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E-Commerce for the Real World.
E-Commerce is one of the largest growing segments of online services in 2008. Unfortunately, there is alot of angst among merchants, administrators, and IT managers as they contemplate their readiness for the explosive potential of their e-commerce sites, much less decide on a software platform and secure hosting infrastructure to pull it off.
Before you rush off to bolt a shopping cart to your website, you will need to consider what type of e-commerce transactions you will ultimately require. This is important because commerce in the real world takes on many shapes. You may think that you only need to sell and ship goods, but there are other considerations. For example, you may also need to sell gifts which means you will be shipping to multiple addresses per order and probably guarantee arrival by a certain date. If you sell any perishable goods, they must arrive within a certain timeframe and travel a limited distance. If you manage drop-shipments for your suppliers, you need to automatically notify your suppliers. If you collect payments for non-shippable items such as downloadable ebooks, software, music, or subscription-based access to areas of your website, or even collect donations or recurring charges for ongoing services or fund-raising campaigns, then you don't need to collect shipping information from your customers. You may simply need to offer a convenient way for your clients to apply a payment to their account, or members to pay their dues. Whatever shape your e-commerce takes, you need a solution that is flexible enough to keep up with your changing needs and provide "real-world" e-commerce.
Now you need to consider how the e-commerce software will integrate with your website. This is where the rubber hits the road. If a prospect visits your website and demonstrates interest in your products or services, you need to add them to a propect list so you can include them in any promotional broadcast e-mails you send. When a prospect orders online, you want to add them to the product's customer database and appropriate mailing lists automatically. If a member renews their membership by paying their dues, you will want you website to extend their expiration date and their access and priviledges to the members-only service areas of your website. In order to include these features, you must have your e-commerce integrated with your website's content mangement system, online forms system, and contact management system.
If you have read this far, then you know that to develop a website with integrated real-world e-commerce can costs many thousands of dollars and take many months to complete. When the e-commerce site is finally launched, you have to hope your web developer doesn't get hit by a bus - or you will be left without a way to support your "one-of-a-kind" e-commerce system.
Does this sound familar? If so, then liveSite™ was built for you. liveSite™ is a enterprise-class database-driven software system that runs on almost any web server and integrates Content Management, Contact Management, Electronic Forms, and e-Commerce into a single solution that doesn't require any programming knowledge or web development tools. liveSite™ includes over 30 interactive page types that you can simply link together to create a complex interactive website tailored to your specific look, feel, and functionality.
