Web Wise Business – websites scotland (and beyond)
website development and websites Scotland from web wise businessArchive for ecommerce websites
Web development in Scotland – ecommerce
Ecommerce is the quickest way to turn interest into business. So if you have the option to add a shop, then check things out to see what is feasible. Paypal can be a good way to get things started on a limited budget. A decent web development company will help out.
Red Hot Chilli Piper’s have a blast
Great to see the live DVD “Blast” from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers hitting the streets. It captures a truly buzzing night at the Fruitmarket earlier in this year. I take my hat off to the guys who put this together for the Chilli Pipers – first class stuff. The legion of fans have been hitting the website to get their hands on it. Good to have played a small part with the suport of their ecommerce website.
Ecommerce for event organisers using What’s On Central
It’s taken a wee while for us to get to this but we are in the process of adding an ecommerce option to our event publicity site What’s On Central. It’s always been on the list of things to do – but our list kept getting longer.
We run What’s On Central for free – though the booking and email system costs a monthly fee. The bit that has been missing since day 1 has been taking payment at the point of booking – so we’re getting that sorted.
For folks who develop ecommerce websites we really should have done this a long time ago – but customers come first. And to be fair to ourselves we also wanted to make sure that What’s On Central was something that the business and academic community in Scotland would actually use. It’s been fun watching the site fill up and the user level rise – it now consistently has more than 100 business and academic Scottish events listed. Nice one – so time we stuck on epayment options.
ecommerce websites – getting ready for Santa
It comes round earlier and earlier – or it does if you work in a Garden Centre….Christmas. I was buying bulbs as way of some retail therapy to help get over the economic outlook for 2009 (some nice daffs in Spring I thought).
But on arriving at The Dobbies Gardening Cathedral I found that the bulbs had been moved away in favour of tinsel and fancy xmas wares. It was only the start of October. But it did make me think – if Garden Centres are getting their shop in order – then we’d better check our retailer customers with ecommerce websites and make sure they were also up to speed.
So if you are retailing online remember – xmas is coming the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the pay pal hat.
ecommerce websites – barriers to entry (not the techy bit)
The Finance world has gone through more than little upheaval of late and much of that has been to do with the back end liquidity issues. This sticks a bit to be honest. Anyone who has put together ecommerce websites will know that one of the biggest challenges is that in signing up the payment provider and payment gateway folks because of regulations such as money laundering and fraud.
The challenge is seldom the technology - the challenge is the bureaucracy that goes along with it. We got asked recently by a gateaway, who will remain nameless, how we were going to stop velocity attacks. (A velocity attack is when one Credit Card gets hammered repeatedly and fraudulently.) Well at this point we nearly screamed (well we did actually). The question was asked by someone who had no understanding of the question – in short velocity attacks are driven from multiple sites all at the same time so we can’t protect against that. It makes much more sense, and is an essential requirement, that the provider does that. We can check for multiple purchases but not for velocity attacks as that is at a completely different level.
So ecommerce websites are easy – but the bureaucracy is the problem (and the lack of understanding that tends to go with it).
What’s a doddle?
It never fails to amaze me – I must be getting old but somebody asked me what a ”doddle” was following the blog about our ”doh” moment with ecommerce websites.
So I have checked and it does exist as a word in the Collins Dictionary. I can only assume its an age thing – it featured a lot back in the days when Billy Connolly was funny – I think it was the first time I’d heard it. But the youngster that asked me (20 something I guess) was suitably bemused. And he was equally bemused by the term “double yolker” when referring to the very positive representations of a chap we know. Now double yolker there is a term that many sales folks will be unsure of.
What’s a doddle? Childs Play!
Now ecommerce is really cool
PayPal has liberated the finance world – was that really what was planned?
We’ve been busy working on improvements to the various Now websites that we run and are close to a major release. In essence we have moved them from being what one marketing chap called “infomediary websites” to being ecommerce websites.
The systems behind the scenes co-ordinates transactions and keeps the settlement process simple using PayPal. A few years ago we couldn’t have dreamed of the functionality we have put in place – but because of PayPal we have a system that is incredibly sophisticated (or soon will be).
We’ll keep you posted on progress as the system goes through trials and then goes live.
ecommerce in times of economic gloom
We seen a wee rash of businesses looking for something to help them throught the anticipated economic gloom of 2009. Typically it’s been businesses that haven’t seen the need for a web presence – or in some cases a good web presence (a bad web presence seems to have been ok in previous years). Now, however, things look different – and those new entrants have some pretty big ideas.
The need for ecommerce websites seems to be on the up. Folk seem to have tumbled that a website is fine – but how do you convert a customer into a piece of business? And the answer is – if they are on the site make sure they have the option to buy!
2009 bad news for Software Developers
It’s hard to look at the chaos in the financial markets and not worry about the fortunes for 2009. Software developers in Scotland have long relied on the financial services sector as a place of secure employment but as the tide has turned so the anxieties have increased.
The team at Web Wise Business saw the changes in the sector coming through a long time ago and we deliberately changed marketing strategy – though still carry out work in the sector. One area which we have now successfully address is that related to ecommerce websites for small and medium sized businesses – because of our background we know how to do that stuff well - and now because of our expertise with CMS systems like DNN we can deploy ecommerce quicker than ever before.
So although things look grim for 2009 in the financial sector its the experience we have gained in that sector that will allow us to deliver good results in 2009 in different areas. Well…. thats the plan.
ecommerce websites that are a doddle to deploy
We’ve all got a bit excited at Web Wise Business and its all because of ecommerce. For a bunch of guys that have been involved in the banking world since the 80’s this is no mean feat!
We’ve been building ecommerce websites for donkeys years – but at last we tumbled to something that seems obvious – make them easier for folk to deploy. Make them a doddle.
It’s been driven like all good ideas out of neccesity. We saw a big rise in the number of inquiries for the ecommerce bit but we weren’t delivering quick enough for our own liking.
So we are now playing around with our own simple system that lets you plug in your PayPal details and be up and running in no time. Sounds obvoius – well of course it is – but obvious always comes with 20 20 hindsight.
Our ecommerce websites will be featuring our new slick way of getting going soon – we just want to test things out ourselves first. We’ll keep you posted.
