Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What are abandoned shopping carts?
- What are auction sites?
- What are benefits of an e-commerce operation?
- What are the costs involved in setting up an e-commerce operation?
- What does e-commerce mean?
- How do we prevent the use of fradulent credit cards to make purchases?
- How can I ensure that my virtual store is not hacked?
- What is involved in selling internationally?
- How do you market an e-commerce operation?
- What is a merchant account?
- What is meant by optimization?
- What is payment processing?
- What are search engine rankings?
- What are the setup processes involved in setting up an e-commerce operation?
- What isshopping cart software and what are the advantages of using it?
- How can I synchronize inventory at my physical store with that at my virtual store?
- What do you mean by the term third party commerce site?
- What is meant by trading links?
- How can I tell if anybody is window shopping at my virtual store?
- What is meant by the term virtual store?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
- What are abandoned shopping carts?
The term refers to this behaviour of potential customers at a virtual store - they initiate the purchase process by marking goods or services for purchase, that is they load goods for purchase onto their virtual carts and then leave the marked goods (or shopping cart) without completing the purchase. A completed purchase is one where goods have been paid for and usually shipping arrangements have been made. Abandoned shopping carts obviously mean potential sales terminated prematurely
- What are auction sites?
Auction sites are similar to shopping site. They offer goods for sale however customers bid on the goods just like a regualr auction. Some auction sites also have a "buy it now" component where some goods may be purchased just as in a regular virtual store
- What are benefits of an e-commerce operation?
Please see our page Benefits of E-Commerce for more information
- What are the costs involved in setting up an e-commerce operation?
Please see our page Cost Considerations for more information
- What does e-commerce mean?
E-Commerce is the process of conducting business transactions throught the medium of the internet. Transactions may include providing product information, product support, management of the selling process, promotion, payment processing and receipt, arrangements for shipping and genrally interations with customers
- How do we prevent the use of fradulent credit cards to make purchases?
Managers of virtual stores at least in our scheme of things off load the responsibility for managing credit card payments to companies that specialze in these operations. the details for each payment processing system varies but in all case they perform the checks and manage the transfer of funds. The virtual store manager really does not have to be concerned with this aspect so long as he or she only ships goods after payment has been transferred to the stores account.
- How can I ensure that my virtual store is not hacked?
The use of latest security techniques
- What is involved in selling internationally?
That is a decision a virtual store manager will make based likely on experience with shipping to different parts of the world. One has to be congnizant of trade rules, shipping charges and transit times. Often it is easier to relegate the shipping and customs responsibility to an international courier company whose fee for these services would have to be built into a quote to a foreign customer.
- How do you market an e-commerce operation?
There are marketing processes that can be conducted over the internet. However in most instances a regular marketing campaign is a must to support the internet store. An internet campaign alone will not produce the desired sales.
- What is a merchant account?
A merchant account, in this context, is an electronic equivalent to a regular merchant account. Merchant accounts are set up to process credit card transactions
- What is meant by optimization?
Optimization is the process by which a website is modified so that the site will show up earlier in the search listings of the most popular search engines for particular words being searched for. The process by which these results are ranked is always changing and each search engine may have different criteria. Hence this process is difficult to provide assurances for despite the claims of many internet marketers to be able to improve a websites ranking. Please also see FAQ on rankings?
- What is payment processing?
The process involved in accepting payments over the internet.
- What are search engine rankings?
How a particular site is ranked in the results of a search conducted by using a search engine.
- What are the setup processes involved in setting up an e-commerce operation?
There are a number of different processes. Please see our page - Process involved in setting up e-commerce for more information
- What isshopping cart software and what are the advantages of using it?
A shopping cart in the context of electronic commerce is software that manages the various process that are involved in the presentation of products for sale and the management of the selling process. All shopping cart software are not the same. Some may have a minimal set of features - just the offer of products for sale. Others may include one or more of the following processes - inventory management, customer records management, payment processing, promotional aids like crossing selling suggesstions, shipping arrangements and other related processes
- How can I synchronize inventory at my physical store with that at my virtual store?
By using technology that automatically sends a command to the web or to the desktop to update inventory when ever a change to inventory is made at either end.
- What do you mean by the term third party commerce site?
A site managed by a company that speciallizes in offering facilities for other companies to set up virtual stores. The likes of ebay and Yahoo stores are examples
- What is meant by trading links?
A process that involves placing links on ones website to another website that complement or add value to ones product. This can be much more general. One may link just for the sake of linking. When links are followed to ones website search engines regard this as important traffic and usually improve your website's ranking in searches for your company, product or service.
- How can I tell if anybody is window shopping at my virtual store?
There are sites that moniter activity at web sites. More elaborate statistics such as items clicked on may be monitored obviously for more cost
- What is meant by the term virtual store?
The term virtual store means a website that offers products for sale on the internet