Ecommerce Shopping Cart Websites Frequent Questions

With hundreds of ecommerce shop sites designed and currently hosted by Firepages now live on the internet - we are confident we can assist with your online trading goals.

There are many questions to answer regarding trading online with one of our shopping websites. Here are some of the most frequent ones we answer.

How easy is the online shop to use ?

Our online shops come with a user friendly backend. If you can list on eBay - then you will find it even easier to use our system. It is as simple as going to a category and clicking on 'Add New Product' in the product details - save and it will appear on your ecommerce shop site in the correct category.

Will you give me assistance on using my new ecommerce site ?

Yes, once your site is ready we suggest that first you have a browse around the administration backend and then give us a call when in front of your Pc and we can talk you through anything you are not sure of. We do not limit the amount of help and support we give you to enable you to get the most from your new ecommerce website.

I already have my own domain name - can I use that for my shop website ?

Yes, all you will have to do is amend the nameservers. This can be done easily through your domain administration panel. You can either amend the nameservers yourself or send us the details where you registered the domain name and we will do this for you.

Can I change the categories and products for sale at any time ?

Yes, there is no need to ask us for every change. All site changes that you will need to do can be done via the administration area. This includes adding, deleting and editing categories and products, Setting postage and payment options and editing text on the home page as well as adding new pages via our easy to use page editor.

How many photographs of my products can I have ?

The site will take 3 photographs per product and display them as a smaller image on the product pages and listing pages, When your customers click to enlarge the image  - it will be presented in an attractive display. Click on the images below for an example of how your products images will enlarge.

      
Click On The Images To See The Lightbox Display Which Is Used On Our Ecommerce Stores

Can my site show prices in different currencies - like the Euro or the Dollar ?

Yes, we can add that function easily.

How do I take payment on the website ?

Payments online through your website are made through Paypal, Nochex, Bank Transfer or Cheque. You don't have to use all of the options and you can set the options for different parts of the world. ie only take Paypal from Europe or only offer Bank Transfer to the UK.

I have my own merchant services - can I take credit cards directly on the site ?

Your bank would probably recommend that you use a payment gateway to ensure protection of your customers card details. Our preferred payment gateway to integrate with is Protx. Integrating with Protx means that you can avoid the risk associated with taking credit card details and storing them.

How about delivery charges on the site ?

Delivery charges can be separated into three areas which are the UK, Europe and the Rest of The World. For these areas you can set the delivery charges by a few different options depending on what is best - the most frequent options used are

• Set Price per order
• Set price per item
• Stepped rate - increasing or decreasing
• Free delivery
• Free delivery if order over a certain amount
• First Item charge, next item = xx
• Individual Rate per product.
• By weight of order.

How will I get my new shopping site seen ?

When your site is completed and you have put some stock on the site, we will ensure that it is picked up by the major search engines quite quickly by linking to your site from our pages. We also will upload your site maps to google and place a google analytics code in your site should you wish to track the visitors. Details are in the administration area on how to open the free accounts through google. When your accounts are opened - just send us the details and we will do the rest.

I've heard of google's product search - Google Base. Can I get my items listed there.

Yes. Google base is google's shopping comparison site. Your website will come complete with the latest version of an automatic export file that will output all of your items in a text file for quick upload to google base. Open a free account with Google Base, send us the details and we will do the first upload for you and tell you how to do them in future.

How do I get to the top of Google with my products ?

Firstly, the quick way is to upload your products to google base, when people search for an item - it will return the results saying 'Product Search Results' at the top of the page.

Long term strategy will mean paying attention to your products titles and descriptions. A great example of how not to do is as follows.

Customer X stocked his store with his products. The product titles were model numbers and sizes. Like MH678D size 6".  Because Customer X knew what these items where - he assumed that others would. Now if you where a search engines - would you return that item if someone was searching for a Leather Jacket ? A better way of naming products was implemented - rather than the model number and size items are described eg Men's XL Leather Winter Jacket. This is more appropriate for the search engines and would be relevant to searches for that item. So, think about the titles of what you are listing, give them good descriptions and nice clear image for your customers.

Get your site listed with relevant industry directories, back links are good - but only from reputable sources so avoid link farms or links to your site that you have to pay for.

What about once I have stocked my site, listed it where relevant - what can I do next ?

There are lots of things you can do to assist your site popularity and increase visitors. We keep on top of all the latest trends and google guidelines for webmasters. We will happily share our knowledge with our customers - so feel free to give us a call and we can review how you are doing and suggest other things you could do. A good website is never finished ! and there will always be something you could do to enhance your site.

I've been quoted thousands for an ecommerce site - do your sites really only cost £340 ?

Yes. We don't charge thousands for our online stores. Alot of pricing associated with websites has dropped in recent years - but you can still get quotes for alot of money that don't take that into effect. We specialise in shop / ecommerce sites for online trading, so we don't have to learn new technology for each new commission.