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E-commerce web sites

E-commerce solutions for every budget

The web bubble apparently burst a few years ago now,  however e-commerce sales now account for £4bn in the UK alone; which kind of proves that it's still a major factor for any business.  

We have developed e-commerce web sites for start-up businesses and large multi-nationals, we know what works and what doesn't work, we have the experience required to provide you with the correct e-commerce solution for your business.

E-commerce for start-up businesses 

If you are looking to start a new e-commerce business there are a number of options available to you, which should be suitable for most budgets. Below is a brief indication of what you can expect for a variety of budgets, these are based on you having no web development knowledge in-house and paying a company to do the work for you. It also assumes the budget is for web development costs only:

  •  > £1K - Your best option would be to use an ebay shop, they are simple to use and setup and have a huge potential market reach, however you will face larger fees and commissions. 
  • £1K > £3K - download an off-the-shelf e-commerce package and perhaps look at having it styled to suit your brand. You will be limited to the pre-programmed functionality of the software you have bought.  Customisation of the functionality is often difficult and expensive. 
  • £3K > £10K - you can now look at bespoke e-commerce solutions that are created specifically for your requirements.  These should be able to offer you a tailored system that can be setup to meet your business model.  Complete flexibility means more work and therefore costs more.  These systems can also be integrated into MIS systems for simplified ordering and stock control measures. 

Chances are your web site will be a new domain name, so be prepared to wait for your web site to preform properly in the major search engine performance - this can take anything up to a year! It is for this reason that you should allocate a marketing budget for pay-per-click advertising to ensure some initial visibility for your web site. 

Fison e-commerce

E-commerce web sites for existing businesses 

Most existing businesses now already have a web site, so venturing into e-commerce is typically an add-on or part of a complete web site redesign.   The redesign is obviously an easier point to start from, but integrating into an existing site is not usually problem either. 
 
With existing businesses they often have a MIS in place and need the web site to integrate with this seamlessly.  Thankfully most MIS packages now have export functions and indeed 'ports' for allowing direct access from the web site.  This means we can set up the web site to push orders directly into your ordering system, without any human interaction.  This reduces errors, speeds up the process and ultimately delivers a greater level of customer service.   
 
With these seamless integrations we can obviously include some fail safes to ensure your data is protected and not available to un-authorised users.  
 
Obviously these custom integrations take more time to plan, create and integrate; which means they cost more to setup, test, deliver and maintain. 
 
In terms of budgets, for an existing company the figures quoted for startups obviously apply, but for a more sophisticated e-commerce application that integrates with your existing MIS you should realistically budget £10K+.