eCommerce Tycoon

**mike95910** · 06-11-2008, 02:44 PM

Hi everyone sorry for such a noob question, but i wanted to see how buying and selling stuff really works online. My main question is, how do most online stores process purchases? How are they notified of new/ existing purchases (via email or on an online control panel system) Anything to help me figure this all out would be great! thanks alot

**nyef** · 06-11-2008, 02:55 PM

Most online stores process payments through an online payment processor. You can build a custom online store if you know how to code, that's the cheap method. If you don't know how to code yourself, it's probably better to get a premade online store like an ebay store or a yahoo store or something, rather than trying to pay a programmer, because custom sites always have bugs and you always want more features added, which means more you pay the programmer, etc.

If you build it yourself, you can implement a paypal online payment system for free, though they take a high percentage. Prebuilt online stores at the big places come with their own payment systems generally.

Since it sounds like you don't know what you're doing, I'd setup an online store at one of the big places that offer them rather than trying to do it yourself. Then you can concentrate on your business instead of on building and maintaining the system underneath it.

**ECSuite_Russell** · 06-11-2008, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike95910

Hi everyone sorry for such a noob question, but i wanted to see how buying and selling stuff really works online. My main question is, how do most online stores process purchases? How are they notified of new/ existing purchases (via email or on an online control panel system) Anything to help me figure this all out would be great! thanks alot

As Nyef said most use an online payment processor. It's basically a third party credit card processor that you plug into your site.

For purchase notification it depends on the processor you use, most should have the option to enable an automated email to be sent to you whenever a purchase is complete. I've heard from new business owners quite a few times that it's addictive when you start out to sit and watch those emails come in.

If you're selling downloadable content or some type of online subscription model you can automate delivery to the customer as easily as the purchase notification email that's sent to you as well.

**steferner** · 10:25 PM

There are plenty of services online that can make it simple to start up an online store for yourself. Depending on what you are selling, there are some online communities with shopping carts... as well as Shopping Cart solutions that give you the ability to sell your products from MySpace, Facebook, your Blog, Craigslist, etc...

Those Shopping Carts integrate with payment processors like PayPal and GoogleCheckout... which is nice for conversion rates over *just* using a PayPal cart... because people like it when you give them options!

**mike95910** · 06-14-2008, 11:50 AM

thanks for all the input, very helpful!

What about if i had lets say 5 other people on my site and wanted them to sell their own items and i could get lets say 1% of the profit of each sale is that possible?

**nyef** · 06-14-2008, 04:25 PM

That it absolutely possible but it would require a custom website. I do not know of any existing organizations or companies that offer such a setup. They might exist and I might not be aware of them though.

**WebHostAdvisor** · 06-15-2008, 01:39 AM

If you are new to ecommerce I would consider going with paypal, they make it really easy.

**ECSuite_Russell** · 06-16-2008, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike95910

thanks for all the input, very helpful!

What about if i had lets say 5 other people on my site and wanted them to sell their own items and i could get lets say 1% of the profit of each sale is that possible?

You could do it manually fairly easy I think, all you'd need is basic reporting tools to keep track of what's selling then do the percentages yourself and send them the money.

**steferner** · 10:31 PM

Quote:

What about if i had lets say 5 other people on my site and wanted them to sell their own items and i could get lets say 1% of the profit of each sale is that possible?

What you're asking for is sort of the opposite of the Affiliate Program the Company I work with offers

I would say depending on the volume, at first, you could use a service like the one I work with (e-junkie), which gives you a transaction record so that you can pay them manually.

**ECSuite_Russell** · 06-18-2008, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steferner

What you're asking for is sort of the opposite of the Affiliate Program the Company I work with offers

I would say depending on the volume, at first, you could use a service like the one I work with (e-junkie), which gives you a transaction record so that you can pay them manually.

Same here, I tried to think of a way to make an affiliate program work for him.

But each designer would need there own website to link to his, and even then it's possible the designer could link to his website, then buy a product from some one else, and the designer whose site that linked in would get credit.

**minsky** · 06-18-2008, 04:11 PM

I've never done this, so I don't know if my input is of any use.

However, I believe you can use ready made software like Zen Cart.

http://www.zen-cart.com/

As I understand it, they provide a complete e-commerce solution.

If I'm wrong, I apologise.