There are a lot of considerations when setting up online stores and shops; this page was developed to assist you in understanding the options and to help you define the best Ecommerce solution for your specific needs.

When you want to sell online there are some important options to consider:

  • Are you selling products, digital downloads, or a subscription to a member only area of your website?
  • Will you be selling many items, or a just a few?
  • Do you anticipate a high volume of sales?
  • Will your products require custom attribute fields?
  • Do you need to provide for coupons, wholesale pricing, worldwide shipping?
  • Do you intend to use a Merchant account (such as Authorize.net), PayPal, or provide both?

online-stores

PayPal Carts and Integration

PayPal is known as an “All in One” solution since it provides all the services that are required for credit card processing, which includes a dedicated IP, secure server “SSL encryption” (Comodo, Verisign, etc), credit card authorization and processing (Authorize.net), and transfers of funds to one’s bank (Merchant Account).

PayPal Cost of Use:

There is no set-up cost or monthly fee associated with using PayPal, and the current cost of use for PayPal standard is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. You can learn more about PayPal usage costs at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

PayPal is a popular customer checkout option since they accept all common payment options, shield customer information from retailers, and refunds can be requested. PayPal can be used to create purchase and donate buttons, simple custom carts, recurring subscriptions, or can be configured to work with most shopping carts and Ecommerce platforms, and by utilizing the API the checkout process can be seamless instead of the typical redirect to a branded PayPal page.

Our suggestion for most businesses is to start off using PayPal and if business increases then add the merchant as an additional gateway option. Most hosting companies can easily upgrade/transfer your hosting to a dedicated server, and many will have package options for SSL certificate, authorization server, etc.

Merchant Accounts

Merchant accounts are typically best for larger stores and retailers since the monthly usage costs will outweigh their benefit unless there is a high volume of sales. And while some merchant accounts will include the credit card authorization server as part of a package, many do not.  As an example, upon my last check Authorize.net requires a $100 setup fee, a $20/mo fee, and other small incidental fees. Then there is the need for a security certificate (SSL) and the price will vary considerably for these — Comodo is the cheapest option I’ve found, for which their Positive SSL will cost around $80/yr from most hosting companies, and Verisign will cost from $100 to $250 yr.

In the past a dedicated server was needed which costs a lot more than shared hosting, though a fixed IP is now common in the better shared hosting options.  All considered, merchant accounts can become very expensive and time consuming to set into place.

Self-Hosted ECommerce

A self-hosted WordPress website integrated with a shopping cart plugin will require more money upfront than a hosted option since there is the cost of the domain, hosting, SSL (if not included), the commercial theme, the cost of the commercial plugins used, and the time involved to style the layout and configure everything.  Yet this option could be less expensive overtime.  For example, a .com domain will typically cost less than $20/yr.  Shared hosting will cost around $150/yr, and SSL will cost around $100/yr (if not included in the hosting fee).  The website theme will typically be less than $80 (one time fee), and the plugins needed will typically be around $60-$80 (approx 4), most plugins renew at a discount.  All total you’re looking at approximately half of what the typical hosted option charges.

storefront

Of the self-hosted cart options we prefer to use WooCommerce since it integrates seamlessly with WordPress, has more plugin options to extend its functionality than others, and it is the most popular Ecommerce platform on the web (approx. 30% of all online stores) which helps to ensure that it is very secure.  WooCommerce will allow you to customize the look of the cart application to integrate effectively with existing websites, which most other carts only allow for in very limited ways. In addition to product sales, WooCommerce can also be configured to sell digital goods.

You can learn more about the options available at:

Hosted ECommerce

Another popular option for many small (or new) businesses is to use a hosted Ecommerce solution. The hosted options will typically be reasonably easy to set-up, will provide free or low cost support, and they will take care of the hosting, security, and in some cases their monthly usage fee will include credit card authentication and processing (or provide an easy setup process to integrate these with their service).  Hosted platforms will typically include free SSL, a variety of free SEO friendly templates, varied payment gateway options, multiple language support, automatic carrier shipping rates and taxes, and abandoned cart recovery.  They commonly allow for discounts, gift cards, social media integration, product reviews, and provide marketing/tracking features.

It’s also important to note that Facebook stores can integrate with Shopify and a handful of other hosted options, which makes it an attractive option if you plan to sell on your page.  Shopify also has a digital goods app available.  For most business that self-manage their store the hosted Ecommerce provider will be the best choice to get things set up quickly and for an affordable price.