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WEB HOSTING ALTERNATIVES

When deciding to incorporate E-Commerce into a Website, the first step is deciding what type of hosting you will need. You can choose to have in house servers, offsite dedicated servers, or shared servers. One important thing to keep in mind is that the web hosting you choose needs to allow room to grow with your company.

BASIC FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMERCE SOFTWARE

The next step is to choose the right software. The software you choose should fit the size anad needs of your company. The basic needs that the software should provides are: a catalog display, shopping cart capabilities, and transaction processing. The bigger your company, the more advanced the software will need to be.

Your catalog can be static (simple HTML) or dynamic (using a database and more advanced code, such as PHP, with features like search engines and administrative "backdoors" to allow anyone a way to change the catalog.

A shopping cart provides a very simple way for the consumer to select and pay for their items without filling out a long form while having to remember item numbers or descriptions. A customers cart can be stored until a subsequent visit, which makes it much easier for the consumer to deal with.

After the cart is full, the transaction processing software kicks in and allows the consumer to safely pay for their items. This can be the most complex part of the sale. Your consumer must be able to trust that their information is going to be kept safe.
 

Shopping Cart
Web Services

ADVANCED FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMERCE SOFTWARE

As a company grows, they will need more functions from their software. Middleware helps to establish a connection between the e-comerce software and the accounting software.You can also have enterprise applications, Web services, enterprise resource planning software integration, supply chain management software, customer relationship management software, contnet management software and knowledge management software.

Most companies are already running most of these systems and need the e-commerce software to integrate them within the Website.

The companies can use EDI connections to connect everything together.

SMALL AND MIDSIZE COMPANIES

A better option for smaller companies is to use a service provider's shared or dedicated hosting service instead of building an in-house server. There are many options for off-stie hosting that are affordable and reliable.

MIDSIZE TO LARGE BUSINESSES

A midrange package can allow the merchant to have explicit control over merchandising choices, site layout, internal architecture, and remote.local management options. Depending on the amenities offered, the prices cary and can get quite expensive.

LARGE BUSINESSES

The larger your fiem gets, the more capable your software need to be. You will need to be able to handle larger transactions loads and may need servers dedicated to specific parts of the business. Once you have reached this size, be prepared to spend more money to maitain the integrity of your business
 
©2010 Petree Web Design site map Material by: Electronic Commerce, 7th ed.