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Adding e-commerce features to your web site allows customers to complete a purchase online without ever speaking to your staff. E-commerce web sites are more expensive to create and also require more ongoing maintenance work, but they can easily pay off by directly increasing your sales. Here are some of the things to keep in mind about e-commerce.

Is e-commerce right for you?
For some businesses, e-commerce is a natural fit. Retailers of small consumer items – clothes, gifts, books, electronics, packaged foods – are a perfect example. The products are easy to choose, commonly sold online, and inexpensive to ship.

For other businesses, e-commerce isn't necessarily a good fit – but that doesn't mean you can't improve sales through your web site.

• For products where the purchasing decision is more complex, consider an 'option picker' that helps walk potential customers through their choices and the associated prices. At the end of the online process, provide a prominent email link or telephone number to contact you for assistance.
• Service-based business can conduct a different type of e-commerce by allow web site visitors to book appointments online and hold them with a credit card. Generally the actual payment for the service occurs when they come in, but an online reservation system can help improve business.
• If an in-person demonstration is an essential part of the buying decision, consider having a feature on your site that lets prospects schedule a demo at their location or yours.

What e-commerce features do you need?
The shopping cart is the most familiar symbol of e-commerce. You'll want an e-commerce system that lets customers browse through different areas of your online store and collect all their purchases into a single order.

Most professional e-commerce systems will calculate appropriate taxes and shipping costs, but you may have to do some setup work: entering shipping costs for each item in your store, for example.

One common complication is items that have multiple options: colors, sizes, and the like. The simplest version has just one option per item; slightly more complex systems can handle items with two or three options; much more robust systems can handle pricing that changes based on the options or certain combinations of options that aren't available. Think through the types of products and options they have carefully before you talk to an e-commerce provider.

Any worthwhile e-commerce system should connect to your merchant account to accept credit cards for payment. Make sure the system uses SSL, the current standard for online credit card security.

Other popular features include automated emails to customers, coupons or discount codes, and "related items" links. Whatever features you think might be useful to your customers, chances are someone has already thought of them.

Comparing e-commerce systems
In most cases, developers will use an existing e-commerce engine that can be integrated into your site. They'll be able to customize the front end to match the look of the rest of your site, but they won't have to start building the system from scratch. Definitely take the time to try out another site that uses the same e-commerce system. See how easy it is to use, and how well it's integrated with the rest of that site.

Also make sure you take a look at the back end of the e-commerce systems you're evaluating. The back end is the interface you'll use to manage your store, including adding new products, reviewing and tracking orders, and making other changes. You want it to be fast and easy to understand. It should have flexible reporting options so you can see how sales are doing, as well.