2. Agenda
1 ........... What is E-Commerce?
2 ........... 3 Key Elements
3 ........... Open Source Options
4 ........... Costs & Pricing Models
5 ........... Driving traffic to your store
6 ........... Measuring performance
Friday, January 25, 13
3. What is E-Commerce?
Electronic commerce, commonly know as e-
commerce, is the buying and selling of a product
or service over electronic systems such as the
Internet and other computer networks.
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4. 3 Key Elements
1. Merchant Account
A special type of bank account that enables a business
to accept credit and debit card payments (Visa,
Mastercard, American Express, Discover, etc.) These
accounts may be provided directly by a merchant
acquiring bank, or by an aggregator such as Paypal.
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5. 3 Key Elements
2. Payment Gateway
The Internet equivalent of a Point of Sale (POS) or
credit card terminal. The interface for getting an
approval or rejection of a transaction by a “payment
processor” and merchant account.
PayPal offers both a Merchant Account and Payment
Gateway packaged as one product/service.
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6. 3 Key Elements
3. Shopping Cart
Picture a store front on the web, including window
shopping, carts or baskets, aisles of products, and cash
registers. A “shopping cart” refers to the piece of web
based software that manages all the products in your
store and helps your process and keep track of orders.
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7. Open Source Options
Language: PHP / MySQL
Dev Level: Basic
Cost/Fees: Free
Offers an ‘out of the box’ solution with install and setup
with minimal manual intervention and configuration.
Provided by default, is everything you would expect with
core e-commerce functionality.
Friday, January 25, 13
8. Open Source Options
Language: PHP / MySQL
Dev Level: Basic
Cost/Fees: Free, with premium upgrades
Most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress CMS,
100% customizable, streamlined checkout, integrates
with Google Checkout and Paypal, with built in shipping
calculators.
Friday, January 25, 13
9. Open Source Options
Language: PHP / MySQL
Dev Level: Advanced
Cost/Fees: Free
Integrates with Drupal’s CMS or as a standalone site.
An excellent range of features are provided with the
default core, everything that you would expect to get up
and running straight away.
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10. Open Source Options
Language: PHP / MySQL
Dev Level: Advanced
Cost/Fees: Free
Customizable, PCI-DSS compliant, e-commerce solution
that will handle everything from Web store set-up to
managing customers and orders.
Friday, January 25, 13
11. Open Source Options
Language: PHP / MySQL
Dev Level: Advanced
Cost/Fees: Both free and paid plans available
Enterprise level solution that requires an experienced
developer or someone familiar with the structure and
functionality of the complex set-up.
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12. Costs & Pricing Models
Discount/Interchange Rate: % of the transaction
amount (1-6%)
Per Transaction fee: between $0.05 and $0.45 per
transaction is split between gateway and merchant
account
Monthly fees: Can be charged on gateways, merchant
accounts, etc. and usually depend upon the integration
method used.
Friday, January 25, 13
13. Costs & Pricing Models
Chargeback fee: if a customer disputes a charge
with his/her credit card company, you are immediately
charged a fee ($20+)
Application fee: for setup; usually charged for a
merchant account and can range from $49-$300, if
charged at all
** Paypal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout use flat rate
structures that make these fees more predictable.
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14. Driving Traffic to Your Store
Affiliate Programs: pay a % of sales generated to
advertising/marketing partners
Advertising: Cost-per-click
Word of Mouth: social media and other refer a
friend techniques
Email Campaigns: online equivalent of direct
mailers, coupons in the newspaper, and etc.
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15. Measuring Performance
How will you know when your website is successful?
The same way you know your business is successful. Set
goals and measure your results.
Without measurement, it’s easy to spend money on
your website, social media, online advertising, etc.
without knowing what is truly driving buying decisions.
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16. What do I measure?
KPI’s (Key Performance Measurements):
- What search engines, referrers, email campaigns, and
other marketing materials are generating sales?
- How long does a customer spend on your site?
- How many visits does it take before a customer makes
a purchase?
- How much revenue is generated by each of my
initiates?
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17. How do I measure? Google Analytics!
ASarah Davis
service offered by Google that generates detailed
statistics about the visits to a website. The product is
Digital Strategist
aimed at marketers, as opposed to webmasters from
@SDavis_
which the industry of web analytics originally grew. It
is the most widely used website statistics service.
Tracks visitors from all referrers, including organic
search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click
networks, e-mail marketing, and digital collateral (such
as links within PDF documents).
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18. Real-Time Data
Sarah Davis
Digital Strategist
@SDavis_
Friday, January 25, 13
20. Key Takeaways
Sarah Davis
Educate yourself on the different merchant
1 accounts
Digital Strategist and payment gateways
@SDavis_
Choose an E-Commerce platform that fits
2 your business needs
Know the fees associated with accepting
3 payment
Track ALL your marketing activities & analyze
4 the traffic visiting your website
Friday, January 25, 13
21. Thank You!
More Questions? Get in touch!
Sarah Davis
(p) 614.289.7900
(e) sarah@buckeyeinteractive.com
(t) @SDavis_
Friday, January 25, 13
