Electronic commerce is a rather broad topic. As the name suggests, it is commerce, or business, by electronic means. That does not exclusively mean business done on the Internet. Nonetheless, as a web design and development company, we will stick to what we know and focus on ecommerce and its relationship with the Internet.

Ecommerce has changed the world. An enormous statement no doubt, but the evidence is resounding. Prior to the Internet boom of the late 90s, the Internet, or World Wide Web, was really just a huge information resource – ‘the information super-highway’. However, business-people soon began to foresee the immense possibilities of doing business online. Money began to pour into the development of these hubs for business, or ecommerce websites as we know them now.

Why ecommerce?

So, why does ecommerce matter to a start-up or small to medium business like yours? One word: money. Small to medium businesses do not have much money to spend on enlarging their market through expensive advertising. Nor do they have much money to spend on hiring extra salespeople or opening new stores to sell their products and services in multiple geographic locations. However, with an ecommerce website you can achieve all these things with a return on investment that blows out any other form of marketing. But an ecommerce website is more than just marketing. It is a sales channel. It is your store, or salesperson, to the world!

Ecommerce with Webmaker

Our focus with ecommerce websites is two-fold. Return on investment; and your customers. You need your ecommerce website to make you more money and to do that it needs to appeal to your customers. It is no different to designing and building a new store, or training and developing a salesperson and pitch.

Our experience in developing online product catalogues, shopping cart systems, online ordering websites, and stock / inventory management systems should give you confidence that we will deliver an ecommerce website that will grow your business.

Product Catalogues

Product Catalogues are one of the oldest forms of sales material in business. Over hundreds of years they have changed very little: basically a list of products broken down into different categories, then for each product there is a product name, some relevant specifications or options, perhaps a description and then the price of the product.

Despite some highly publicised failures, a great number of businesses have found the Internet a tremendously successful place to publish a product catalogue. Many have added online payments to their catalogue, thereby enabling customers to pay immediately online and sometimes have their product delivered the next day!

In comparison to printed catalogues an online catalogue is very inexpensive. Also, a printed catalogue can sometimes be out of date before it is even in the customer’s hand whereas an online catalogue can be updated at any time, ensuring your customers always have access to the latest information. With Internet access becoming nearly universally available in the industrialised world, many businesses have scaled back or cancelled their printed catalogues and are focusing on their online catalogue.

As you would expect, the secret to a successful online product catalogue is to not challenge the format that has been successful for so long. Having said that, the Internet is probably the biggest development ever seen in this area of sales. This is because a web environment is interactive and offers the user new ways of navigating. A customer can search a large product catalogue for their product rather than trying to find it. Perhaps they can choose to sort the product catalogue by price or name, or see only those products in their size. The possibilities are many and varied.

At Webmaker we take your Product Catalogue very seriously, we know it is not just a web page but a crucial sales channel that can be a cornerstone of success in your business.

Online Payments

As it suggests, the term online payments refers to the ability to make or receive payments via a facility on a website. This is the most common form of ‘ecommerce’. Integration of online payments can bring great benefits, often enabling customers to purchase goods or services in an ‘online shopping’ experience or to view and pay invoices online.

Usually, an online payment is initiated by the payer, who completes a form, or series of forms, on a website. There are a number of different payment methods that can be facilitated by an online payments solution – including pre-paid debit account systems like Paypal and Yahoo! Wallet – but the most common and popular is payment by credit card. All credit card providers (VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, etc.) and all major banks support online payments.

If you are considering implementing an online payment solution in your web site your most important considerations should be security, usability and reliability. Perhaps the most important single feature for addressing these considerations is real-time processing – the transaction should take place instantly when the user requests it. For instance, if your solution accepts credit card payments then it should be capable of transferring funds from the payer’s account into your account as soon as the payment is requested and authorised.

Webmarker is an experienced and responsible developer of online payments solutions and has enabled some of Australia’s successful and long-running ecommerce businesses. Get Started has implemented dozens of payments solutions of many different types and functions ranging from simple payment forms to complex finance and order management systems integrated with a central accounting package.

Security is the most important element of any online payments solution and Webmarker employs a number of techniques including password protection and database security. Most critically, however, Webmarker is an authorised provider of Thawte and GeoTrust security certificates and is thereby able to offer the highest standard in digital encryption technology in each and every payment solution. We can ensure that your customer details are safe and secure.

To achieve the most reliable and fast payments processing available Webmaker maintains a partnership with Camtech and SecurePay, who are Australia’s leading online payment gateways.

The needs of your business may be very unique and this is where Webmarker’s broad experience is most beneficial. We can build a solution for your web site that utilises almost any software and any number of functions such as foreign currency conversions and transactions, and services such as Paypal, Yahoo! Wallet and Authorise.Net. The possibilities are limitless.

Internet marketing is one of the fastest growing yet most confusing areas of the internet industry, but don’t let this distract you from the very real benefits that can be derived from Internet marketing.

When some people start talking about ‘Internet marketing’ they are really only thinking about search engine optimisation (SEO). The next person you speak to might be single-minded about banner advertising or pay-per-click campaigns, like Google Adwords. In reality there is no silver bullet – there are many techniques and each of them can be productive in the right circumstances. The most important thing is to make sure that you are employing the most effective strategy for your business.

Internet marketing techniques are often divided into two types: ‘push’ and ‘pull’ methods.

‘Pull’ marketing techniques are methods of getting people to come to your site, where your content and promotional materials are located. This includes:

• search engine optimisation
• online advertising
  • pay-per-click campaigns like Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing
  • banner advertising and banner exchange
• online directories and links on other sites
• referrer and reseller programs
• viral marketing

‘Push’ marketing means finding ways of distributing your content and brand more widely, with the eventual outcome of increasing traffic to your web site. This includes:

• targeted email marketing via opt-in email lists
• newsletters and ezines
• industry or general interest mini-sites
• free services and cool stuff
• customer management programs

Internet Marketing with Webmaker

Webmarker is very proud of our track record in Internet marketing, having helped many of our clients get the most ‘bang for their buck’ by employing simple and effective techniques, tailored for their business. Because so many other businesses have been disappointed by their Internet marketing results, particularly in relation to their costs, we have endeavoured to remain vendor-independent and open minded about the strategies that we design and employ for our customers. Typically, we employ the following methodology:

1. assist our clients to analyse their industry and marketing needs
2. decide and document a marketing strategy
3. research best-practice examples, products and services
4. develop marketing content and design materials
5. deploy marketing campaign, monitor and measure results

With extensive experience and understanding of the industry, we can assist you to assess and implement a broad campaign involving many techniques or a targeted campaign employing only one or two, including:

• search engine optimisation
• online advertising such as Google AdWords, click-through banner ads and banner exchange
• online directories and links on other sites
• viral marketing
• newsletters and ezines
• develop general interest mini-sites or public services in your site
• customer management and retention tools

We are experts in web development having built websites and web-based business systems since 1999.

What is web development?

Web development is the process of taking a website design and programming this to display properly in a browser. This involves programming the HTML and CSS in-line with web standards and then integrating this code into a content management system (CMS). Custom web development is then undertaken to fill any of the functionality gaps before thorough testing is carried out across the website. Learn more about the web development methodology here.

Our Approach to Web Development

Website development requires a very different set of skills to web design. In web development the focus is on functionality and usability. With web development-only agencies this can result in a lack of focus on the other side of websites – the marketing and aesthetics. Our approach to web development is to bring together the web design aspects of website creation and integrate these with the latest technologies and frameworks that we have at our disposal. This web development process ensures your website is functional, usable, achieves your marketing goals and looks great!

Website Development Technologies

Since our inception in 2004 the team at Webmaker have built content management systems from scratch, one of which is still in existence and used by over 100 small businesses in the world. We also have experience working with the following systems:

• Kentico
• SiteFinity
• WordPress
• Mambo
• Joomla
• Typo3
• Sharepoint 2007
• SocialEngine
• DotNetNuke
• EPI Server

From a more general point of view, we have experience working with the following technologies:

• ASP.NET 1.1, 2.0 and 3.5 (including MVC and LINQ) in both C# (main focus)
• and VB.NET
• Classic ASP 3.0 (VBScript)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008
• AJAX frameworks: ASP.NET AJAX (Atlas), jQuery, Prototype
• Web services: SOAP, REST, XML
• Flash & ActionScript
• Silverlight
• PHP 4 and 5
• MySQL
• Ruby on Rails
• Perl

Unlike most web development companies, at Webmaker we maintain our own hosting infrastructure and domain registration system. This means that when your website is complete we can publish it online ourselves. It also means that any questions or problems arising after your website is in operation you can come straight to us.

What exactly is ‘hosting’?

‘Hosting’ is the service provided when someone makes your ‘stuff’ accessible to people on the Internet. Websites, email, domain names, databases and files are just some of the things that can be hosted on a web server and thereby made available on the Internet.

Most web servers are not much different to a powerful personal computer. The two most important things about a web server are the software that it runs (powerful and often expensive) and the speed of its Internet connection (reliable and very, very fast). When you connect to the web server from your computer, the server works out what files or information you want to see, then sends them to your computer.

A website is just a collection of files that are all grouped together in a folder on your web server. Typically, these files are HTML pages and images but sometimes databases and more advanced programming as well. When a web user follows a link, or goes to a web address  the server finds the file called ‘index.asp’ in the group of files for  and sends that file to the user’s computer.

What types of website hosting are there?

Most mail servers and web servers host multiple web sites and domain names. This is called ‘shared hosting’ or ‘virtual hosting’ and is the most common type of hosting, as it is the least expensive. Very large web sites and online systems often have a server all to themselves, this is called ‘dedicated hosting’.

The vast majority of our clients choose the shared hosting arrangement. Single dedicated hosting is not necessarily more stable. Our shared hosting infrastructure is load-balanced with multiple web servers and multiple database servers. In summary, no single point of failure.

Hosting your website with Webmaker

Here are the benefits of hosting with Webmaker:

• Stable, reliable and well-supported hosting infrastructure
• Backed by largest hosting provider
• Pricing below the retail prices of that hosting provider
• Dedicated Support Team available on phone and email from 8am-6pm
• Access to web development knowledge. Can’t get your website working? We probably can.
• No contracts – leave when you want (we feel safe in saying that because we know you won’t want to leave…)

Websites are our specialty. We strive to design and develop websites that our clients love. Here at Webmaker we don’t churn out websites like a factory churns out products. Each website project is run by a dedicated Project Manager with a customised strategy and creative direction. Your business is unique and we build websites that mirror that uniqueness.

Website Purpose & Objectives

You need a reason for having a website. Although it may sound obvious, a lot of businesses obtain a website simply because they assume that every business needs one. That’s not a reason and it’s not true. You need a purpose and some clear objectives. These objectives, generally speaking, can be described as any combination of the following:

1. Create leads by encouraging new website visitors to phone or email you;
2. Facilitate leads from other marketing avenues by providing your website as an information brochure;
3. Generate new sales online through ecommerce;
4. Market your brand by creating an impressive online presence;
5. Engage current customers with relevant, customised website information.

If you have a website already, ask yourself if your website achieves any of those objectives. If you don’t have a website, we suggest you use these to work out what your website should achieve. And that’s where we come in – to help you construct your objectives and turn these into a website that you love!

Website Audience

Your target website audience is intrinsically aligned with your website objectives. If your focus is to generate ecommerce sales online then you need to know who your target customers are. Here at Webmarker, we are very user-focused when it comes to web design and development. We will help you define your website users and create an appropriate web design and website structure that helps you achieve your objectives with your target market.

Website ROI

Investing in a website is no different to investing in a TV advertising campaign or a new store location. You need to weigh up the investment you are making and then align your expected returns from the website with that investment. Your Webmarker Project Manager will ensure this return on investment (ROI) is a continuing theme throughout the web design and development process.

Are you sold yet? If not, here are a few more reasons why you should choose Webmarker for your website strategy:

1. Empathy – we care about you and your business;
2. Experience – we’ve been designing and developing websites for 10 years;
3. Expertise – we’re professionals in our field;
4. Efficiency – we are focused on your return on investment;
5. Energy – we’re passionate about what we do.

Web Design with Webmaker

Most of our clients rely on Webmaker to produce the graphic design for their projects. Because we employ graphic designers with various backgrounds and approaches we have been able to produce outstanding design results for a wide range of clients in different industries. For many projects, particularly for companies with an established brand and graphic design, our designers will work with your existing design materials and even consult with your graphic design firm to ensure that the design of your website or online system is co-ordinated with the rest of your brand publishing.

Web Design is Different

Graphic design for the web is very different to design for print or other forms of publishing. We specialise in professional graphic design for all forms of online presentation ranging from websites to email marketing, online advertising and Intranet systems. For many clients, particularly those that are predominantly web-based businesses, we are also responsible for the development of the visual representation of their entire brand including their logo, letterhead, brochure and other ‘offline’ publishing.