Having recently worked on several eCommerce websites in a row, I wanted to mention a few issues that should be considered if you are planning to sell anything online. Although I have a current favorite eCommerce package, I've attempted to make these helpful hints independent of any particular software.

Pictures

Many software packages only have the built-in ability to handle one picture per item. If you want more pictures, make sure you have some sort of work-around in place.

Also, some of the more popular software packages require that each picture have the same aspect ratio. In other words, they all have to be a square or a rectangle that has the ratio of 2:3, etc.

Your best bet, if your software is like that, is to just use the defaults of your camera. A typical digital camera takes pictures in a 4:3 ratio. Just make sure you take all your pictures with your camera oriented the same way. In other words, all horizontal or all vertical.

A workaround, if you don't want to take all your pictures oriented the same way, is to add some "white space" to each picture. In your specific case, you might need to use some color other than white, so it will blend into your website well.

Your best bet is to know the limitations of your software prior to taking all the pictures. That way, you can work within its limits to achieve the best results.

Inventory Control

Are you going to have more than one of the exact same piece of merchandise in your store? If so, you will need some sort of inventory control. Your website will need to track how many of an item you have in stock. It will need to subtract stock when it is purchased, and remove the listing when the item is out of stock.

Payment

There are plenty of payment options out there. Obviously, you can take credit cards numbers directly and process those with your local bank. If that is the case, you will need a secure web server so that the credit card data is encrypted.

The alternative is to use a service like PayPal or 2CheckOut. Both let you take all the customer information except the payment info. Then you pass the user out to their site, and send them back to your own site once you've paid.

Shipping

There are several different ways that you can calculate shipping. The first, and most accurate, is exact cost by weight. Several shipping companies will let your web site communicate directly with theirs to get accurate shipping costs based on zip code and weight.

The downside to this one is that you have to keep track of how much all your products weigh. Also, if you have lightweight items, it might be somewhat irrelevant.

Another alternative is a shipping table. This can be based on either weight or cost. You determine weight or cost ranges, and base your shipping costs off that. For example, up to 5 pounds could cost $5 to ship. Then, up to 10 pounds could cost $7 to ship. Up to 15 pounds could cost $9. And so on, to whatever maximum weight or cost you want to ship.

What if someone goes over the maximum? First of all, one option is to set the maximum to some absurdly high number like 999999 pounds. Then you won't have to worry about them going over that maximum. However, there's still the possibility that their shipping will cost way more than estimated.

There's two basic options I suggest. One, you can simple send them an invoice stating that they need to pay XYZ more for shipping. Make sure this accompanies a warning on your website that orders costing (or weighing) over XYZ dollars (or pounds) may be subject to additional shipping fees.

The alternative, and my favorite, is to simply pay the extra cost yourself. Ideally, once you have to worry about a situation like that, the person has already ordered tons of merchandise from you, and would appreciate a break like that. It can definitely make a good impression.

Make sure you keep a running total of how much you've charged for shipping vs. how much you've spent. If, after six months to a year, you see that the numbers aren't quite lining up, tweak your rates.

Although there are other methods for shipping, those are the most popular two, and certainly the easiest to maintain.

Conclusion

Are these the only concerns when setting up an eCommerce site? Certainly not, but they are some of the most common. If you have any specific questions or concerns, feel free to contact me with those questions.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.