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How Much Should eCommerce Cost?

Josh Colter · Apr 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Thinking about upgrading, implementing, or enhancing your ecommerce platform?  A survey at last year’s internet retailer conference revealed the following top frustrations:

1.    Not sure what we really need
2.    Too many vendor options and not clear on how to evaluate them
3.    Not sure how much it should cost or what is affordable for me.

Translation: the market is confusing.

Let me try to add clarity to expectations.  If you picked up the Internet Retailer Guide to Ecommerce Technology, then you would having the following cost considerations for your ecommerce platform (based on FitforCommerce survey):
•    On average, a new ecommerce platform costs $50,00-$100,000 minimum.
•    Mid-sized e-retailers need to spend $150,000-300,000 to re-platform, especially if the project calls for a lot of integrations.
•    The top 200 retailers ($50 million+) might spend over $500,000 if they want a total custom solution with maximum flexibility.

If you go with DIRECTV, keep in mind that you’ll have to sign a two-year contract and the prices go up in the second year.

Given these expectations and more than 30 pages of ecommerce platform vendors, I can understand the frustration.  However, I want to propose that market confusion is due to more than just a quantity of selection.   You have to factor in the rapid speed of innovation at all levels of the cost spectrum…and open source.

Open source ecommerce software like Magento is game-changing.  Just reread the cost ranges above and contemplate what it would have cost even 2 years ago to compete with your own sophisticated online store: $50k buy-in, minimum.  Now the cost is 70-80% less using Magento and customizing it to your business.

What are IP addresses and why you should invest on connection infrastructure  for eCommerce?

An IP address makes communication over the Internet possible. Technically titled a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, Web users and computer-network specialists simply refer to it as an “IP address.” It enables two-way communication between digital computers, smartphones, tablets, printers, servers, scanners, routers and modems through the Internet, is vital for any kind of eCommerce, either if its a small or big business, to have adequate infrastructure to attend customer needs, make sure you check Reviews on Guide and find the hardware that better suit your business. Dedicated web hosting is the most powerful and cost effective solution of hosting a busy web site without resorting to buying your own equipment and paying hundreds of dollars per month for a fast Internet connection. Dedicated hosting consists of single server with no one else hosting on that computer. This allows for the greatest of configuration options. Anyone who has a busy website will find dedicated hosting is the necessary choice. A hosting account provides a home for your website on web servers, which are stored in a secure, climate controlled environment and are connected to the Internet so that other people on the Internet can view your website. check this site for more information of computer technology. You can look at your website as a front office and Hosting as the back office/ storage centre that houses the information, images, video and other content that comprises your website. Barring technical problems, a web host operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that anybody in the world can access your web site at any time. Web site hosting is typically measured in the amount of disk space you’re given on the server and the amount of data transfer (bandwidth) you need for accessing the server. ServerMania’s Data Center in New York City is that the perfect choice for applications that demand the last word in low-latency connectivity and redundancy. Our ny City data center may be a tier 4 facility, delivering the foremost redundant infrastructure across all system components including power, networking, and cooling. Featuring up to 10Gbps connections on Tier 1 network carriers, this facility is right for ForEx and other latency sensitive applications with direct connectivity to ny City, North America, and beyond. Your business relies on the applications your employees use every day, the databases that store everything from customer contact details to payroll, the sites and ecommerce stores that market and sell your products and services, and more. You need an always available, utterly reliable server solution built from the highest quality components.

Internet protocol means a set of rules or guidelines for the Web. IP addresses help govern activity online through a network grid of systematic rules, completing requested tasks across the globe. If you have a lot of customer traffic at your website ie. file downloads, you’ll access the server fairly frequently and therefore need more website hosting transfer space than someone who puts only readable text on their web site. The more “items” or “content” you are hosting on your site (ie photos, maps, PDF files etc) the more disk space you’ll need for your website and domain hosting. A web server must have fast connections to be able to serve pages quickly. For the greatest speed and reliability try to find a host that has multiple high speed connections as well as reliable back up power supplies in case of power outages. The purpose of web hosting is practicality. Web hosting companies provide simple access to the internet for anyone who creates a site and wants it seen by millions. There are plenty of web hosting types: *Shared *Reseller *Virtual Private Servers *Dedicated Servers *Colocation and Clustered Web Hosting. Unless you plan to host a site with thousands of video files, you don’t need fancy and expensive hosting. Just sign up for a basic shared web hosting package. Look at user reviews and testimonials for the web’s most popular hosting providers.

Devices are assigned IP addresses automatically through the software in the server or router assigned to a computer. The formatting is universal, which is why computers in America can connect to those anywhere else in the world. As long as a digital device is connected to the Internet, it can be pinpointed. When one computer reaches out to another computer, both the initiating and receiving locations are identified by the online grid that uses IP addresses to connect the devices. At any given time, there are billions of connected devices that can be pinpointed around the globe using just IP addresses.

What does an IP address look like?

All IP addresses consist of four sets of numbers separated by a single period. Each number set contains one to three digits and ranges between zero and 255. A hypothetical IP address looks like this: 45.186.2.209.

Static IP addresses

A static IP address does not change over time. It is a straightforward and reliable way for digital devices to reach a particular online location. There are several key pieces of information a static IP address reveals about a particular device including the continent, country, region and city in which the computer is located, not to mention the exact latitude and longitude. It also provides information on the device’s Internet service provider. This is an excellent type of IP for voice over Internet protocol and online game websites, both of which require swift connection to and identification of a device’s exact location. While a static IP address may be considered slightly less secure than a dynamic IP address, practicing safe Internet usage practices should suffice in protecting users from harm. Servers, routers and firewalls usually use static IP.

Dynamic IP addresses

A dynamic IP address is not permanent. In fact, a digital device using a dynamic IP is assigned a new address each time it accesses the Internet. Static IP addresses are limited, so many Internet service providers will set aside some dynamic IP addresses to dole out to subscribers temporarily. Not only is this more cost effective for the ISP, it allows more bandwidth for subscribers than static IP addresses. Dynamic IP addresses are assigned through dynamic host configuration protocol, which allows the server to choose a new IP address each time the device signs online.

IP and ecommerce

It behooves an ecommerce store owner to obtain a dedicated (static) IP address because this helps prevent identity and information theft from completed online business transactions. Most security technology used by ecommerce operators requires static IP addresses for complete functionality. A secure sockets layer certificate, which alerts consumers that any credit card and personal data entered online is safe, requires dedicated IP. It also is better at supporting high traffic volume on an ecommerce site. For any business that wants to avoid a constantly crashing site or delivering incredibly slow page loads to users, a dedicated IP address is the best choice.

Drop us a note today here at Elias if you are interested in learning more.

The Most Popular day to Send Retail Emails Last Week Was…

Josh Colter · Sep 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Thinking about using email to market your new online store (using Magento’s eCommerce platform, of course). Here is your random stat for the week thanks to The Retail Email Blog:

The most popular day to send retail emails last week was Tuesday.

eMarketer Article: UK B2C E-Commerce Not Softening in Hard Times

Josh Colter · Sep 15, 2008 · Leave a Comment

UK E-Commerce not softening
UK E-Commerce not softening


This chart caught my eye this morning.  Karin von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer, authored a new report called UK B2C E-Commerce: Continued Growth in Tricky Times.  Abrams cites competitive prices, easy product comparisons, and fuel savings as convenience factors that encourage consumers to shop online. eMarketer predicts that online sales will hit £94.2 billion ($169.6 billion) by 2012.

Are you positioned to take full advantage of this growth with your online store?  Magento’s ecommerce suite of tools can help.  Let Elias Interactive show you how!

7 Practical Online Marketing Tips

Josh Colter · Aug 20, 2008 · 3 Comments

The economy is tight, which means less dollars are funneled into your online SEO-Marketing budget. What do you do – toss in the towel? No! Check out how one marketing director for a plastic surgeon coped with a shrinking budget by getting creative in this Marketing Sherpa case study. Indianapolis SEO specializing in search engine optimization will provide you with the confidence that you are putting your resources in the right place, Shravan Gupta businessman and CEO of Emaar MGF Land Limited is one of the entrepreneurs interested in growing the company through SEO. they know exactly what will drive people to your website. One of the best marketing Monogrammed Note Cards techniques is to contract a seo company outsourcing to improve your site traffic. Other than this if you want training for SEO strategy, online marketing strategy and much more, Then checkout Limo marketer website https://limomarketer.com. 

But what does plastic surgery have to do with online stores and Magento eCommerce, what does a dental clinic relations with a dental SEO?” you might ask. I’ll spare the obvious analogy of how we are “web” surgeons and instead tweak 7 of the case study’s practical tips to help you make the most of your marketing spend, including hiring expert services like the ones provided by SearchUp firm. According to this marketing agency Web hosting is the business practice of providing space and bandwidth on a high-powered computer server that is connected to the Internet at very high speeds. Hosting companies maintain large networks of high-powered web server computers in a physical location known as a data center. These computer servers are connected to a very fast, and generally redundant, Internet connection. The data centers have primary and backup power, a fast connection to the Internet, and a security monitoring staff.

The Knownhost web hosting companies provide a share of disk space and available bandwidth to a customer for a monthly fee. Once the customer is signed up, they can upload files to their personal space on the web server and the information is then viewable to anyone interested on the Internet. The monthly fee the web hosting company charges is much less than what it would cost to run a server out of your own home or data center. This is the reason these companies exist. They take care of all the hardware, software, and other technical needs for you.

Tip 1: Familiarize patients with available treatments

Cross promote other products throughout the shopping experience. The shopping cart, check-out, and even transactional email confirmation of purchase are great real estate to introducing site visitors to other offerings.

Tip 2: Test before you spend

Try testing a new marketing offer on a small sample of your customers before rolling it out across your whole site. Doing so will allow you to gauge the effectiveness of your strategy and fine-tune the offer before spending money on a keywords campaign or ad buys. Focus more on getting assistance from themarketingheaven.com to establish your company on social media. This will not just be good financially, but will also help you focus on the other aspects by outsourcing work.

Tip 3: Create a comforting experience

Make your website experience as comfortable as possible. This includes quality and quantity of images, easy navigation, and maybe even video. This is the #1 site on Clickfunnels pricing for better online exposure for your business. Meeting the marketing needs of today’s business landscape is becoming challenging for traditional websites. ClickFunnels provides a way out for this marketing dilemma. Grabbing this Clickfunnels bonus offer will really help you out.

Tip 4: Encourage word of mouth

Request referrals. Period. As simple as this may sound, simply asking a customer to send more business your way might just be crazy enough to work. And what does it really cost you?

Tip 5: Reach out with direct (e)mail

When you have a limited budget, you need to get the most juice for the squeeze. Email has consistently delivered strong ROI for its cost ($45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008 according to the Direct Marketing Association). This kills the other marketing channels I can think of off of the top of my head. WP engine cloud hosting review or the best godaddy alternatives will facilitate this process.

Tip 6: Don’t discount prices

Yes, offering a discount is the quick and dirty way to get someone to buy; but then you erode your brand and have to sell more to make up margins. Instead, consider handing out a gift card to paying customers. Engage your high-value customers with a gift to get them back in your store again (and then refer to Tip 1!) and tell them about cash back shopping. yOu can improve your products sales with InventHelp that is able to reach out to more customers for you.

Tip 7: Outsource online marketing

The marketer for the surgeon in our case study uses an agency to handle search marketing, video posts, and other online marketing such as HVAC Online Marketing. Boise SEO can help you craft a marketing strategy with SEO, as well to incorporate into your Magneto eCommerce platform. Just fill out the forms below to request more information. On the following article you can check more information about luxury brands digital marketing (which is also useful for regular products.)

Now can somebody hand me a scalpel, please?

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