Process of develop an E Commerce website.

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Table Of Content
Page no
1. Abstract----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01
1.1 Platform and Theme ------------------------------------------------------------------- 01
1.2 E-commerce Plug-in ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 01
1.3 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -------------------------------------------------- 01
1.4 Website Content ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01
1.5 Check-out Process ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 01
1.6 Marketing Strategy --------------------------------------------------------------------- 02
2. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 02
3. Literature Review ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03
3.1The Digital Divide----------------------------------------------------------------------- 04
3.2Selecting Your Web Host for E-commerce --------------------------------------------- 04
3.3Countries and Cultures ---------------------------------------------------------------- 05
3.4E-Commerce and Social Networking Success ------------------------------------- 05
3.5Picking a Payment Solution ------------------------------------------------------------ 06
3.6Choosing a Shopping Cart—or Creating Your Own ----------------------------------- 06
3.7Developing a Model of E-Commerce Success ------------------------------------- 07
3.8What is an SSL Certificate? ---------------------------------------------------------------- 08
3.9Choosing the Right SSL Provider ---------------------------------------------------------- 08
3.10Types of SSL Certificates ------------------------------------------------------------------ 09
4.Suggestions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 09
4.1 Trust & Security------------------------------------------------------------------------- 09
4.2 Create a User-Friendly Site ----------------------------------------------------------- 09
4.3 Site Speed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
4.4 Provide Meticulous Details ------------------------------------------------------------ 10
4.5 Reviews & Testimonials --------------------------------------------------------------- 10
5. Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
6. References ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

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Abstract
E-commerce has become one of the fastest-growing industries in the past few years. As per the
stats, 60% of buyers plan to spend more money via online shopping. There is no doubt that
developing an e-commerce website is the latest trend for online businesses. In this blog, we will
analyze the 6 key factors to the success of an online store.
1. Platform and Theme
Choosing an appropriate platform is the first and foremost step you need to do to build a sales-
driven e-commerce site. There are various platforms to choose from: Word Press, Magneto,
Shopify, Joomla, Drupal, Zen Cart, Open Cart, Prestashop, ecommerce, etc.
2. E-commerce Plug-in
E-commerce plugins are essential for any online store. In general, they help with adding a
shopping store to your site, installing payment gateways, and keeping track of sales performance.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Sales are definitely the vital purpose for running an e-commerce website. If you want to increase
your sales and outpoint your competitors, SEO is a must. Search Engine Optimization helps your
site to show up when someone searches for your merchandise, and therefore increases your
visibility and the possibility of conversion.
4. Website Content
Make sure that your information is precise, up-to-date and helpful. Your clients need a clear,
detailed and easy-to-understand text, so try not using long sentences or academic terms in
product descriptions, support sections or any other part of the site. “A picture is worth a thousand
words”. Instead of a whole bunch of text, utilizing images will make the site more appealing and
lively.
5. Check-out Process
Firstly, pay attention to budget allocation. Make sure that you have listed down all the
predictable expenses; for instance: hosting fees, license fees, and acquisition costs through
advertising (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc). Then, define the ultimate price for each item.
Finally, clarify how many stages in the check-out process you want your clients to pass through.

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6. Marketing Strategy
Once your site is ready, you will need to follow several steps to bring it closer to your customers.
There are different ways to initiate and run a marketing strategy: by yourself or via an
advertising agency, organic or paid search, Google Ads or Facebook Ads, Mobile Search or
Desktop Search, etc. Each method has its own Pros and Cons. Depending on your scale and
business type, pick the most suitable ones.
Introduction
Over the past 10 years, e-commerce has been one of the fastest growing segments of the retail
industry. That may seem obvious to anyone who has ever shopped online, but the size and
speed of the boom has been truly astounding. There are already hundreds of thousands of
online stores around the world wide web, and according to some estimates, merchants open
20,000 new e-commerce storefronts every week.1 The popularity of the online marketplace
shows no signs of slowing, so now may be the perfect time to start selling on the web. There
are more options for creating an e-commerce site than ever before. You can work with an e-
commerce platform provider to set up an online store, or you may want to let web
professionals handle the design and development of your site from start to finish. Working with
services like these offer some convenience, but if you want additional flexibility and control,
your best bet may be to create your site on your own. With a little know-how and some easy-
to-use tools, you can develop an e-commerce site that looks and functions exactly the way you
want, helping you meet the needs of your customers and your business more effectively. In this
guide, you’ll learn about what goes into creating your own do-it-yourself (DIY) e-commerce web
site, from picking the right tools and services you’ll need to create your web pages, to selecting
the best hosting provider and payment solution to fit your business, to figuring out the best
security for your site. Choosing Your Web Design Tools After you have your business plan in
place and are ready to focus on your new online venture, it’s time to start creating your e-
commerce web site. The first step is selecting the tools you want to use to design and code your
site. You can start from scratch and code everything by hand, but this requires solid knowledge
of HTML, PHP, MySQL, and other programming languages. To shorten the learning curve, you
might want to invest in web design software like Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression
Web. Depending on what version you buy, these programs can run anywhere from $50 to $300.
If you don’t have the budget to spend on software, there are also several free open source
options to choose from, including KompoZer and BlueGriffon (formerly Nvu). While they may
not offer all of the sophisticated features that paid software does, these open source programs
are still powerful and easy to use. Everyone likes different web tools for different reasons, so
it’s hard to say which will be the best program for you. However, there are some key elements
you should look for in any software. An easy-to-use interface is important, especially if you’re

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less familiar with HTML and would prefer to work with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) application. WYSIWYG HTML editors allow you to design your site by clicking and dragging
elements and inserting text
and links like you would in a word processing program. While you design your site, the
WYSIWYG editor will generate the HTML code for you. Many of these editors will allow you to
toggle between the visual layout and the site code, giving you flexibility to tweak the HTML to
see how it affects the page layout, and vice versa. If your web site is small and simple,
HTML/CSS is fine. On the other hand, if the content or structure of your e-commerce site is
going to change frequently, you may want to consider an open source content management
system (CMS) such as Joomla and Drupal. A CMS is software that allows users to add new web
pages—or change content on existing pages— quick and easily. With a CMS in place, you won’t
need to worry about coding new content in HTML because the system will do it for you. When
you’re considering which web site building tools to use, you should make sure that the
applications you choose support all of the functionalities that you want in your web site. For
example, if you plan to use a MySQL database to power your product catalog, be sure that you
can integrate it into your site using the program you decide to go with. If you’re not completely
sure about the functionalities you may need, spend some time exploring web sites that you like
and pay special attention to the features that appeal to you the most. Aside from product
catalogs, many e-commerce sites offer newsletter registration forms, customer support
widgets, and other elements that make a site more interactive. After you have a list of features
you want on your site, do a little research to learn more about the technologies behind them.
Literature Review
While the concept of e-commerce may no longer be considered new in concept, an important
part of e-commerce that is still relatively new is the use of social media, such as Facebook,
MySpace, and Twitter, as a way for internet-based companies to connect directly with customers
and attempt to sell products or services. The trend in e-commerce is to rely heavily on social
networking sites because of the ability that they provide to connect directly with customers
regardless of location and in a way that builds a loyal and trusting relationships between buyer
and seller (Lai and Turban 400). However, it is important to examine a full range of issues
related to the e-commerce strategy of using social networking as a way to attempt to connect
with customers and increase revenues. Issues such as the issue of the digital divide between
countries around the world, and even the way in which the cultures and customs of countries can
impact the use of social media, and in turn, impact the e-commerce efforts of companies that
make social networking a focal point of their e-commerce strategies must be examined.
Information about the actual success of e-commerce strategies that are based around social
networking and the idea that the digital divide has been reduced because of the ease with which
people can communicate will also be examined.In this review of recent academic literature
regarding e-commerce related to the use of social networking technologies, information about

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the digital divide between countries and the impact that cultures can have on e-commerce
strategies are reviewed. Even more, with the academic literature that is reviewed, the variables
that are important for e-commerce companies to attract more customers and to develop
additional e-commerce ventures that will actually be successful will be discussed.
The Digital Divide
The ability for companies to not only operate entirely over the internet, but to also sell to clients
entirely over the internet, has raised the issue about whether the digital divide that exists between
peoples and countries around the world is being reduced. As more companies operate entirely
online, previous ideas of economic conditions in a single country or in a single region of the
world seem to become less important. Instead, products can be bought and sold without concern
about political and economic boundaries (Pratt 434). One of the arguments that has been made
about the decrease in the digital divide is the way in which the internet allows people in
developing nations have the same access to products and services as people in developed nations,
which is actually improved even more with the use of social media. Kaplan and Haenlein noted
in their research that only 13% of the citizens of Thailand actually have internet access, but 82%
of the citizens of Thailand have cellular phones and devices (67). The researchers indicated that
these statistics are important because even though they may not have internet access, they can
use their phones and use social networking tools to have the same access to companies as people
in a developed nation such as the United States or the United Kingdom. In this regard, the digital
divide between people around the world is reduced in relation to e-commerce strategies that
focus on social networking tools because more people actually have access. A computer that is
connected to the intenet is no longer required to have access.
Selecting Your Web Host for E-commerce
Now that you’ve got an idea about how you’re going to build your web site, you need to think
about where to host it. There are hundreds of different web hosting providers to choose from,
so how can you be sure you’re making the best decision? Even though it may seem like a
daunting choice, picking the provider that’s right for you can be an easy decision if you pay
attention to a few key issues. The first is price, and while it’s easy to do a quick price
comparison on the web, the cheapest host you can find may not always be the best. Providers
that have lower prices sometimes skimp in other areas, like customer service or technical
support. You should also be on the lookout for providers that may offer low prices up front, but
then run up charges with hidden fees. In addition to price, you should also consider the type of
features offered by a hosting provider. Since PHP and MySQL currently play an integral role in
creating dynamic, interactive e-commerce web sites, picking a host that offers compatibility
with these languages should be at the top of your list. If you’re interested in having email
addresses that match your domain name—an important factor when considering how you will
communicate with your customers and any employees you may have—access to an email
server is critical. Host-based security services, like firewalls and virus detection, are also must-

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haves. It’s also a good idea to check how much uptime a hosting provider guarantees. A high
uptime percentage helps to ensure that your web site will be available when a visitor types
your web address into a browser or finds your site via a search engine. Choosing a host
thatoffers frequent backups is also a safe bet just in case your site goes down and you need to
recover your files. Last but not least, if you’re new to building web sites, then finding a hosting
provider that offers solid customer and technical support should also be a top priority. A good
hosting provider will be able to answer any questions you may have during your site launch and
should be able to help you quickly address any day-to-day problems that may arise.
Countries and Cultures
The literature that was reviewed in the previous section and the analysis that was provided would
seem to already address the issue of the impact of countries and cultures on e-commerce
strategies related to the use of social networking as a way to connect with customers and increase
revenues. However, a slightly more in-depth and focused examination of the issue of country
differences and the cultural impact on social networking as an e-commerce strategy seems
important given the analysis conducted by Van Dijck and Nieborg in which the researchers argue
that many of the assumptions and arguments that are made about the impact that current
technologies have on the ability to bring people together are not accurate and are even simplistic
in nature (855).
Van Dijck and Nieborg argued from their research that the internet and interactive media, such as
social networking, have not created the collectivist culture that some in the business and internet
communities have talked about (870). Instead, the researchers explained that even though social
networking and other interactive communications tools may bring people together, they will still
behave based on their own desires, as well as based on their cultural backgrounds and
experiences. In this way, researchers should think about finding the actual similarities that exist
between people as they access the internet. At the same time, researchers and business leaders in
the e-commerce sector should actually think about the way in which people who use social
networking and who engage in e-commerce diverge in terms of their actions and behaviors.
E-Commerce and Social Networking Success
Moscato and Moscato investigated the success of e-commerce strategies in relation to the recent
social networking technologies and similar interactive media technologies (272-273). The
researchers found that the use of e-commerce strategies based on interactivity over the internet,
such as social networking, has not been successful for the e-commerce industry. Instead, the
researchers investigated the number of page views to e-commerce web sites. The data collected
by the researchers found that only 10 e-commerce sites accounted for 40% of the traffic to the e-
commerce web sites. The conclusion that can be drawn from these findings is that the use of
social networking to communicate directly with customers is not enough for e-commerce
success.

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Picking a Payment Solution
After deciding where you’ll set up shop on the web, the next step is choosing a method to accept
payments on your site. The payment process is what puts the “commerce” in “e-commerce.”
There are two kinds of payment systems that you should consider for your site: a payment
processor and a payment gateway. Payment processors, like PayPal Website Payments Standard
and Google Checkout, will send a customer to a checkout page that is hosted by the processing
company. After customers submit their credit card information, they will be sent back to your
web site. In contrast, payment gateways—such as Authorize.net—integrate directly with your
shopping cart and the transaction is essentially invisible to your customer. There are pros and
cons for payment processors and payment gateways that you should weigh. For some web site
owners, payment processors can be easier to use because they do not require any backend
integration with web sites. When you use a payment processor, you also don’t have to worry
about securing financial transactions because the processing web site will take care of it for you.
However, a payment processor will also take your customers away from your site during
checkout, a process that may cause confusion and may give them second thoughts about
completing their transaction. Payment gateways require more technical know-how, and you will
have to obtain an SSL certificate to protect credit card transactions on your site (learn more about
SSL security below). Even with these additional considerations, a payment gateway will keep
customers at your web site during the transaction, making the user experience smoother and
more professional.Before you decide on a payment processor or gateway, you should also
research the transaction, set up, and service fees that each provider charges. Average charges
vary widely across the industry, with some processors charging a cash fee plus a percentage of
eachtransaction (for example, PayPal charges 30 cents plus 2.9 percent of every transaction for
merchants who receive $3,000 or less per month in payments). Setup fees for gateways can cost
anywhere from $99 to $299, and fees typically range from 10 to 50 cents per transaction.
Merchants with high sales volumes can often find providers that offer a fixed monthly rate for
transactions. It is often best to start with your own bank to see what merchant solutions for credit
card processing they recommend. While set up costs and fees and important, there are a few
more features that you should think about before making a decision. Check to see whether the
payment services provider you’re interested in offers automatic tax calculations. This will make
it much easier to figure out how much sales tax you should be collecting and will cut down on
accounting headaches during tax season. Also be sure to find out if the processor or gateway you
want to use can automatically calculate shipping charges. With this kind of service, you’ll know
exactly how much to charge your customers so shipping costs won’t eat into your bottom line.
Choosing a Shopping Cart—or Creating Your Own
At brick-and-mortar stores, shoppers pick items from shelves, put them in a cart or basket, and
usually bring them to a cashier when they’re finished shopping. You’ll need to set up a similar
system—commonly called a shopping cart solution—for your online store. Typically, shopping
cart software allows people to select items from web pages, add them to their “cart,” and walk
them through the purchase process when they are ready to check out. Most shopping carts will
also include taxes and shipping charges to give customers a total for their order. When

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choosing a shopping cart to go with your payment processing solution, make sure it’s supported
by your hosting provider and look to see if the cart offers the payment and shipping options you
need. There are a number of open source carts with active communities like osCommerce and
Zen Cart, as well as GeoTrust Partner solutions like 3dcart.com. You can also create your own
shopping cart using web page authoring programs like Dreamweaver or programming it from
scratch using PHP, MySQL, and other web programs and languages. SSL Security: An Absolute
Must-Have for Your Site A nice site design and seamless integration with a payment system are
great, but they won’t mean a thing if you and your customers aren’t protected from fraud and
theft. Security is one of the biggest concerns that shoppers have when it comes to buying
online. In fact, a recent survey found that 45 percent of consumers are worried about identity
theft when they buy on the web.2 Even more troubling for e-commerce business owners,
security concerns like these have a serious impact on consumer behavior. The National Cyber
Security Alliance recently found that a majority of Americans—64 percent—have abandoned an
online purchase because they were not certain that a web site was secure.3 Given these fears,
SSL security is critical to your web site. With an SSL certificate, you’ll be able to prevent
cybercriminals from intercepting financial data as it’s transmitted over the internet. Not only
that, but you’ll also be able to show your customers that your business is legitimate and can be
trusted.
Developing a Model of E-Commerce Success
Within the academic literature, several important variables have been noted to attract greater
success with regards to e-commerce. One of the variables that has been noted within the
academic literature as being important for e-commerce success with regards to the use of social
networking technologies is actually providing information and content that is actually useful to
the target audience (Yang, Kim and Dhalwani 9-10). E-commerce must be focused on the ability
to connect with potential customers based on their needs and desires as opposed to the needs and
desires of an e-commerce firm or organizations that are attempting to expand e-commerce in a
particular country.
Another important variable that has been addressed within the academic literature in relation to
e-commerce expansion and success is the actual means by which information is disseminated to
the target audience (Waters, Burnett, Lamm and Lucas 104). While there are a variety of ways to
communicate with people via the internet, such as a variety of social networking sites and
services, a particular target audience may use a specific social networking service. Using a social
networking service, or even using an actual means of information distribution over the internet
that does not allow for potential e-commerce customers to be reached will not result in success.

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What is an SSL Certificate?
SSL certificates are bits of code that you install on your site that will encrypt logins, passwords,
credit card numbers and other information so that hackers can’t intercept the data and decode
it. After an SSL certificate is installed on a site, it uses an extensive system of security checks to
establish a domain and server as trustworthy. To encrypt logins, registration forms, credit card
transactions and other situations where sensitive information needs to be sent between web
browsers and servers, an SSL certificate uses a private “key”—essentially a long string of
complex code—that is unique to the individual server that hosts the web site and a public key
that is sent to web browsers. The private key can only be “unlocked” by the public key, and vice
versa, helping to ensure that the data remains secure. The vast majority of businesses obtain
SSL certificates from third-party providers called Certificate Authorities (CAs). In addition to
providing the SSL certificate, a CA will also authenticate a business to help ensure that the
company represented by the web site actually exists. For example, GeoTrust will check domain
registration information and request business registration documents to verify a web site
owner’s identity and location. SSL is now considered a standard internet security technology,
but that doesn’t mean that all SSL certificates and providers are the same. Just like picking your
design tools and your web host, there are several important factors you should think about
before you select a CA and an SSL certificate.
Choosing the Right SSL Provider
Before you worry about any technical specifications, finding a credible SSL provider that has a
strong reputation for online security should be a top concern. Why is this so important? With
SSL security from a well-known CA like GeoTrust, your visitors will know that your company has
been verified by an objective third party recognized for its strong security practices. People will
be more likely to buy when they know that their information is protected and your business is
safe, helping you turn that 64 percent of shoppers who have abandoned an online purchase
into paying customers. Without legitimate SSL security, you run the risk of losing business
because customers won’t recognize that your site is safe. Even worse, it can take just one
fraudulent incident to damage your business reputation, even if it wasn’t your fault. Customers
may still blame you and tell everyone they know—from family, to coworkers, to a potential
audience of millions on popular social media sites like Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter—that your
site can’t be trusted. Along with the reputation of your SSL provider, you also need to research
what type of SSL certificate will be best for your site. Fortunately, this shouldn’t take too much
of your time since there are only three types of SSL certificate that you need to learn about:
Extended Validation, organization validation, and domain validation.

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Types of SSL Certificates
Domain validated SSL is a basic certificate that provides encryption and only verifies that the
person applying for the certificate has the right to use a specific domain name. These
certificates are ideal for business owners who want to get a certificate as quickly as possible,
however, they represent the lowest level of SSL security. Organization validated SSL, on
theother hand, also confirms that a company is a confirmed legal entity and establishes a
physical location for that organization, giving customers more assurance that the business is
legitimate. When people click an on organization validated certificate, it will display your
company name, and trust marks provided by CAs may also display your business name.
GeoTrust offers a domain validated SSL product—QuickSSL Premium—as well as an
organization validated certificate called True BusinessID SSL. For sites that handle financial
transactions, Extended Validation (EV) is your best bet. In addition to the encryption and
authentication that organization validation provides, EV SSL also offers a clear sign that your
web site is safe: the address bar in high-security browsers will turn green and show the name of
your company as well as the name of your SSL provider. EV SSL requires a more thorough
authentication process, but many businesses experience increased conversions and higher sales
thanks to the green address bar and recent research shows that top performing sites are more
likely to use EV SSL.4 If you’re looking for an EV SSL certificate, GeoTrust True BusinessID with
EV is an ideal choice.
Suggestions
1. Trust & Security
Perhaps the most important trait in a quality e-commerce business is creating a sense of trust and
security between both customers and merchants. If a shopper is going to give you confidential
information including credit card numbers, addresses, phone numbers and the like then they need
to feel as though you are a reputable business. In today?s world, there is a constant threat of
identity theft and credit card scams. This is why the credit card companies have banded together
to create the PCI (Payment Card Industry) and the new industry standard for e-commerce ? the
PA-DSS (Payment Application ? Data Security Standard). All e-commerce sites need to ensure
they are using certified payment applications, such as shopping carts. Furthermore, the use of
SSL certificates to encrypt private data is a must in order to be PCI Compliant. Ask your web
host if they offer PCI Compliant Hosting and make sure your shopping cart software and other
applications are DSS certified in order to protect yourself, your customers and your livelihood. If
you are non-compliant, you risk having your merchant accounts terminated or face increased fees
and costly fines that could very well put you out of business.
2. Create a User-Friendly Site
Your site must be user-friendly. Not everyone is a computer expert so making your site as
intuitive as possible is very important. Customers should be able to find items they are searching

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for easily and the checkout process and shipping and return terms and policies should be laid out
clearly. As a merchant utilizing e-commerce hosting services, you should also have your site
organized in an easy to understand fashion so that items are easily found when users are
browsing through categories.
3. Site Speed
The speed of your site is highly important these days and it is becoming more important
everyday. Google and other search engines are using site speed as a ranking factor in the SERP
(search engine results pages). Moreover, online shoppers conduct business online to save time so
if you have a slow site, they will simply move on to your competition. Let’s face it — people
shop online to save time. Customers do not like a slow site. You will need to make sure that your
business web hosting provider has fast servers and that your site is performing to the best of its
capabilities for the amount of traffic you generate. Make sure that you choose a web host that can
expand with you as your business grows or that understands how to deal with increasing traffic
to your site. For example, many e-commerce businesses experience traffic bursts during the
holiday season. You do not want to lose valuable sales because of lagging servers and the like. It
is worth paying a few extra dollars in hosting costs in order to make sure your site is operating to
the best of its ability.
4. Provide Meticulous Details
Another key to online business success is to provide detailed product images and descriptions.
Online customers want to know as best as they can what they are ordering or else they will not
feel comfortable ordering from your site. You should have high-resolution photos of your
products as well as detailed text descriptions. In fact, there is no such thing as too much detail.
When a shopper cannot physically hold the product they are purchasing in their hands, they need
to know as much information about it as possible. Keep in mind that you can also include videos
of your products.
5. Reviews & Testimonials
One of the most important features to include in your website is customer testimonials regarding
your products and/or services. If a person does a web search for your company and ?reviews,?
you never want anything negative to come up. Negative reviews can last forever and are very
detrimental to your site. If you can place a page of positive reviews and testimonials on your site,
people will take notice. This is also important in establishing customer relationships because
people like to know that their opinion matters and this is an excellent way to get referrals and
repeat customers. These opinions are also crucial in developing your marketing strategies.
Conclusion
The literature that has been reviewed with regards to e-commerce strategies and the trend of
social networking have demonstrated that while the digital divide is decreasing, simply making
products or services available over the internet is not enough to overcome all of the barriers that
exist with regards to accessing the internet in order to be able to communicate with online
companies and engage in e-commerce activities. Countries around the world have different
levels of e-readiness that is based largely on the desire of people to engage in e-commerce

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activities. However, the desire to engage in e-commerce activities is not merely an indication of
the desire of a country’s leaders or people to have access to the internet or to make purchases on
the internet. Instead, the income and education of the people in a country, as well as the larger
issues of war and poverty impact whether people are knowledgeable about the internet and their
ability to take part in e-commerce. Even more, the importance of day-to-day survival can mean
that the importance of the internet is of much less concern, and certainly any desire or ability to
engage in e-commerce activities may not be important at all.
In order for e-commerce ventures to be successful, several variables have been identified within
the academic literature as being significant. The variables that are important in relation to e-
commerce venture success are specialization of the content and specific means of
communication, working to improve the internet infrastructure of countries as much as possible,
and working to obtain the trust of potential e-commerce customers. By addressing these
variables, success and growth in e-commerce is possible.
E-commerce has made it possible for entrepreneurs to extend their reach farther than they
could have ever imagined. You’ve just read about all of the different components that go into
creating an e-commerce web site, but here’s a quick recap that will help you put everything into
place:
1. Choose your web design tools — Determine what tools you’re going to use to design and
your site.
2. Select your web host — Find a hosting provider that can accommodate all of the tools you
want to use and offers the features you need.
3. Pick a payment solution — Weigh your options to see if a payment processor or gateway is
right for you.
4. Choose or create a shopping cart — Your customers are going to need a way to select items
and buy them, so find a shopping cart solution that meets your needs.
5. Obtain credible SSL security — Work with a provider like Geo Trust to get credible SSL
protection for your site.
With the rise of identity theft and malware, item five is particularly important. If customers
don’t believe that a site is secure, they won’t choose to spend their hard-earned money there.
By using a reliable SSL certificate provider, you’ll be able to arm your site against online threats
and send your customers a clear message that your company can be trusted. Not all SSL
certificates are equal, however. Using the information in this guide, be sure to invest in a
solution from a credible provider like GeoTrust that will help you build confidence in your site,
communicate your commitment to online safety, and protect your business. Taking the time to
find the right SSL certificate for your site now will pay off in the future, helping to ensure that
your business is a success.

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References
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ARPA (DARPA). (2004) . Velocity guide. Retrieved from
http://www.velocityguide.com/internet-history/ arpa-darpa.html
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