Getting Started
with E-commerce
Reid Jones
Jack Morrison
Will Robertson
Agenda
• Domain Names
• Web Hosting
• Shopping Cart Software
} Will Robertson
• Payment Processing
•
•
SSL Certificates
Fraud Prevention
} Jack Morrison
• Verified by Visa
• Shipping the Product
• Tracking Traffic & Conversions
• Advertising
} Reid Jones
Domain Names
• Register your domain name
through a registrar
o ex: GoDaddy, WebNames
• Should aim for a name that is:
o Unique
o Easy to Spell
o Available as .com and .ca
Domain Name
Hosting
• Shared
• Virtual Private Server
• Dedicated Server
Your decision depends on:
• How many visitors your website has
• How much you value reliability/stability
• Size of your budget
Shared Hosting
• One server that hosts multiple websites
• The CPU, RAM, and Bandwidth are shared
amongst customers
• Can be unstable/unreliable when other websites
on the server are overloaded
Web Server
Virtual Private Server
• One server runs multiple virtual servers on it
• Other websites cannot hog server resources
• When one virtual server fails, the others are
usually not affected
• More reliable/stable than shared hosting
Virtual Servers
Web Server
Dedicated Server
• One server that only hosts your website
• The CPU, RAM, and Bandwidth are all dedicated
to one customer
• More stable and not impacted by other websites
Web Server
Hosting Comparison
Dedicated Server
Higher
Virtual Private Server
Lower
• Cost Shared Hosting
• Performance
• Reliability
Shopping Cart Software
• Licensed
• Open Source
• Hosted
Your decision depends on:
• Your budget
• Level of Customization Desired
• Technical Capabilities
Licensed Software
• Large upfront cost
• Installs on your own server
• Can be costly to set up and maintain
• Easy access to the database
Example: Interspire
Offers Shopping Cart software that runs
on your server
Cost: $295 (lifetime license)
Open Source Software
• Free
• Very customizable and easy to integrate
• Installs on your own server
• Very secure
• Can require some technical knowledge to setup
• Easy access to the database
Example: osCommerce
The leading open source shopping cart,
powering more than 12,000 active online
stores
Cost: Free
Hosted Software
• Pay a monthly subscription cost for software (that
includes hosting)
• Do not have to worry about server
setup/maintenance
• May cost more over a long period of time
Example: Shopify
An Ottawa based startup that provides
Hosted E-commerce shopping cart
software
Cost: $24 - $699 per month
Hosting/Software Cost - Small Store
Open
Licensed Hosted
Source
SOFTWARE $295 upfront $0 $59 monthly
COST
HOSTING
COST $50 monthly $50 monthly $0
TOTAL COST
after one year $895 $600 $708
TOTAL COST
after five years
$3,295 $3,000 $3,540
Hosting cost based on GoDaddy.com VPS hosting
visit willw.net for more
Will Robertson
December 2, 2009