period of time - typically one to two months - for "security" reasons. Or they will only let you access it if you pay a large "insurance" fee. But this need not be the case. In fact, the processor we normally recommend allows you to spend your money online immediately! (Or you may withdraw it to your bank account, which typically takes around a week.)

Myth Four: E-commerce is in some way unsafe

E-commerce is probably the safest way of conducting business, for both parties, as long as it is properly implemented. We can create systems that guarantee that you will not be responsible for damaging your customers' credit card security or releasing their details - a guarantee that you can pass on to them.

The Reality

It is important that you entrust the creation of your e-commerce site to professionals with long experience of applications design and implementation, and of the administration of secure systems. Skilled HTML page-writers willing to turn their hand to adapting scripts may get you through, but they may not always understand the full security implications of what they are doing, which could lead to eventual unwanted costs.

On this one aspect of web publishing above all others: make sure you do it properly or not at all! We can do it properly, so please get in touch for an initial chat.

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