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There are lots of ways to setup your website to be able to sell and transact business on the internet. It’s less about right or wrong and more about secure and smart. The key to a good e-commerce deployment lies in multiple factors but starts with experience. Consult PR has delivered hundreds of e-commerce sites over the years, all with unique needs and objectives. Let’s get into a bit more detail on those important factors to consider though, so as to help your firm make a good choice in your vendor search for the right technology partner and implementer.

Key factor number one is simply what is you budget to accomplish this? This sounds like a terrible starting point, but the truth is, if money was not an option it is likely that inevitably a better solution would exist in the ecommerce realm. The key is to find the best bang for the buck while not neglecting the all important objectives. Here’s a little ratio breakdown that based on our experience helps clients budget effectively for e-commerce websites:

• If you are looking to sell a small list (1-10) of fixed products or services that won’t change much or need much editing expect cost of starting custom website + 30-50%.
• If you are looking to sell a larger inventory of products or services that need regular updating expect cost of starting custom website + 70-120%.
• If you are looking to use off the shelf 3rd party shopping carts and need help with integrating and hosting them, please reach out to us for a free consultation to determine costs.
• In our experience, we’ve seen other firms deliver e-commerce sites in the $5-10k range that don’t convert business well and end up with all sorts of maintenance and security headaches. That is in fact their business model...to marry you to them and increase revenue on issues, maintenance, etc. over time.
• Consult PR offers e-commerce sites starting at $10,000 and up with the majority of our e-commerce clients in the lower end of the range and even for the ultra high function sites they have generally been able to achieve their desired outcome while staying below a six figure investment. We value the relationship and we also value low maintenance and headaches...so we take the time necessary to do it right the first time.

The second key factor is template versus custom. In a template, you have limitations as to what and how you can do things, but you can be up and running faster and usually at a lower cost than custom. In a custom project, there are no limits and the conversions to business will be significantly greater, but so is the investment in time and money.

The third key factor is hiring a firm that has done this many times before. A firm that understand how to write the website code to be secure and also how to make sure that the site can pass PCI Compliance Reviews on both the coding and server levels as well as other relevant security concerns. This is a pretty big deal especially consider the successful hacking of major retailers and banks of recent. If these terms seem foreign to you and your firm has an existing e-commerce site, that is not a good thing, please contact us about paid consultation to make sure you are buttoned up. If you are new to transacting business on the web, you’ve arrived at a good place, so contact us today to schedule a free consultation.