Friday, January 18, 2008

E-Commerce web development

e-commerce is a term that refers to support services for trading in goods and services electronically. Conducting of business with the assistance of telecommunications and telecommunications-based tools. It encompasses a vast array of categories. One of them is the internet.

As of today, the web is a necessity of a lot of businesses and organizations. With the increasing cost of maintaining customer satisfaction, e-commerce is seen as a direct and economical way of reaching out to the right customer. Commerce over the internet is gaining popularity, however research shows that commercial websites over the internet aren’t a huge success or atleast not as much as was expected. Probably a common man finds it too technical, too unreliable and far too scary.

E-commerce web development includes more issues and considerations than a website that does not deal in transactions or exchange of crucial information. It is not only about graphic design, encoding and customer-centered interface; it’s also about sound software development and security of information. It is also about the successful hits. A successful e-commerce portal would ensure that users who come to the website for information also use it and trust it.

General e-commerce web development solutions are widely available. For example: a shopping cart software is a generic tool to plug-in with an e-commerce website. It enables the user to select and purchase the item up for sale. However, it does not ensure privacy and is not a customized solution. Given that hackers are on a constant lookout for a way out, usually the e-commerce business owner ends up taking the loss. Similarly, there are interactive solutions like credit card processing, HTML editor, merchant account, online store builder, web-design software and such.

Customized web development for e-commerce involves exhaustive work. Initial selections like: the domain selection, merchant account provider, payment gateway processor, technology (PHP), etc. Compatibility of these, matter in the subsequent stages.

Next comes the visual design of the website. Then comes designing the architecture of the website. This involves back-end programming, server side programming, and creation of database. All necessary accounts like: Digital certificate, hosting, merchant, payment gateways are made ready for testing and implementation. Then comes the final stage wherein the functional modules are tested from the user’s perspective. Categories and sub-categories are created. Database is populated with products. And finally the images are uploaded on the website.

Given the intricacy and the risk involved, a customized solution pays off better in the long run. After all, commercial websites have higher stakes, more so if the competitor is just another click away.

Internet marketing –your key to online business success

In the recent few years internet marketing has matured from the buzzword to the byword of online business community. Internet marketing has brushed aside the conventional marketing tips and tricks and maneuvered businesses to get customers galore.

As it’s apparent from the phrase itself ‘internet marketing’ means leveraging the benefits of internet to promote and sell one’s product online. However, in this course of promotion it’s necessary to increase website’s overall visibility on the internet.

It is unreasonable to define internet marketing in a couple of words as it means different things to different people. In essence, internet marketing is a much broader domain that entails various other marketing models.

Experts categorize internet marketing into six primary sectors i.e. search engine marketing, search engine optimization, link popularity and link building, content development or copywriting, directory submission and website submission on the search engines. Other features that can be leveraged for successful internet marketing are PPC an acronym for pay-per-click and e-mail blasting.

Thus, internet marketing is a multidimensional concept that with the ingenious unison of aforesaid components can do wonders. Internet marketing entwines the creative intellect (like copywriting, designing) and technical expertise ( SEO and Link building) that facilitates business’s overall growth on online media. In a nutshell it builds and promotes the services/products online.

Copywriting can be rightly termed as the essence of internet marketing. It is the most essential tool at the end of marketers that propels customer’s buying action. While the importance of other components cannot be denied, copywriting remains the lifeline of internet marketing.

So once your site is live on the web, with results driven internet marketing methods placed strategically, the success is on the cards. Thus the bottom-line remains, if you want to mark a global footprint, internet marketing is your mantra to quick success.