e-commerce web sites

The amount of money spent by consumers shopping online increased by 33.4% to £10.9bn in 2006 according to retail analysts Verdict Research. And the e-commerce market is expected to continue to grow strongly with Verdict predicting online sales will almost triple over the next five years (source: BBC News web site 25 May 07).

Against this background, the desire to sell online is often a key motivation behind the development of a web site.

small shops and charities

If you have only a few products, or if you are asking for donations to a charity, you may be happy just to add "Buy now" or "Donate now" buttons to your web site. These buttons can take your web site visitors through the process of providing their payment details using, for example, their PayPal account or credit/debit cards.

sophisticated e-commerce system

But if you have a larger number of products or you need a greater degree of control over your shop site, you will need a more sophisticated approach.

The e-commerce system used by Interact has these features in the public area of the site seen by customers:

hierarchy of product categories, sub-categories and individual products
pictures of each product with a "click to enlarge" button
search function
shopping basket, to which products can be added or deleted and allowing the customer to specify the quantity they wish to buy of each product
a range of delivery methods
a range of payment methods
customers can save multiple delivery and billing addresses
"What's New" page showing new products
"Bestsellers" list showing the best-selling products
products on special offer with reduced prices
reviews for products written by users of the site
registered customers can view their order history
customers can request email updates about specific products
customers can subscribe to newsletters
"Tell a Friend" page enabling customers to send information about products to their friends
"static" information about the business - such as "About us" and "Contact us" pages - as well as dynamic product pages

In addition, the system has a powerful yet easy to use administration area on the web site accessible over the internet - with this functionality:

add or delete products, categories and manufacturers
unlimited numbers of products and categories
edit product descriptions
upload product photographs
specify the stock quantity for each product
view customer details
view orders
print invoices and packing slips
send emails
send newsletters
backup the web site database
control page titles and header tags to improve search engine rankings

examples

Felix the Fast Tractor

Interact demonstration e-commerce site

to provide a demonstration site, Interact has invented a business called Fellfood, which produces a range of ready meals with names based on Lake District lakes and mountains
feel free to play around with this site; browse through the shop categories and add items to your shopping basket. If you want to look at the checkout process, you will need to register - feel free to provide false information when creating an account. But beware - the site is linked to the live PayPal site so if you see a PayPal page, we suggest you stop at that point and return to the demo site. Otherwise, you may end up making a real payment for products that do not exist and which will not be delivered!