There is a lot of confusion out there as to what it actually takes to design, develop and manage a webstore. It is actually very common for us to get phone calls from people wanting to build fully customized ecommerce solutions for, oh, say $250 (not kidding).
Which got me thinking, why is this?
Probably the biggest reason is that people don’t understand the real cost of the process, and what all is actually involved in building, operating and managing a webstore. There are other reasons too - for example, a lot of people still have this crazy idea that the web is a magical wonderland of profit where a very small amount of work will make them the next Silicon Valley multi-billionaire (a scenario completely created by the media, by the way - people who are Silicon Valley multi-billionaires have generally worked very hard for many many years to get that way).
Anyway, over the next several weeks, I will be writing this column, detailing the ecommerce development process, and what you as a potential shop owner can expect it to cost you. The following will be detailed in each installment:
- Part 1 - Design and Development
- Part 2 - Merchant Accounts and Security Certificates
- Part 3 - Testing and Product Build-Out
- Part 4 - Inventory Management and Daily Operations
One comment so far.
[...] jump right into Part 1 of my illustrious series, “What’s Involved in Ecommerce” (see the Prologue first if you haven’t read that yet and feel lost at this [...]