Shopping Carts Australia

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.