Published on: 11 November 2008 By: Ross
Even Gordon Brown used the "R" Word twice, within just as many seconds, to state the economic climate of Britain.
During a recession, your company's likely to be affected, but not necessarily for better or for worse. A recession guarantees one thing, separating the wheat from the chaff, thus forcing companies to offer lower prices and a better quality.
If you're about to venture into selling and marketing in the online world, now's a better time than ever. The cost of software has reduced due to fiercer competition; and online advertising is now more cost effective. But what do you do and how do you approach starting an online venture? When it comes to ecommerce, there are 3 main routes you can take to getting a shop online and running.
1 - Use a pre-hosted, ecommerce solution at a free or monthly rate This option is generally the quickest and cheapest. At sites like Free Webstore, you can sign up, add a few products, and start selling immediately. There are obvious downsides to this, you don't own the site, you haven't got a professional looking domain name, and it's restricted to how customisable the system can look and function.
2 - Use a downloadable, open source application If you have technical, Internet know-how, then there are plenty of sites where you can download the code, purchase a web host package, and install the application yourself. One of the most popular ecommerce solutions to download is the ecommerce software. This method has similar advantages and disadvantages to option 1, though you are in control of the site and how it looks and functions, as long as you, or someone you know, are capable of implementing any modifications or code enhancements.
3 - Use a web company to produce and host an ecommerce site This may immediately sound like the most expensive option, and the cost can vary greatly depending on the company. But the most professional, cost effective and efficient solution you can get is likely to come from a dedicated web development team, but only if they have the right resources. Unless you have an enormous budget, you're not going to want a shopping site built from scratch, purely for your own online presence. Doing that essentially means you're paying a web company to reinvent the wheel.
The best type of web company already has the resources and code in place, to assemble you a bespoke solution, that's hosted by who you choose, and is capable of any maintenance and feature enhancements.
With the right resources in place, a web company can create a site for you within days, fully tailored to your requirements. That way, you own the site, decide where it's hosted, and have additional functionality at your fingertips, for a reduced cost.
We have spent years creating a system that has just as much, or more functionality than anything you'll find on the Internet. This system can be ready within 72 hours and you choose every step of the way how you want your site to look, and what it can do.
See our online showcase at
http://www.chapterzero.co.uk/page/merlin-site-builder.aspx.
Here you can use our Merlin Web Wizard to produce a site in minutes, and see a demo of an ecommerce site that was created using Merlin.
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