Other expensive when starting a business online

Often when a new customer comes to us to build an online shop for them they are not aware of the expenses involved in having a business online beyond the initial design.

Of course firstly we have the website itself. UFO design include hosting (shared hosting ) for the first year and this includes email services and also your database.

Payment gateways & payment services

Payment gateways are where your customer makes their payment or the payment service is the company that handle and collect payment made by your customers. Depending on the type of service you want will depend on the cost.

It is often wise to use a payment service as they have advanced fraud detection and offer you protection against fraudulent card use. If for example you wished to handle the card payments yourself on a "card not present" machine in your office then of course you are responsible.

Depending on the size and the desire to have your company perceived in a certain way will depend on what type of service you will require from your payment service.
A large company selling cars for example wouldn't want to have their customers go to paypal to make payment but would like a more seamless approach where the customer does not leave the website to make payment. if you were selling second hand books you may think it perfectly suitable to have people go to google checkout to pay for their goods. PayPal Sagepay or Google Checkout offer options that vary in suitability and cost.

Payment made on providers website

Often with online shops when it comes to paying you will be redirected to a website where they will make their payment. Often the page that the customer lands on is obviously not your website. Importantly this can put some customers off purchasing as they feel that their information is not safe. This is not the case of course but all the same it may effect sales depending on the goods or services you are selling. Some payment gateway providers allow you to have a custom payment page on their website and this gives a much more professional feel to the whole transaction process.

Payment made on the business owners website

This option where payment is made on your website. It looks far more professional but with it come extra costs. Firstly with this kind of payment system you will need an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer) provides the https that you see often on the internet when making payment. These vary in cost but I suggest you think of £150 per year as a reasonable running cost for an SSL. SSL's vary in their quality also. Some offering extra protection to you against fraud. SSL also vary in the encryption level used. The higher the encryption the better the protection.

Other costs

There may be other charges made by your bank for the credit card transactions that are made / paid through the payment provider to your bank. Payment providers will often request you have a merchant account with your bank. If you don't have a merchant account you can get advice from your bank.

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is what as standard most design companies like UFO offer. Your site is on a server with many other websites hence the word "shared" this is perfectly fine and in most cases your site will run perfectly fine. It might be a good idea to start with this type of hosting and when your online business grows think of changing.

Dedicated hosting

Often a good idea to host large ecommerce websites on a dedicated server. This means that the server load is lower and your shop runs quicker and smoother. Dedicated servers vary in cost from £50 to £100 per month.

Support

If you wish to have support beyond the site going live and after basic training for administration of your ecommerce website then this is another expense to be aware of. UFO design charge £250 per year for support via email. This is for basic troubleshooting and regular backup of your database. Backing up your database is extremely important. if the database is lost or broken then your customer database may be irretrievable and your product listings.