Building your site.               Back to top"
How will you develop your site? Options range from a low-cost DIY site to a one-off site designed by a digital agency especially for your business
Systems.
It isn’t enough just to build your web shop; you also need systems in place to fulfil orders as they come in. If you sell goods, rather than services, shipping is a crucial issue. and the place many online shops fall down.
The appeal of online shopping lies in its speed and convenience; slow or expensive shipping can cancel out those benefits.
That’s why it’s essential to make your shipping arrangements as fast and economical as possible.
Pricing.
Will you need to adjust your pricing for the online channel?
Could you share some of the cost savings with your clients?
Will you pass on the costs of shipping as an extra charge,
Bundle them into the price of the goods? (Free delivery can be a very effective drawcard.)

Security.               Back to top"
There are two important issues here:
Security of your customers’ personal and financial data,
Risk to you of fraudulent transactions. Online security is a vital concern for consumers, and can be a real barrier keeping online customers away.

To reassure your customers, you not only need to do the right thing, you also need to be seen to be doing it. That means making use of the latest technology and security safeguards to keep your customers’ personal details safe and secure.

Fraud is also a concern for online merchants, as it is for any business that takes orders remotely.
By definition, an online sale is what the banks call a ‘card not present’ transaction, without the traditional guarantees of a signature or photo ID.
If a fraudster places an order with you using stolen card details, and the true owner of the card later disputes the transaction, you could end up out of pocket.
Your bank or merchant provider might recoup the money from you via a chargeback, but the goods you’ve shipped are gone forever.

Fortunately, you can reduce the risk and free yourself from liability by using the latest security protocols.
That means ensuring your website and payment gateway comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Even better, you can opt-in to the new 3D Secure protocol, which requires shoppers to confirm payment with a PIN or password attached to their card.
Then, if fraud does occur, many banks will not institute a chargeback, so you’ll still get paid for the goods you shipped.

Putting the pieces together.               Back to top"
So, what does it take to create a fully-fledged web shop?
website.

Shopping cart.               Back to top"
You will need shopping cart software.
A shopping cart allows customers to browse your products, purchase/delete pay then checkout,

Available Shopping carts are numerous, along with a huge range.
You can many Free programs, BUT BEWARE Security is paramount

Pay pal FREE Shopping cart is well recognised and excepted worldwide. And provides an excellent FREE Shopping cart that will accept Paypal, and most major credit cards
PayPal is intergrated into your website and provides an excellent entry point for micro and small bussiness. Depending on your type of business, I have clients with medium size business still happily using the basic PayPal,
its as simple as opening a Free account Have a look at what they offer I recomend it.

Off the self Templates are available at various prices like Ecommerce Templates
Right the way through to fully intergrated stock control system's that can do a lot of the back-office work to support your other systems.
A good shopping cart might include things like:
• Order management tools
• Pricing rules, allowing you to offer things like bulk discounts
• Stock management tools

Payment gateway.
The payment gateway is the secure connection between your site and the bank or merchant provider.
Merchant provider.
The financial institution that validates the card details and makes the payment.

There was a time when you needed to find all of the components separately and put them together yourself
But, increasingly, components come packaged together, so much of the hard work has been done for you. There’s many off-the-shelf solution's that haves everything you need to create and customise your own online shop, to back office systems.

Do it yourself
If you’re comfortable with HTML and you like to tinker, it’s possible to put together a basic web shop at very little cost. Shopping cart software comes free with some hosting services, and with the right cart you can set up a PayPal payment gateway for nothing, although you will pay a fee for each transaction.
Pros: It’s cheap! Cons: It can be hard work, and you really need to do your homework on data security. Typical set-up cost: Free (if you don’t count the cost of your time, but hosting costs will apply).
Use an off-the-shelf solution
Pros: It’s quick, easy, secure and economical. Cons: May offer less flexibility and control than a purpose-built site. Typical set-up cost: $299. Pay a consultant The traditional path is to hire a consultant or digital agency to create a site for you. There can be real benefits to having an expert on your side – but you need to be very clear upfront on what you want and what you’re getting for your money. Pros: Develop a site tailored to your business and needs. Cons: It can cost a little more – or a lot more! Typical set-up cost: $7000–$20,000. Hire a developer If your business sells primarily over the web, you might want to bring the expertise in-house, and hire a webdeveloper for your team. Even then, they’ll need a budget to buy the software and components they need to get your site up and running. Pros: Expertise on tap. Cons: All the usual issues of finding and retaining staff. Typical set-up cost: $5000–$10,000, plus hiring costs. Bernard Tanner is the Chief Operating Officer of Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banking, a specialist division dedicated to the needs of small businesses.