We'll help you purchase and install your secure certificate, and do our best to answer any questions you may have about getting your shop up and running. The following is a basic guide to the steps you'll need to take in setting up your online store.

What's involved in setting up an online shop?

Getting started in e-commerce may appear quite daunting, but there are really only a few steps you need to take in order to make your online shop a reality. These elements are listed below:

domain name registration

Your business website needs a web address that reflects your business. You'll probably want to register a name like "yourbusiness.co.uk" to make it easy for your customers to find you on the Web. If you'll be doing business internationally, you might want to register "yourbusiness.com" instead of or in addition to the UK domain name.

web hosting 

Your website needs to be stored on a computer that's connected to the Internet all the time, so that any time of the day or night, your potential customers can browse your online store and make purchases. This service is provided by a hosting company like Way to the Web. You must also have a secure server available so that your customers' credit card information is encrypted as it travels across the Internet. For this you will need a secure (SSL) certificate of your choice (purchased separately) for your website.

secure server

Click here for information about online shopping security

merchant account and/or online credit card processor service 

You'll probably want to be able to accept credit card orders online - this is one of the major benefits of having an e-commerce site.

If you already have a retail merchant account with your bank, you can

	Continue to process orders manually using your Streamline® or PDQ® terminal, or
	Use one of the third-party credit card processors such as SECPay, WorldPay, or NetBanx.

If you don't yet have a merchant account with a bank, you also have a couple of options. You can:

	Apply for an e-commerce merchant account with your bank. This application can take up to six weeks to process and may involve a cost of around £150 to £300 for a successful application. Once your merchant status has been approved, you'll also need to apply to a third-party credit card processor, e.g. SECPay, WorldPay, or NetBanx.
	Apply for a bureau account with one of the third-party credit card processors. NetBanx , for example, offers this option. The per-transaction charge is higher, but it allows you to start trading more quickly and you can always apply for a merchant account at a later date.
	Use other payment methods such as PayPal, NOCHEX and FastPay which don't require a merchant account.

e-commerce software 

Our hosting packages include installation and configuration of osCommerce, an open-source PHP shopping cart system. There are many other shopping cart systems to choose from if you don't feel osCommerce is right for you. Which solution is right for you depends on many things, including:

	the technical expertise at your disposal
	the number of products in your shop
	how many variations each product might have
	whether you'll use a real-time online credit card processor or process the credit cards manually
	how often your store catalogue and prices will need to be updated
	whether you already have a database for your catalogue
	what you want the online shop to look like
	your budget

web design for your website

Depending on the shopping cart software you choose, you may want to have some web pages outside your shop - for example, to tell customers more about your company, or to provide after-sales service and information. You can design your website yourself or hire a designer to do it for you.

design and customisation of your online shop 

The look and feel of your online shop can be customised a great deal. You may want it to blend in with your existing website, or you may be creating a new site from scratch. You'll want it to look unique but easy for your customers to use.

putting your products into the online catalogue

You'll need to input all your products into your online catalogue before customers will be able to buy from your online shop. How this is done depends on which shopping cart software you are using. Some of them can use an imported databases, others let you build your shop entirely using HTML. You'll usually need to include a product code, product name, description, price, shipping weight, and tax code for each item.

take your online shop live!

Be sure to process orders promptly and answer any email queries quickly and courteously.