If you want to sell over the Internet, your web site must conform with the basics of eCommerce. You want it to happen so make shopping at your on-line store a satisfying experience for your customers, and yourself.

Do’s of eCommerce

• Present your items clearly so that a visitor to your site immediately sees what you have to offer, and the prices.
• Allow the visitor to navigate your site without getting lost, or strange things happening. Use few pages rather than many.
• Make it easy for the user to select items
• Calculate all the prices - total item price, shipping, sales tax where applicable.
• Validate as much of the information the customer has provides as possible. For names addresses, at least check there is something there. Phone numbers can be checked for the correct number of digits.
• Make it easy for the customer to pay. Accept credit cards, by far the most satisfactory option. Checks, money orders, envelopes, stamps, post offices, time are all obstacles to making a purchase.
• If you want a customer's credit card information, you must provide a secure way send that information!

Provide an order number. It is useful for both you and your customer.

• Provide your phone number, email address, street address.
• Remind the customer to print out a copy for his own records.
• Thank your customer.

Don’ts of eCommerce

• Don’t expect a potential customer to work out the price! That’s the quickest way to discourage the purchase. Some people won’t be able to do it, particularly if there is tax involved. And those who could, won’t! If the computer doesn’t do the calculation, then you are also going to have to do it, to check the customer’s figures. If the customer gets it wrong, there is the awkwardness correcting the situation, with the risk of the purchase being canceled, possibly along with a dose of abuse – all because the computer didn’t calculate it up for them! That’s what computers are for!
• Don’t expect people to provide you with credit card information on an unsecured connection – for all the world to see! Nothing more needs to be said!
• Don’t use a shopping cart when you have just a few items all listed on one ordering page. Shopping carts become useful when you have several web pages. Balance the added complexity of a shopping cart against the number of items you have to sell.

Order forms range in sophistication from rudimentary to complex. Choose which is right for you.

Level 2 . As for Level 1 plus credit card payments.

If you already have a merchant account

If you are prepared to verify credit cards yourself, you could use www.Hushmail.com * to encrypt an order all the way from the customer’s computer to your computer.

www.Hushmail.com charges around $8.00 per month for the privilege. However, your website doesn't have to be hosted on a secure site. You don't have to move your site to another web host. You collect your orders by logging on to your account at www.Hushmail.com

You will have to download decrypting software into your computer but that is easy.
Note: www.Hushmail.com decrypting software will not run on an Apple Mac computer.