E-commerce checklist

If e-commerce is in your company's future, there are a number of things you'll have to figure out before setting up shop online:

• Payment processing: This means accepting credit cards online. In turn, it means having a merchant account or an agent who can handle credit card orders for you.

• Order fulfillment: Can you deliver the goods? Is your distribution system capable of handling high order volume, if you should be so lucky?

• Customer service: Can you handle customer complaints and returns? Do you have staff to answer customer questions in real time? Poor customer service is one of the biggest gripes online consumers have with Web shopping.

• Marketing: Getting the word out successfully is perhaps the biggest challenge of building a successful e-commerce business.

More Resources:
Merchant Accounts	Shopping Carts
Credit Card Processing	Secure Certificates (SSL)
E-commerce Packages