Software Needs for Your Ecommerce Business

A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill

Ecommerce Software Categories

There are several categories of ecommerce software that you'll want to look at when deciding what to place on your business web site. You'll need to consider domain name registration assistance, data management, html editors, content software, credit card processing products, merchant account ecommerce software, freelance web developer vendors, and perhaps even mailing list, forum software and ebook compilers.

A Brief Look at Each Ecommerce Software Type

While you can manually and on your own register your domain name, you may find that software assistance will ease the process and save you some time. BizMint, for example, lets you peruse and choose from expired or soon-to-be expired domain names. Another, SnapNames, specializes in capturing a domain name the moment it expires and registering it for you before others even know it's available.

Mailing list software such as MyEmail Manager and MailerMailer, store and manager customer and subscriber lists and allows you to schedule and send out email messages as well as newsletters.

What could be more crucial than good data management software! PromoBuddy, for instance, offers storage and management capabilities as well as a free trial.

While you may hire a web page designer, if you want to go it alone and save yourself some money you'll need good html editor software. Depending on your level of expertise you can choose from various levels of assistance. Microsoft's FrontPage, for instance, while not known for creation of the most dynamic web sites, does do an adequate job of producing a professional ecommerce look with software designed for the not-so-expert page designer. Dreamweaver is another popular web page design software product.

Content software goes hand in glove with html editor products. Once your site is created you will, of course, need content for its pages. Gary Antosh's "How to Create Web Site Content Fast" is a bargain at $47, a downloadable ebook that walks you through creating your web site content - and without spending a fortune.

While there are other alternatives, such as billing, pay later and check online, the preferred ecommerce payment software is still credit card processing. PayPal is the most widely known, with a secure reputation, and no up front cost. This vendor charges a percentage of transaction as well as a per-transaction flat fee (currently 30 cents.) Another, ClickBank, offers similar services, the same type of per-transaction cost, with a small up front installation charge.

Merchant account software offers your ecommerce business the opportunity to accept credit card and other online payment transactions by setting you up with a bank. Total Merchant Services, for instance, offers accounts not only for Internet, but also for wireless, mail order, fax and telephone.

Enhanced Ecommerce Software for Marketing

Freelance web developer vendors such as Elance offer an global Internet marketplace where you post projects to outsourcers who then offer you bids.

Forum software allows ecommerce interactive functions - your customers and site viewers can talk with each other through such products vBulletin and Ultimate Bulletin Board.

Another ecommerce software product you may want to consider is an ebook compiler. Should you want to give away or sell some expertise related to your product or service you'll need a vendor such as eBook Pro or eBook Generator.