If you have an established brick-and-mortar business, launching an e-commerce website is a good way to find new customers and increase your profits. Many companies have successfully launched e-commerce sites and have been able to quickly expand their businesses. In order for your business to successfully sell products online, your e-commerce site needs these three components:

• A good website.
• A secure server.
• A merchant account.

E-commerce (also written as e-Commerce, eCommerce or similar variants), short for electronic commerce, is trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction’s life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.

Good Website

Your e-commerce website is going to be the number one key to your success in selling your products online. Your site should look professional, it should be attractive in order to draw visitors, and most importantly, your site needs to be easy for customers to navigate. If they cannot find what they are looking for and easily move from one page to another, you will lose customers quickly and never get them back.

The number one goal for any e-commerce site is to make money by selling the products and services a company offers. The best way to do so is to display your products with concise descriptions and easy-to-find pricing. If it is difficult to find your products or the pricing on your site, you will lose customers, as many do not have the time or patience to find information that should be prominently displayed.

Secure Server

It is important for your e-commerce site to have a secure server to keep your business and customer financial information protected. Due to attacks by hackers and phishing schemes, many people are reluctant to use their credit or debit cards online. However, if you can assure your customers that their information is safe on your site, they will feel better about buying your products online.

When your customers purchase your products, they will enter their credit card information, name, and shipping address so they can receive their order. This is most of the information needed to steal someone’s identity, so it is important for it to be kept secure. Your company’s financial information can be at risk as well, so not only are you protecting your customers, you are protecting your own business interests by making sure the server that hosts your site has the best security possible.

Merchant Account

In order to accept payments with credit cards, you need to set up an Internet merchant account. With a merchant account, your customers can use major credit cards like Visa or MasterCard to make purchases through your site. A merchant account is simply a business and financial arrangement that you have with a credit card processing company that allows transactions to be made in real time.

Launching an e-commerce website can help established businesses find new customers by widening their audience. Instead of just having customers who visit their store, an e-commerce site allows companies to offer their products to customers across the country or around the world.

Author Bio:

Simon is a professional writer and social media enthusiasm. He suggests to readers that, with an award-winning e-commerce web design in Northern Ireland, you can sell your products to people all over the United Kingdom and across Europe.