1. ECOMM 101
WordCamp Toronto 2015
Al Davis

2. What is Ecommerce?
Ecommerce is simply commercial transactions conducted electronically
on the Internet.

3. Types of ecommerce
• B2C-physical products delivered
• Amazon, clothing stores, pizza
• B2C- Digital products
• iTunes, Kindle , plugins and themes
• B2C-Lead generation
• Big ticket items like cars, motorcycles etc.
• C2C-Consumers selling to other consumers
• Kijiji, Ebay, Craigslist, AirBnb

4. Getting started
• Know what you are going to sell and which ecommerce
model(s) your products fit in to.
• Whats your market?
• What products are you selling?
• Digital or physical delivery
• Is it a service?

5. Getting started
• Hosting account
• Finding the right provider is key
• WordPress ready
• Do they have an installer?
• Offer WordPress support?
• What is the support team like?
• Do they support all plugins and themes or is there a “blacklist”

6. Getting started
• Shopping cart software
A shopping cart is a piece of e-commerce software on a web server that
allows visitors to an Internet site to select items for eventual purchase.
Wikipedia

7. WP eCommerce
• Free Plugin
• One of the oldest
shopping carts
• Recently revamped
• Good for basic
ecommerce/ few
products

8. Cart 66
Premium Shopping cart
software
$99.00 per year

9. Shopp
Premium Shopping cart
$55.00

10. WooCommerce
Free
Best known plugin
Recently acquired by
Automattic

11. Easy Digital
Downloads
Free
Specializes in Digital
products only
Top plugin for this type
of product

12. SSL Certificates
• SSL is an acronym for Secure Socket Layer, which is an
encryption technology which was first developed by
Netscape.
• Typically, SSL is used to secure credit card transactions,
data transfer and logins, and more recently is becoming
the norm when securing browsing of social media sites
• Simplified- it makes your site secure for collecting
personal information.

13. SSL Certificates
• SSLCertifictes come in two different flavors
• Generic
• Vanity

14. SSL Certificates- Generic
• Generic SSL Certificates are provided by your hosting provider
for free
• Offer the same 128 bit security for designated pages
• Problem is the domain name your pages get after applying
cert.
• https://myhostingprovider.com/secureserver/~mydomain

15. SSL Certificates- Vanity
• Vanity SSL Certificates are provided by your hosting provider
for free
• Can cost anywhere from $50 to $450 depending on where you
buy it from
• You maintain trust with your customer
• https://www.mydomain.com
• Tip: If you are going to secure your webpages, secure all of
them. Google will like you little bit more.

16. Decisions, Decisions Decisions
• Before you set up shop there are things you should have
decided upon before starting this process:
• Fulfillment- How are you filling orders?
• You’re a one person shop , so you’ll be doing it
• You're drop shipping someone else's product , so they will do it.
• You’re shipping your product to Amazon so they can do it for you.

17. Decisions, Decisions Decisions
• Shipping:
• How are you going to ship your product(s)?
• Will you offer multiple shipping options for customers to choose
from?
• Regular
• Express
• How much will shipping cost?
• Is it built into the price or charges separate?

18. Decisions, Decisions Decisions
• Everyone loves a good sale
• Will you need to put items on sale
• Do you want to offer pre sales?
• Make sure your shopping cart plugin meets your needs

19. • Product Photography
• Most often overlooked
• Tips:
• Make sure your shots are all the same orientation- portrait or landscape
• White backgrounds are the best
• No one wants to see your kitchen counter or backsplash
• Use a high quality camera or better yet hire a pro

20. Questions?
You can reach me at:
aldavis@aldavis.org
@adavis3105