Published on September 03, 2008 What’s possible with an ecommerce cart?
In this second part in our introduction to ecommerce overview, we answer some common questions about what is possible with an ecommerce shopping cart.
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 offers unlimited products in all its package options.
Can I sell products that can be downloaded (e.g., music)?
Yes – with Ozcart, 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?
In many cases, yes. If you have an existing website, you can create an ecommerce website based on the colours and style of that design and link to it from your existing site. 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 ts 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.
Ozcart offers standard access to the following key payment methods in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and Europe:
- Bank transfers through Australian and New Zealand banks (along with any other supported country)
- Credit card processing via Camtech, ANZ eGate, Paystation, Windcave (previously DPS), DirectOne or eWAY as applicable (and more)
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Skrill
- 2Checkout
- Paymex
- Paymate
- e-Path
- And more.
Ozcart also supports any other country with PayPal, Stripe, Skrill, 2Checkout, among others.
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 provide access to major Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, American, and European payment gateways such as eWAY, Camtech, DirectOne Paystation, DPS, Stripe, Skrill, PayPal, and 2Checkout.
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 Ozcart 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 Ozcart, 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 here: https://ozcart.com/try-demo
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 Ozcart 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 customized 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 customized 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, wish lists, reviews and affiliate programmes.
What can I do in the administration section of my site?
There is plenty of flexibility in the administration of your site. With an Ozcart 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
- Manage drop ship suppliers (Ozcart v2 only)
- 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 product
- Create gift vouchers
- Administration notes can be attached to orders for special cases (e.g., a special wholesaler)
- Offer specials and more…
Ozcart customizes your store to the needs of Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, American, and European customers before you receive it, so things like GST/Tax and shipping zones are already set up for you – but you can customize these further for most countries 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.
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