Selling products online can be a perfect product sales solution for many businesses. It needs to be understood that online product sales introduce a number of unique issues. Some of these issues, such as credit card processing, may already be handled in the ‘brick-and-mortar’ store, and can be utilized in a similar manner. Other issues, such as quotes for shipping, drop shipment procedure, international shipping, etc., may need to be resolved and tested individually prior to site deployment. Also, the number and complexity of products play a very large part in the amount of work required to roll out an eCommerce Website. Much time and energy is required to create product listings, which typically include such information as the description, pictures, sizes, weights, color options, etc. Maintenance of the eCommerce Website also can be a fairly large undertaking if the product offering has a tendency to change often due to distributor changes. Finally, product return and/or exchange processes might be somewhat complicated with an online transaction. The cost to create an eCommerce Website typically ranges from $5000 to $15000 dollars depending upon the number and complexity of products and processes supported. The maintenance fees (domain name renewal, site hosting, product updates) would be expected to be around $200 per month but could go much higher according to specific client needs. One of the biggest issues with an eCommerce Website is that it MUST be up and running all the time. Any downtime in the processing of orders almost certainly leads to a loss of revenue.
