Any tips I "must" know before launching an ecommerce site?

[Edman]

Just out of curiosity, what sort of products would people buy and pay via SMS? Care to share your site with us?

One of the sites I'm working on right now sells ad space, kinda like Craigslist. It has a lot of traffic, and you can list your ad. Putting your ad up costs you $0.50. It would be worthless to try to charge $0.50 using a credit card or some other system, so you just use the phone.

Another one is an adult site. Again, $0.99 for downloading a single movie. The implementation was certainly interesting -- you could download a movie, it would cost you just $0.99, there was no registration, nothing. Guess whaaaat -- 7% turnover rate! The idea of selecting the movie, entering the code in your mobile phone and getting to download it was just tooooo easy to pass by for most users. Was quite interesting to program, seeing how people should be able to download the video, yet they would not be required to register, and they should not be able to pass the link. I own the rights to the script as there was no contract, so it's actually up for sale.

But yes, maybe a mod can split these SMS posts to a new thread? It's an intersting discussion.

[solutionsphp]

Perhaps you've already got this covered, but this is something that I find is often put off until the end, but it can be a real headache, especially if you have oversized items:

SHIPPING!

Consider it early, consider it often.

cheers
SAM

[chilipal]

MOD REWRITE your URL's!!!!!

[marcel]

MOD REWRITE your URL's!!!!!

Drupal's ecommerce module has this built in.

[tbase]

MOD REWRITE your URL's!!!!!

I would take that as far as you can.If you are selling a Sony GCSDFSKDF Camera, then make sure your page titles and file names reflect the product name. Also make sure the name is within a H1 too.

Works for me

Thanks
Tbase

[deltrumweb]

I built mmy site using OSCommerce and it was good to use an open source full-customisable script to run the forum...

[chrisranjana]

Since you are using Authorize.net payment gateway, It can be completely customized and made to operate fully in the background. The users need not leave your website at all if you use the AIM methods of authorize.net and have your php or asp scripts call the gateway.

[rondo]

Start an affiliate program to drive traffic.
Send regular newsletters to your customers.

Good luck with it.

Andrew

[etechsupport]

Overall your site should have marketability and motivation factors for your visitors as to make them feel that they are touching your product or service when they visit your site. Follow Google simple philosphy "Focus on the user and all else will follow".

Best of luck!