Fri, 25 May 2012 22:35:22 -0800WeeblyWed, 24 Feb 2010 02:08:24 -0800http://e-commercedevelopment.weebly.com/1/post/2010/02/e-commerce-application-development-getting-exactly-what-you-want.html Sometimes when you are working, the software that you’re using gets the job done, but somehow feels that’s it’s a bit off. In these occasions, you wish the software had this or other feature that would make it perfect for your situation.

For example, I like to use Control+V to paste text. However, a lot of times I need to do this without the format of the place I took the text from. In such cases, I have to go to Edition -> Paste Special -> Unformatted Text. Yes, I know I can do it with the keyboard as well and yes, I know I can assign a keyboard combination to get to the Paste Special Menu. But I can’t just assign Control+B to do it without having to select “Unformatted Text.” I really wish I could just do it with that simple combination and that I could change the software somehow.

When it comes to e-commerce, this wish becomes more of a need than a wish. Sales are one of the most important parts of a company’s processes (and one might even argue that they are THE most important part of a company) and designing and managing a sales webpage with fixed software can become a liability if you’re company has very specific characteristics that differentiate it from the competition.

Fortunately, several companies base their business in providing e-commerce application development. The advantage of e-commerce application development is that you can actually decide what the application that you will use for your online commerce should do.

Of course, if you’re company is small, the product you sell is very simple, or your market is very limited, e-commerce application development might not be for you. But if you offer several types of products or want to appeal to a bigger market (specially if you want to venture into international markets) e-commerce application development becomes a good idea.

Often, the cost isn’t a real limitation. Several company owners dismiss e-commerce application development because they think it’s too expensive without even bothering comparing prices. This is a common error and these executives end up wishing their web site could do this or that. Remember that potential customers also use the webpage, and you certainly don’t want them to leave just because they didn’t find a certain feature on your page than your competition does.

At the very least, compare some prices before you make a decision.

]]>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:35:01 -0800http://e-commercedevelopment.weebly.com/1/post/2010/02/getting-to-know-e-commerce-web-development-better.html In most countries, the practice of trading goods and services over the Internet, known as e-commerce, is becoming more and more common, thanks to the advances in technology and information systems. In fact, e-commerce has created a new group of industries where companies compete for the biggest share of the market.

One of them is online payment. Companies and sites have competed to offer both sellers and customers the safest, most trusted way of transferring money over the Internet. While the ethics of both buyer and seller still are their own, at least people know their money or financial information won’t be stolen by a third company

Shipment companies have also become more efficient in an attempt to match the effectiveness of the Internet. They can now deliver goods of any kind to any country in the world and in much less time than before.

However, the latest trend in this moment is E-commerce web development. ECommerce Website Development refers to the design of web pages that companies can use to offer and sell their services to their customers.

However, a lot of people think that e-commerce web development is just “programming” a page and configuring it. In fact, it’s much more complex than that. So complex in fact that some companies are hiring a dedicated developer or a team of experts for their e-commerce web development needs.

Designing is much more than putting a few logos here and there and some text. First of all, it has to be aesthetically pleasing to the audience, and by the audience I mean the target market of the company. Who is the company selling to? Parents? Company owners? Teachers and education professionals? Teenagers? Each of these groups will have different tastes on what looks good on a website and companies have to create theirs accordingly.

Also, the products that the company will sell have to be organized in a way that makes it extremely easy for potential customers to find them. If a customer makes 20 clicks just to get to the product he wants, he will probably get tired and go to another website. In addition, the information about the product and the purchasing process must be sufficient, simple and direct. Too little information will make a customer doubtful while too much information will bore him.

Finally, many company owners fail to realize that e-commerce web development ideally has to connect with many relevant departments of the company. The most obvious example is the accounting department, since it needs to know the amount of sales for different purposes, such as book keeping, tax calculations, inventories, and financial statements.]]>Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:34:32 -0800http://e-commercedevelopment.weebly.com/1/post/2010/02/custom-zen-cart-development-is-it-worth-the-investment.html If you want a plane ticket or a ticket for a concert, a sports event, or a movie, do you go to the airport, concert hall, stadium, or cinema and buy it? No, of course not. You turn to your computer, visit the appropriate site and buy it. There’s no need to call or go anywhere anymore.

Custom Zen Cart Development

The same goes with almost every single product there is. You’ll be hard pressed to find a company that doesn’t offer its products to its customers through its website. And the rare company that doesn’t do this might as well be handing its customers to the competition.

The core of such sales websites is a shopping cart program, so called because of the image it evokes of a customer putting items on a shopping cart and then paying the total rather than each individual item. And in some cases, that’s what you actually do, except that you click and drag items to a shopping cart icon with your mouse rather than manually picking them up.

Of course, the great demand in shopping cart software has prompted new companies to come up with their own shopping cart software in an attempt to win a piece of the even increasing market. Having tried several shopping cart programs, I definitely recommend Zen Cart due to its ease of use and performance. In addition, it’s PHP-based and uses a MySQL database, both of which are very common and well known among programmers.

While small businesses usually get their web done by a friend, a relative, or a person from their own staff, companies have the purchasing power needed to have a custom Zen cart website made by a team of professionals, or at the very least by a programmer specialized on such sites.

Custom Zen cart webpages might not seem worth the investment at first site, but in fact, they offer several advantages that make them valuable. First of all, people who specialize on custom Zen cart pages deliver results very fast. Also, there is very little risk of bugs or errors, and if there are any, the programming company will fix them for free.

Another advantage of hiring a custom Zen cart development company is that they have done this job several times before, and thus they can give you advice on features that you might not have heard of before.

Finally, very good custom Zen cart development companies can even make your company’s webpage rank higher on search engines like Yahoo or Google, increasing awareness of your products and creating thousands of potential customers.

]]>