1. Do they support my Merchant Account/Gateway? If you’re a brick and mortar store, you already have a Merchant Account to process your credit card transactions. Generally they will have a Gateway that you can utilize when you decide to take your store online. In E-Commerce, shopping carts have to develop specific integrations with the various gateways. Its best to know if a cart is already integrated with your Merchant  Gateway & Account; then finding out later that you will need to use one of their supported Merchant Gateways & Accounts and pay extra for having two of the same thing.
2. Can they handle the options/attribute sets that my products have? Every store has a unique situation. When selling tee shirts, you may have different SKUs for the same product that has different options. You should always ask how the cart handles this, if it can handle it, and if it adds to the bottom line. Or, you have a furniture company that not only needs the different SKUs, but you also need to modify the pricing based on the options selected. Not all carts are made to handle these configurations, you do not want to be stuck with a shopping cart that is unable to handle your products.
3. Does it integrate with my Shipping Carrier of choice? If you already utilize UPS and sign up for an e-commerce solution that only supports FedEx, what does that do for you? Are you going to sign for FedEx and pay for two shipping accounts? One that you’re not even allowed to use? Or, what if they don’t calculate live rates at all? Are you going to charge the same shipping price for all locations and lose money because of it?
4. Does the cart allow for a custom design? Most carts come with a default template, but its default; meaning everyone else has it too. In E-commerce, design is a factor in where people shop. If you look like every other store, what sets you apart? Some carts come with a few standard templates as well, but that just means fewer stores will have the same exact template as you. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if someone noticed?
5. What features are available in regards to Promotion? Coupons? Discounts? Buy 1 get 1 free? etc? Part of every business model is some sort of marketing scheme. Standards include coupons and discounts and get progressively more diverse from the “Buy 1, Get 1 free,” “Free Shipping over $99,” or Price Brackets based on quantity ordered. Make sure the E-Commerce solution allows for a variety of these, and always check that it will work before running an advertising campaign.
6. Is there technical support available? Does it come at an additional cost? E-Commerce generally has a high learning curve, and setting up a store is not the most fun thing on a business owner’s to-do list. A shopping cart that has technical support is always a perk. When something breaks or doesn’t work according to the manual, you want to ensure there is someone to explain why. Some carts come with technical support as part of the price, and others have additional fees, this is also something to keep in mind.

An SSL is a Secure Socket layer. The basic description is that it is a protocol installed on your server that encrypts information that is passed through the user and the server (e.g. credit card transactions). You can read more information at the Wiki.

Why get it?

An SSL is necessary if you choose to sell online and accept credit card transactions. Not only do some gateways require that you have an SSL to use them, but many users will navigate away from your online shopping cart if they do not see the familiar padlock or “https://” It inspires confidence in your site and ensures that transactions are secure. Customers are more likely to purchase from your online store.

How does it work?

Once an SSL is installed on a store, it generally is applied to the checkout pages (where credit card information is entered). When a user submits their information, the SSL protocol is enacted and it encrypts the information being passed to the server. In the case of credit cards, gateways generally decrypt the information once it is passed through.

Where can you get one?

There are numerous companies that sell SSL certificates. It is generally adviced to buy from a familiar one just to reassure your clients. You can try Comodo, GeoTrust, Thawte,  and Verisign.

Products

Pretty obvious, but some people decide to open an e-commerce solution before even deciding on what it is they’re going to sell. Take it a step further, are you going to sell clothing? Furniture? iPods? Sony Products? If so, you need to establish how you want to present the products? Do the products require options (sizes, finishes, colors, patterns, etc)? Does the price change per option? Are they customizable? Do you have the rights to display images of the products (in the case of Sony, if you are not a partnered seller and post images of their items online you will get a cease & desist letter)? Its always best to have as much of this already established before even considering opening an online store.

Collecting Payment

Something many people also do not realize is that they need to have a way to collect payment. There are numerous routes one can go with online. PayPal is fairly popular and can also process credit card transactions (under the Payment Pro or Standard), 2checkout, or a real processor. All come with their own fees so as a seller looking to open up an E-Commerce store, how to collect payment needs to be established. Before you can start looking for someone to develop your store, this is something that needs to be decided before developing scope.

Plans for Shipping

By selling online, anyone can order from you. With that, they can be located anywhere from down the street, the next city over, or another country. You need to establish how you are going to get the items that they order to them. Will you use USPS? FedEx? UPS? Or a combination of both. Are you going to have discounted rates with the carriers? Will the discounted rates be reflected on the shipping fees you charge you customers? Or will you charge them full price and have added profit? Will you need live rates or fixed or tiered? These are only a few of the question someone wanting to open shop online would need to answer in regards to shipping.

Fulfilling the Order

As developers, we’ve also had people who do utilize extra systems to do their fulfillment or drop ship their products from vendors. When scoping your e-commerce solution, you want to make sure that you make these details clear. If you need specific information in a specific format in order to stream-line your fulfillment process, make sure to mention it.

The Shopping Cart Solution

What’s even more amazing is the fact that there are hundreds of e-commerce solutions on the internet today. Each shopping cart has several features, there will be one that can meet your needs. Its best to establish your business model and the various facets of running a store online before finding a solution.

Hopefully the battle is not lost and with Gandalf’s power, be repelled. Ironically enough, Gandalf the Grey played by Sir Ian Mckellen in Lord of the Rings is gay. I completely did not realize this until writing this post.

But I digress, don’t I?

Our next avenue of thought led us to wondering just how much of our infrastructure would last in such an event; just how far would the extent be not just to our ways of communication (which we agreed is the first to go out), but how it would affect our daily routines, our functions, indeed our consciousness. How many devices could you go without and still remain you?

I shall post some youtube videos soon because most of the content I took was in moving picture format.

We made a promotional video. Its pretty hilarious. Take a look: