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Thinking of having your own online store? Some
Frequently Asked Questions about ecommerce are answered here. Have a look, then
talk to us about your own
ecommerce website.
What is ecommerce?
Ecommerce means buying and selling through electronic means - usually through
the Internet. Ecommerce websites allow customers to browse through hundreds or
even thousands of products, order online and have payments processed in real
time, in most cases through using credit cards. Ecommerce is often referred to
as an online shopping cart.
Will ecommerce help my business?
Ecommerce can help virtually any type of business. Small, medium and home-based
businesses often have limited budgets available for marketing to new customer
groups, but ecommerce allows the to reach out to a growing pool of online
customers waiting to buy their products online. In Australia, the market for
ecommerce is growing rapidly - analysts have calculated growth at about 30% p.a.
How much help ecommerce can do for your business is only limited by how much
effort you want to put into it. Even when sites are not selling products,
they're helping showcase them and support the overall image your business
projects to the world.
What is a shopping cart?
An online shopping cart is like a grocery trolley on the Internet. You go
through the website like you do a physical store, viewing and putting the
products you want to buy into your shopping cart. You can then visit the
checkout where you can purchase them online using your credit card. Shopping
cart software such as Osc Works' ozCart allows businesses to offer multiple
payment options that are processed in real time.
Is online shopping safe?
Ecommerce is extremely safe compared to most physical stores. Physical stores
are vulnerable to flooding, fires, robbery, pick pockets, shoplifters and
employee credit card fraud. Whereas online, heavy electronic security protects
customer credit card details during ecommerce transactions and stores have the
option of purchasing strong forms of encryption like SSL (a protocol that
creates a secure connection to encrypt information as it travels over the
Internet) which allows online shops to use 'https' instead of 'http' in the
website address for their shopping cart. At Osc Works, websites are stored on a
dedicated server and stores have the option of purchasing SSL if they wish. No
ecommerce system can ever offer a 100% guarantee, but your susceptibility to
crime is less when customers shop online.
What software do I need to set up an ecommerce website?
Osc Works' ozCart software is already added into your site when you purchase it.
To manage your product listings and the sales you receive, the only other thing
you need is a web browser.
Why do I need my own ecommerce store?
If you're selling on auction sites or markets, then your own ecommerce site
could save you time processing credit card orders and money through avoiding
listing and success fees. It also means you can be selling to customers outside
your immediate geographic area (as Internet customers could come from anywhere
in the world), and selling when your store is closed as the Internet is open for
business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ecommerce is also ideal if you're
running a small business or starting up a new business.
Do I need to purchase separate hosting?
Not if you buy from us. Our ecommerce packages are all hosted by us, so you get
web hosting space on the Internet as well as the shopping cart software as part
of ozCart. You also get unlimited email support for administration issues to do
with your store, and hosting issues.
Do I need to know HTML to run an online store?
No - you don't need to know HTML or be a graphic
designer to run your ecommerce website at all. You
manage your site through an easy-to-use administration section of your site,
that runs through a web browser.
How many products can I sell online?
While auction websites charge you for every product you list, an ecommerce
website is your own - you can list as many products as your shopping cart
software allows. Most ecommerce providers put limits on the number of products
you can list. OzCart from Osc Works offers unlimited products in all its package
options.
Can I sell products that can be downloaded (e.g. music)?
Yes - with ozCart from Osc Works, the process is automated. This means that when
payment goes through from your customers they can automatically download your
product. If your store offers music, ozCart also has the ability to offer short
media clips so you can offer previews to customers before they buy.
What is the minimum time commitment for running an ecommerce site?
There's no minimum time commitment - the amount of time you put into it depends
on the number of products you want to sell, how much effort you want to put in
adding your site to directories and search engines and other marketing activity.
The more time you put in, the faster your site will start to earn its potential.
Can I add an online store to an existing website?
Yes. If you have an existing website, you can
create an ecommerce website based on that design.
Just ask us how.
What are my options for accepting payments? How can
I accept credit cards through my site?
Accepting online payments through your ecommerce website can be a huge advantage
over offering a booking form, or asking customers to email their credit card
details for you. Besides the security advantages, its more convenient for your
customers (because they'll get a real time confirmation that their payment was
processed), and its more convenient for you too – you don't have to manually
process payments when they are received. There are a number of payment choices
that you have as a customer, from prepaid debit systems like Paypal through to
real-time credit card processing.
(More information about
payment gateways)
Osc Works offers standard access to the
following key payment methods in Australia and New Zealand:
- Bank transfers through Australian and
New Zealand bank
- Credit card processing via Paystation,
DPS or Eway as applicable
- Paypal
- Paymex
- Paymate
and more..
If the payment method you wish to use is
not in the list, Osc Works may still be able to support it. Talk to us about
your needs.
What is a merchant account?
Before you can accept credit card payments through your website, you
need:
- A merchant account and business banking account through
your bank
- A payment processing service on the Internet (also called
a payment gateway)
- A secure ecommerce website that can accept credit card
details and securely pass them to the payment gateway for processing.
The software built into ecommerce websites from Osc Works
provide access to major Australian and New Zealand
payment gateways such as Eway, Paystation and DPS.
Customers still need to set up their own merchant account with their bank, and
an account with the gateway provider so they can
process transactions. If customers already have a merchant account then
this can be used with an Osc Works online store.
Can I see what people are searching for on my store?
Yes - the basic web statistics provided through your store provide information
about the most commonly visited pages, and products listed. The reports are
generated automatically on a periodic basis, but you can purchase more frequent
reports from Osc Works if you wish.
What kind of reports are available for my online store?
Some of the reports you can choose from are:
- Products viewed
- Products most purchased
- Low stock reports
- Coupon codes redeemed
- Orders by customer
- Gift certificates sent
- Order status
- Customer login and activity
- Specials and their status
and more...
Can I see a demo?
Yes, a demo of ozCart is available from the left hand menu of the Osc Works
website when you visit the
ecommerce page.
Can I change the sort order of products and
categories?
Yes, you can do this through the administration section of your site.
What support do you offer?
With Osc Works ecommerce solutions, monthly administrative
support is included in your monthly payment. This
includes help for your administration settings, setup of email accounts and
three statistic reports per month on request. It does not include custom script
changes, add-on modules or testing of your website. Should you require
additional services or products fees will apply.
What if I require a customised solution?
Many of our customers have particular non-standard needs - for example, they may
require a way to import their products into their shopping cart in bulk using an
Excel spreadsheet, or to have a custom-module installed. We would love to help
if we can and are happy to provide quotes for customised components before
starting work on them. If we can't help with a request, we'll try to suggest
another way you could try to achieve the result you want.
Can anyone use an ecommerce solution?
You don't need to be a computer expert to use an ecommerce website. The
administration section of your site is easy-to-learn and use and provides
considerable flexibility in adding products, updating their prices offering
specials - and advanced special features like gift vouchers
What can I do in the administration section of my
site?
There is plenty of flexibility in the administration of your
site. With an Osc Works ecommerce site you can:
- Configure how customers can enter
their details
- Define how images are displayed
- Set up the payment methods and types
of credit cards (if applicable) that your store will accept
- Turn your store on and off (if you
just want to have a product catalogue)
- Add or remove product categories, the
products within them and define featured products
- Set minimum or maximum order
quantities, and whether shipping applies
- Change the sort order of your products
- Create gift vouchers
- Administration notes can be attached
to orders for special cases (e.g. a special wholesaler)
- Offer specials
and more...
Osc works customises your store to the
needs of Australian and New Zealand customers before you receive it, so things
like GST and shipping zones are already set up for you - but you can customise
these further if you wish.
Can I send newsletters from the administration section
of the site?
Yes. The newsletter function is very popular with our customers who wish to send
their customers news, updates, loyalty programme information and offers.
Do you sell ecommerce
websites at wholesale prices?
Yes, we do have wholesale purchase options for Osc Works' ecommerce websites.
Like any wholesale arrangement, there are some rules around the way wholesale
accounts work, and minimums for purchasing sites. Just talk to us about your
needs.
Got another question? Just ask us
If you have a question about online shopping
carts, ecommerce, security, our ozCart product or how an online store could help
you, just ask us.
We would love to hear from you and it may help make
up your mind about whether ecommerce is right for you. Just fire it through to
our contact us page and we'll
get back to you as soon as we can.
Ecommerce articles:
New to Ecommerce? Find out what you need to know. To make
it as easy as possible for you to open your own online store,
read our ecommerce articles.
From the basics to payment gateways to auction sites to business ideas, it's all
here.

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