Web Design
eBay to build X.Commerce platform
EBay has been acquiring a number of e-commerce companies recently with a view to build its own e-commerce platform – X.Commerce. In May 2011, EBay acquired the rest of e-commerce platform Magento, which it previously had a 49 percent stake in. On June 17, 2011, EBay Completed Acquisition of E-commerce Service Provider GSI.
eBay is building a broader commerce operating system that spans online, mobile, social and local with a view to be the go-to resource for online and offline retailers, helping connect them to consumers.
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WordPress as Ecommerce Platform
WordPress as Ecommerce Platform, WordPress as Ecommerce CMS, WordPress Free Ecommerce CMS, WordPress Open Source Ecommerce CMS.
WordPress is emerging as one the most popular Content Management System (CMS) for bloggers. However, WordPress is increasingly used for Ecommerce Solutions. As someone say, “What other CMS can do, WordPress can do!”. In this article, I want to point out some advantages and disadvantages of using Wordpress as an Ecommerce Platform:
Advantages
Easy to manage
WordPress Dasboard is very simple to use in comparision to Joomla or any other CMSs. Anyone can easily install a WordPress site using Fantastico scripts on the control panel of their hosting provider. Using the system to create a Post or Page is again a very simple. This makes it very appealing for users that don’t like complicated systems .Additionally, sites created using WordPress offering a “add content and publish” facility would require less maintenance if the site was going to be administered by someone else. Handing a WordPress site to a client could theoretically result in the number of support calls being reduced. Wouldn’t that be great?
More over, it’s easy to make amendments to the header or footer and having direct access to the PHP via the Themes editor. This is very powerful as it means site wide changes can be made very quickly. It would be very simple to place products in the sidebar, for example.
Search Engine Friendly
Looking at the source code of the default WordPress template, you can see that the posts automatically are positioned at the top and the navigation comes at the bottom. In terms of an underlying site structure, this is ideal site. This pretty much follows the CSS Zen Garden philosophy of using stylesheets to separate style from content in order to create visually fantastic sites.As the default WordPress template is more or less already screen reader/accessibility friendly, with a few minor modifications it could realistically be made to be fully SEO’d.
Since WordPress already “pings” and search engines love this, then why not cut out the middle man?Were there any good technical reasons why it shouldn’t be done?Surely any new products would get “discovered” more quickly than if they were placed on a normal static html driven website that would be spidered by the likes of Google… well, eventually? Why waste time waiting?
Powerful Plugins
Playing with the Adsense Deluxe plugin I found that I no longer used this for AdSense, it is possible to use it for inserting near enough any bit of code that you need to place in certain positions on a site. For example, using it to display newsletter opt-in box on the sidebar could mean that these controls are accessible within the Admin interface instead of having to amend the PHP files. You can imagine the implications of creating individual product “boxes” to be used across the site – having one central location to make an amend to several instances across a site is very powerful indeed!
(To be continued…)
Host for E-commerce Sites, the complete guide
The online business is changing at an ever increasing pace. More and more sites are bringing good products into the homes of millions of internet users world-wide, and this is just the beginning of the revolution. When you are ready to enter the world of online business commerce hosting must be one of your top priorities.
Before you jump into selecting a commerce host for your website, start at the beginning. What exactly is e-commerce? By most definitions, it is the action of marketing, selling and distributing products over the world wide web. The center of e-commerce is naturally an online store.
Without a website or page containing your e-commerce store, you have no ecommerce business. It is certainly possible to make money online through many other means than operating on online store. But ecommerce is one of the fastest, simplest ways one can start earning an income online.
In an online business, having quality commerce hosting is vital. It may even make the difference between your business succeeding and failing. You and more importantly your customers will depend on safe, reliable hosting. Without a capable, professional commerce host, sales aren’t likely to be made.
Shared vs. Dedicated Commerce Hosting
You basically have two options for your commerce hosting: a shared server or a dedicated server. The differences between the two are great both in term of quality and in price.
If you choose shared hosting, this means that you will have to share the server your web site is on with many other different websites. You will have less bandwidth at your disposal and your web pages may operate more slowly. As the business owner, you may have less options available to you for customizing your pages and your site. Again, the needs of your business and your clients must be weighed against these limitations.
If you choose a dedicated server, it will be yours and yours alone. You will be the only one on it and you will share bandwidth with nobody. You will be able to personalize everything and install software at your own discretion. More personalization, more speed, and faster service for your customers are the hallmarks of a dedicated commerce host.
Of course, you will pay for the dedicated server bonuses. A dedicated server can easily cost you a few hundred of dollars a month. By contrast, shared hosting costs just a few dollars each month. Cost may well be the deciding factor when you first launch your ecommerce site. But be sure to re-evaluate your decision regularly as your ecommerce business changes and grows.
Evaluate Your Server Regularly
What might cause you to change your mind about a commerce host option? If your business really takes off and you are experiencing rapid success and growth while using a shared host, consider moving up to a dedicated server. With dedicated hosting, you will be better able to serve a growing number of customers and to customize your online business to better suit your business needs.
Alternatively, if you find your once-booming online business is experiencing a sluggish start or rapid decline, consider switching to shared hosting. You can save considerable expense while still serving your customers’ needs while you re-evaluate your business model.
Lastly, you may find that you are simply dissatisfied with your current server. If you are planning to switch servers anyway, it might be an excellent time to make a switch to a more suitable type of server, as well.
Your web host is essentially a service provider that rents you space on their system(s). Some will also offer website building services and other things, but whoever takes care of building your e-commerce site, your hosting company is the one that will implement it on a server that connects to the Internet.
Thus, one of the first things to find out when you are considering prospective hosts for your firm is that the company provides near total uptime (well over 99%). If your website is inaccessible to visitors because the server is down and being repaired, then you are losing money.
Features and costs
If you really have the intention to open an e-commerce site you should bear in mind the type of features that are common to most hosting services, and compare them. There are many companies that offer “one size fits all” e-commerce and shopping cart services, often for low or no cost, in its hosting plans. For smaller companies these basic options may be enough. On the other hand, there are many hosting firms that offer more comprehensive, customizable services for both hosting and e-commerce. These services can be quite good, but the price can be quite high.
If you have adequate technical expertise, or someone in your company does, then you may be able to manage with a “Chinese menu” arrangement for choosing hosting and e-commerce services. This way you can save money by building the site yourself, as well as performing maintenance and troubleshooting. You must keep in mind that whatever technical abilities you lack, you will have to pay for, to someone. If you are already hosting your site with an e-commerce-oriented company, it will most likely be them. Minimizing these costs is important.
Follow the money
Finally, you absolutely must know how you are going to transact business (process purchases) before setting up your e-commerce site. If you do not already have a merchant account for processing credit cards, you should look into getting one. If you are too small or too new to get an account on the best terms, you will have to settle for paying higher rates and fees while you grow your company. You can always renegotiate your merchant account when your fortunes improve.
Fortunately, there are also alternatives for when your fortunes diminish, or you just want to start out slow and “test the waters.” You can use PayPal, a financial “third party,” for customer purchases, though it will cost you somewhat more. There are other third-party processors, as well, with a variety of entry-level accounts that will at least allow you to take major credit and debit cards, even checks.
However, third-party processors will always cost you more. The advantage to you, of course, is being able to take credit cards at all, since without that capacity you really have very little hope of success in today’s “plastic-oriented” sales environments. People want to use credit and debit cards, not cash or checks, period.
As always in business the parameters you need to look for, when choosing the best e-commerce hosting company, are good management, reliable equipment and speedy, professional customer service. If it is one thing more than any other that you should focus on, all other parameters being equal, then go with the firm that has the most expert (and available!) customer service staff. You will be dealing with them more than you now think, that’s for sure.
Amy Armitage is the head of Business Development for Lunarpages. Lunarpages provides quality web hosting from their US-based hosting facility. They offer a wide-range of services from dedicated server hosting and managed solutions to shared and reseller hosting plans.
Top 10 Free E-Commerce CMS
E-commerce has grown into one of the most feasible ways to establish a market presence. For those already reining the market it’s a channel for cheaper and more efficient distribution chain for products services. There are a good number of firms who have tasted success with eCommerce. Especially the Open source e-commerce applications are being largely used to fillip businesses. The whole game is how to fit the ecommerce app to your.
1. Magneto - For user as well as admin, this software has some strong features to support e-commerce. It allows multiple stores to be managed from a single admin interface.
Magneto is one of the best free E-commerce CMS
2. OXID esales – This open source e-commerce system is ready for B2C, B2B and social commerce scenarios.
3. Prestashop - What attracts most is it’s sleek interface. With this open source you can create special deals such as gift vouchers, price reductions, tag products.
4. osCommerce - t is one of the oldest free e-commerce apps that offer several marketing options and supports most of the payment system. This multilingual and SEO friendly app works with PHP/MySQL.
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5. Digistore - This is developed from the osCommerce engine with improvements in front end and admin of app. It provides a platform for selling physical & virtual goods.
6. OpenCart - This PHP – MySQL shopping cart system is simple-looking application but it has all the must-have features.
7. Freeway - This app has some innovative ideas for selling. It’s can be used to sell a guitar lesson or rent a tennis court on a given date and time.
8. Zen Cart – It’s a free and compatible open source shopping cart software. Developed by a group of shop owners, programmers, designers and consultants.
9. Ecommr - This app offers the website presenting interface and design elements of e-commerce websites in a categorized way.
10. Spree - Another ecommerce platform using Ruby on Rails. Spree allows improvement and customization. With the Active Merchant plugin it supports most of the payment processors.
