Small business e-commerce sites using Actinic Catalog

These days many people are setting up their own small business, often based from home, and this is an area I have a great deal of experience in, not only setting up small e-commerce sites but also running my own web stores as well. I use the Surrey-based Actinic e-commerce package (for which I am an approved and trained partner), this has functionality that is hard to beat; WYSIWYG editing for shop layouts, an intuitive product-tree interface, links to all the main payment gateways like WorldPay, Protx etc., SSL card capture for manual POS terminal users (the "golden padlock") and lots of features often only found in top-end e-commerce sites (see below). This web site is a simple Actinic site.

The Actinic operation divides squarely into two parts; site creation (software licensing, design, layout, network and so on), and shop management (adding products, changing prices, processing orders etc.). The former is what I would do for you, the latter is what you do on a day-to-day basis. However, and unusually amongst web designers, I also run my own web shop too (for a separate business), using Actinic. So as well as being able to set up your site, I can also share my experiences of everyday operation. Advanced and add-on features, such as Googlebase/Froogle feed generation, order process automation and tax and shipping options often take someone who has some hands-on experience to know how to use them.

Cost-wise, a starter Actinic store would easily come in under £1000 including the Actinic software, domain name, and a year's web hosting. If you are setting up your first e-commerce operation an Actinic store supported by Kaywebs offers a pretty comprehensive service; the only other elements you need to sort out yourself are things like sourcing your product inventory, storage, and insurance.

Actinic features

Actinic has a familiar Windows interface with wizards to get you up and running quickly. The product catalogue has ‘drag and drop’ management and it can display up to 20,000 products including product variations and components. It also supports downloadable, digital products such as mp3 music files and flexible design and layout options.

There is also comprehensive order processing functionality, you can download orders, take payment automatically via secure third party providers, print invoices, packing lists and address labels, monitor stock levels and customise email communications to your customers.

Marketing features are built in with pages generated in a search-engine friendly format, special offers, voucher codes and discount options are in there too. You can show best sellers, new products, related products and (from Version 10) recently-viewed products and independent customer feedback. Google Analytics integration enables you to monitor your site performance as well.

All in all it provides a complete e-commerce product in a convenient cost-effective package which is easy to manage yourself on a daily basis, but I am available to help out if you get stuck.

Payment services

If your e-shop just needs a way of capturing card details from product details on a mainly static site, I can also help with this - possibly also including content management options so you can still change product information and prices, and using secure credit card capture services. This type of service is ideal for shopkeepers with an existing bricks-and-mortar store, and a physical credit card merchant terminal that is enabled for mail-order transactions. For a small on-line product inventory, "buy now" links can be added to your on-line shop. A secure server then captures the cardholder's details securely and you process the transaction just like any other mail order. Just log in to read off the card details from the secure server and enter them in to your terminal manually. This is a cheaper alternative to a full-blown on-line merchant account. If your card processing agency should enquire, these are regular off-line "cardholder not present" transactions (like telephone or fax orders) and not the higher-risk "live" internet card sales.

Card processing

If you are looking to take credit cards within your business, and do not yet have any arrangements set up for that, you may be interested in the Card Save scheme of which I am a member.

For an annual membership fee of around £300 which includes manual terminal rental, you have access to heavily discounted rates for processing Mastercard, Maestro, Visa and so on, plus a range of other useful member benefits such as discounted parcel rates and holiday accommodation.

Let me know and I can arrange for someone to give you a no-obligation quotation based on your projected turnover.

Paypal sellers beware

Through my separate on-line store we recently uncovered a serious problem regarding the "Paypal Seller Protection Scheme". In a nutshell, it's virtually impossible to comply with the scheme's requirements unless you are selling on Ebay. If you offer Paypal as an option in your own e-commerce shop, you are unlikely to be covered by Seller Protection Scheme insurance if there is a problem with your customer's payment, so just be aware of that.

Data Security and Advertising Standards

Please note that all merchants who handle live credit card data are required to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards to limit your business's exposure to credit card fraud and make sure customers' card details are securely processed.

Additionally from 2011 the Advertising Standards Agency oversees all on-line advertising as well as print and other media. So the adage about making sure your advertising is "legal, decent, honest and truthful" now applies to your web site too.

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