E-Commerce Tutorial - Selling Products On The Internet

We are often asked by our customers what steps they must take to open an E-Commerce storefront on their website. So, we've written this E-Commerce tutorial to explain what E-Commerce is essentially and to outline the basic components that are required for operating an E-Commerce storefront of your own.

We've divided up our E-Commerce tutorial into six areas that are designed to assist newcomers to the E-Commerce experience with various issues, and to point you in the right direction for information that will help make your decisions more clearly. We suggest you start with "What Is E-Commerce?" for a list of items that you will want to address as you build your online storefront, and then check the other five sections for more information on specific E-Commerce related services.

What Is E-Commerce? E-Commerce Hosting

Merchant Account Shopping Cart

Other Information E-Commerce Templates

Featured E-Commerce Solution - InstanteStore.com

InstanteStore.com - With this online service, you create your own E-Commerce site through a very easy-to-use, web-based system. Using InstanteStore.com, you choose a site layout from over 60 web site designs -- 100 MB Web Hosting, 10 POP3 accounts and 1 GB traffic included!

In addition, this is a system that allows you to quickly set-up your web store online, with no need to understand how to build web sites or set-up shopping carts. You can have the account started, add your product information, and be ready to sell online in under 24 hours.

InstanteStore.com gives a good idea of how all the components of E-Commerce fit together, while making the entire process of setting up an E-Commerce website that much easier. They provide the website design, shopping cart program and E-Commerce hosting all in one affordable package. All you need to add is the merchant account of your choice.

You can test out this service using their 30-day FREE trial, so you'll have a chance to decide if its right for you before you have to pay anything. After the trial is over, the total cost is $49.97 per month for the site, the hosting and the shopping cart system. Since InstanteStore.com handles the hosting and shopping cart program, you don't have to set any of that up, or worry about SSL security. Its truly a complete online storefront in one easy-to-use package!

InstanteStore.com includes additional features that you want in an E-Commerce solution:

• Built-in Currency Converter
• Built-in Affiliate Program Management
• Built-in Advertisement Tracking
• Automatic On Sale, Front Page & Featured Products
• Extensive Shipping, Tax & Payment Options
• Comprehensive Website Visitor Stats
• And many other time-saving features!

You will need to have your own merchant account / payment processing service. InstanteStore.com is fully-compatible with most major credit cards payment gateways, including PayPal, 2CheckOut, LinkPoint International, Authorize.net, Verisign and more. We recommend PayPal as the best Online Merchant Account for the InstanteStore.com program.

E-Commerce Templates - Another Great Head Start

For those who want to have their website remain independent of a specific hosting service or online template provider, buying your own E-Commerce template is another option. Templates of this sort provide you with a ready-to-implement website design that has the shopping cart program built-in. Find out more in our E-Commerce Templates section.