eCommerce

(getting people to buy your things)

about eCommerce

eCommerce is a 2 faceted issue:

Selling products online, including taking payments
The eCommerce shopping cart system (the program that makes it all happen)

Open Source

We are great believers of open source software. Not only is open source generally more secure and robust, it also prevents you suffering any vendor-lock-in and gives you more freedom.

Our eCommerce solutions are usually built around (or wholly using) the Magento (http://www.magentocommerce.com/) shopping cart; which uses zend in php to essentially be awesome at what it does. What Magento does is it lists out all of your products and allows users to browse through them, adding the ones they like to a 'shopping basket', and then buying them all at the end of their visit. Magento also has search engine friendly features and a really good stock and order control system built into it (another reason why we use it if we can).

You might not need something as elaborate as Magento, and we can certainly work on very-small-scale eCommerce projects based on a narrow product ranges.

Your Products

Going back to the trust theme we've been espousing in our core web design (www.latech.co.uk/web-design-west-midlands.html) business: a decent shopping cart such as Magento, the well-recognised payment gateway PayPal, coupled with expert design from latech.co.uk will give users the confidence that you're ligimate and that you mean business (pun intended).

We will also help you describe your products and present them appropriately on your site, again building trust. products comprehensively and honestly described are big trust builders.

what's involved?

Firstly, we'll liaise with you to establish exactly what you need. We'll then give you a ball-park cost estimate for the project and a timescale.

Once you've hired us, we'll draw up a contract that acknowledges the fee and exactly what content you'll be provided with. It will have our terms and conditions in, and it will also state what we need from you: such as text for web pages or photos of your products for example. In all, the contract isn't all that extravagant, just an outline of what is going to happen.

Then we start to grapple building the project, conducting all sorts of arcane techocraft. At the end of it, your website will be better placed in the search engines.

what does it cost?

We have a standard rate of £20 per hour for eCommerce work: we'll calculate how much a project will cost based on this.

Generally you'll need some web design services along with the eCommerce in order to make your new shopping cart look amazing (again building trust in your customers' eyes).

Depending on the depth involved, a typical eCommerce site can cost between £200 and £2000.

You can use our free and anonymous price estimator >> (www.latech.co.uk/online-web-design-cost-price-estimate.php ) to give yourself a rough idea of the costs of a project. Be sure to check the eCommerce option.

If the project is projected to cost less than £200, then we will require payment in full for first time clients. Return clients and projects over £200 are payable half up front, and half upon completion.

want to talk?

If you're still unsure as to what exactly you need, or even if you do know but wish to chat to us anyway, please send us a message: using our contact form >> (www.latech.co.uk/contact-latech.html)

Advice will be impartial and honest on any website and branding matter, regardless of size.