Is your store of business bulging with inventory and slowed down because of poor market presence? You may have been strictly a “brick-and-mortar-hands-on” type eager to soar into the vast market of the Internet, but were reluctant to go the ecommerce hosting route. Your reasons for that reluctance are your own business, but if you’re ready, here are some things to consider that might get you more comfortable with the ecommerce hosting world.
Functional and attractive ecommerce sites created by third parties are hot!
Ecommerce hosting is a growing trend and is the platform of choice in supporting a many businesses' web presence with order processing. We’re still in a recession, but according to Kristi Carter of the Adotas web site:
“…e-commerce experts estimate that online retail sales will continue to grow and expect spending to reach $224.2 billion in 2012. Small to medium-sized companies are heeding their warning and optimistically increasing their online marketing efforts so they can compete with large multinationals to gain these shoppers’ attention and money.”
Why not develop your own ecommerce work in-house?
The average small to medium businessperson would probably answer that question with, “because I can’t do it; I don’t have the time to do it; and I don’t have the resources to hire another person to do it!”
Also, there are compelling security and fraud-prevention considerations in conducting financial transactions on line that discourage the average business from developing their ecommerce platform in-house.
Then there are pesky problems like applying taxes, adhering to international commerce laws and dealing with the credit card companies. What about fluctuating currency conversion rates, and how do you handle the inevitable merchandise returns and refunds?
Main advantages of an outsourced ecommerce site
To begin with, choosing an outsourced and readymade ecommerce platform quickly gets you past the aforementioned aggravating and worrying security and compliance hurdles. There are others, though:
- The software and support system are already developed.
- You can customize your ecommerce hosting with your products and prices that integrate “buy” links in your website.
- You can use your own shopping cart to save time and integrate the credit card compliance checking.
- Very important! Your system can be security-bug free when you outsource to an ecommerce source that is PCI – DSS compliant. That is the security standard that credit card companies accept for card security for prevention, detection and taking swift action on security problems.
Want to know more?
AbleCommerce has been in the ecommerce business since 1993. We have what you need to bust out of the brick-and-mortar boundaries to establish or expand your ecommerce. Contact us and get your 30-day free trial on our server or yours!
