First eCommerce Guide

We understand your first eCommerce business can seem daunting and when you've decided to take the jump to sell online, it's difficult to know where to start.

There are many of eCommerce providers and packages, all with different offerings; this can sometimes be overwhelming, so let us help you.

Take a look at our guide:
10 Things You Need to Consider For a Successful eCommerce (2MB)

This document is designed to explain the key features that you should consider to help make your eCommerce successful, and any risks to be aware of when starting your online store. We also have a section with some useful hints and tips about 'Choosing Your Provider' aimed to help you avoid some of the common pitfalls involved in eCommerce projects.

Working with OnTop eCommerce

If you have decided to work with us, we can help you in your choice of eCommerce Package and how to move forward with your project. We are happy to arrange a meeting to discuss these, but we have written the below guide to help you choose the appropriate packages for your business and marketing services that we provide, which can help you to get selling!

Our eCommerce Packages:

We offer three powerful eCommerce packages, each with a variety of useful features designed to make selling as easy but successful as possible for you. We can help you find a package that suits your business needs and provides the tools to maximise the potential of your online business.

Choosing a Package:

First things first, you need to decide on the package that's right for you. Each of our industry leading eCommerce Packages includes some core features as standard that we believe every eCommerce needs to be successful. We have outlined all the key features and benefits for our three solutions in our eCommerce packages section.

Consider all our packages before making your decision – you can Compare eCommerce Packages to see exactly what they include side-by-side. Our two higher tier packages do offer more inclusive features, saving you money compared to upgrading the features one-by-one from our Package Extra Features section.

Upgrading Your eCommerce Package:

Once you have chosen your package, there is always the opportunity to upgrade at any time; we have a range of eCommerce Package Extra Features, which include features that you may wish to consider. e.g. If you like the Professional Package but want the "Google Products Integration" feature of the Enterprise Package, you can add this for £199 rather than having to opt for a higher tier package that already incorporates this.

If you have trouble deciding which package is right for you and cannot be sure which extras you need for your business, please feel free to Contact Us and discuss with our experienced business development consultants.

Design phase:

At OnTop Media we value the importance of a high quality design, so all our eCommerce packages include the same standard of website and logo design phases – whether you would like us to match your current brand or create a new one from scratch, we will work with you throughout Our eCommerce Process to create a site you love.

We won't start building the site until you are 100% happy with the designs and confident that it is the right look and feel for your new online store; the first part of any eCommerce project will include a requirements gathering with you. This helps us establish the target audience, products, and brand identity that suits your business, and in turn forms the basis of our initial design concepts.

Managing your admin:

The Admin Control Panel facility is as important as the front end website – at OnTop our key objective is to make it easy and efficient for you to update and add to your online store. This means you will always be able to keep your eCommerce fresh by adding new products, their images and descriptions, any special offers and promotions you want to emphasise, and easily manage your tax rates, regions and shipping prices. The admin area includes all your products, orders, customers, reports and eCommerce options.

We also recognise the value of reporting the success of your online store, so your Admin panel offers feature rich extras like the ability to run off detailed sales reports and graphical statistics – if your business is doing well, you want to be able to see your success rate!

For more information, take a look at our Admin Control Panel Demonstration page to see how easy your administration system could be!

Increasing Exposure:

Once you've got your eCommerce website up and running, you can explore ways to start driving more sales. We can guide you on the best options.

OnTop eCommerce offers a range of Comparison Website Integrations and eCommerce Marketing solutions for you to consider, each with different benefits. We have outlined a couple of the most popular below:

Google Products Integration:

'Google Products' is the most powerful free Comparison Website in the market today, receiving substantial hourly traffic. We can integrate your eCommerce website with Google Products; this means any potential customers searching for a product on google.co.uk, will see your products listed in the results with a product image, product price and a direct link to your eCommerce site. Our synchronisation between your eCommerce and Google Products is performed automatically so anytime you update your products, Google Products knows about it.

Kick-start SEO service:

We also offer a superior Kick-Start SEO Service which is an easy and effective way to get the initial search engine boost that your eCommerce website requires to hit the ground running. It is really important that you don't leave your eCommerce site to market itself; there is little point in you spending time and money on building up your online store if no one can find it!

3 Months kickstart SEO. Get a head start on your competitors & get your site where it needs to be with our 'kickstart' SEO Package

We understand internet marketing services can seem complicated and it's not always easy to know where to start or what will work best for you; if you are new to internet marketing then the Kick-Start SEO is going to be the best choice for you. It is an effective method of intensely marketing your website, to gain immediate search recognition for your relevant keywords, without having to commit to an on-going monthly internet marketing commitment. If further down the line you want to expand the SEO Services used for your site, OnTop Media can offer advice on the best methods and services to get more from your eCommerce.

An easy and efficient payment process:

This can sometimes seem like the hardest part of setting up your first eCommerce, but don't worry, we can help you. All of our eCommerce packages include a simple checkout process, designed to be as easy as possible to use for your customers. The difficulties and hurdles of other eCommerce solutions will be a distant memory. We make the purchasing of your products quick, usable and easy to understand. With separate billing and shipping address support, combined with simple payment gateway integration - your checkout process is streamlined for selling online.

We can also recommend our Express Payment Gateway feature for Google Checkout (Express) and PayPal Express Checkout that allows registered users to quickly and conveniently purchase from your eCommerce site in a matter of seconds. This feature has proven to increase sales dramatically for some online industries; as much as 150% increases have been noted for retailers who had less inviting checkout processes.

If you would like to know more about this feature, please visit our Corporate Package page or feel free to Contact Us to discuss your options with an experienced business development consultant.

Knowing the On-Going Costs:

We are proud to say that with our eCommerce packages there are no hidden costs; we do not charge any commission on sales and there are no hidden charges. The only on-going cost is associated with our eCommerce Hosting; the first year eCommerce Hosting is included in our packages for free and then priced at only £100/annum, subject to fair usage.

We have a section dedicated to eCommerce Hosting which outlines the costs and associated support.

Keeping the Support:

With OnTop eCommerce we are one of the only eCommerce companies to offer a continuous support service, for your absolute peace of mind; you can rely on us to continually update your eCommerce website for both software enhancements and security.

We also offer a feature called Heartbeat Error Monitoring which permanently monitors your eCommerce website to ensure that it is working perfectly; if something does go wrong we are notified instantly so that we can fix the problem. You never lose our support!

If you have any questions about our services and products available, or would like to discuss a detailed quotation about a package, please feel free to Contact Us to speak with one of our experienced business development consultants.

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"Google Products" Integration

Automatically feed all of your products into the "Google Products" network for an immediate increase in exposure on the worlds largest search engine.

"Google Products" is the most powerful free Comparison Website on the market today.

When searching for products on Google.co.uk your products will be listed with a direct link to your eCommerce website, a product image and the product price.

The "Google Products" Integration can significantly increase the number of sales generated through your website and has proven itself to be one of the most effective comparison websites available. "Google Products" is the only free major comparison website available on the market that has substantial hourly traffic.

The synchronisation between your eCommerce and Google.co.uk is performed automatically and any changes you make to products will be updated on "Google Products", including new products and price changes, every 24Hours.

We also support a range of other integrations into various comparison websites.

Visit our Comparison Websites section to learn more.

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Single-Page Easy Checkout

Your checkout process will be designed to be as easy as possible to use for your customers; we focus on user experience and therefore want to make purchasing from you a friendly experience.

The difficulties and hurdles of other eCommerce solutions will be a distant memory. We want to make the purchasing of your products quick, intuitive and easy to understand.

With separate billing and shipping address support, combined with simple payment gateway integration - Your checkout process will be streamlined for selling online efficiently to ensure a positive customer experience.

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Express Payment Gateway

Google Checkout (Express) and PayPal Express Checkout allow registered users to quickly and conveniently purchase from your eCommerce site in a matter of seconds.

The user does not need to register with your store, or complete any address / account details. They click to use the Express carrier. After securely paying online the express carrier will send all of the user details to your eCommerce Admin Control Panel.

This can make the whole purchase process take less than 30 seconds for a user that already has a PayPal or Google Checkout account.

Express payment carriers are proven to increase sales dramatically for certain online industries; as high as 150% increases have been noted – especially for those retailers looking to make their checkout processes more interesting or incorporate multiple checkout options.

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Advanced Error Detection

One of the most advanced features of your eCommerce website will be the Heartbeat Monitoring System.

If an error ever occurs on your eCommerce site, we will be notified immediately of the exact details. Once notified we can find a solution and automatically update all eCommerce sites to ensure it cannot happen again.

Most issues are resolved within a few minutes of a serious error being reported.

We monitor and maintain all our eCommerce clients as standard and have engineers available 24 hours a day to address any crucial issues that may arise.

This is a huge advancement in web 2.0 technology; we know if there is an error before you even become aware and can usually address issues within minutes.

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Kick-Start SEO Package

The Kick-Start SEO Service is an excellent option for boosting your eCommerce website up the Google search results, and search results of other major search engines, without any continual on-going SEO commitment.

Every website needs some form of marketing in order to succeed. A website with no marketing will not attract many (if any) visitors. Not marketing your website is like blacking-out the windows of your high street store.

The Kick-Start SEO service provides an effective method of intensely marketing your website, in order to earn immediate search engine recognition for your appropriate key-phrases and to reduce any on-going monthly internet marketing commitment.

The overall goal of Kick-Start SEO is to drive traffic to your website for relevant products and services.

The Kick-Start SEO service is included within all Corporate Packages, as this service is seen to have the greatest initial benefits compared to other eCommerce marketing services.

Read More (Including FAQs): Kick-Start SEO