Deciding to convert your informational website to an ecommerce site can enhance the site’s usefulness and provide income for the owner as well. By taking the time and effort necessary to offer products relevant to your site visitors will now have the opportunity to purchase the products from you and not go to another site to make their purchases. Informational websites are valuable and important for the online communities who utilize them, but to get the most potential functionality from a website it should generate revenue for you.

Offering products relevant to your informational website where visitors can now become purchasers will allow you to reap the profits. You will be giving visitors the opportunity to purchase products relevant to the information contain on your website and not force them to go to someone else’s website and purchase the products there. Visitors came to your website for a reason and if your ecommerce site will provide products that compliment their motivation for visiting your site in the first place you can reap the rewards.

Steps to consider when converting your website:

1. Time and Money
2. Products to Offer
3. Redesign Information Pages
4. Design Product Pages
5. Shopping Cart Program
6. Credit Card Processing Account
7. Business Merchant Account

First, take some time and decide if you want to take the time and money to convert your website to an ecommerce site. Some design changes will have to be made such as links from your information pages to your product pages. You’ll have to go in and redesign these pages so visitors will be able to find the related products you will be offering. This won’t be a major investment of time but is totally dependent on how many informational pages your website has.

Next, decide which products to offer on your product pages. Only offer products relevant to your informational website and resist the temptation to go wild with products. Sure the products can be related but you want a strong association between the products and the information on your site. You wouldn’t include unrelated information on your site so don’t include unrelated products. Unrelated products only confuse or alienate prospective purchasers.

When the time comes to design you product pages use the K.I.S.S. format. Keep it straight forward and simple. This really is the best rule when it comes to product pages. Keep products on the same page in the same category. Make it easy for purchasers to view and decide which product to buy. Don’t put too many products on the same page. Try organizing products by relevancy and price with no more than 10 products to a page. There is nothing worse then expecting a visitor to make a purchasing decision with a 100 products staring them in the face. Make it simple and straight forward for them.

Now it’s time to consider shopping cart programs and this is an area of importance most undervalued. Take some extra time and visit some sites. Go to their shopping carts and see what you like. Look at appearance; are prices including shipping and handling displayed early for the customer to see? Can changes be made to the order at any time during the purchasing process? Is it easy for every user regardless of their level of computer experience? Consider these points before installing your shopping cart program.

Let’s consider how customers are going to pay for their purchases. A credit card processing account in the internet economy plays an important element in operating a successful ecommerce website. Website owners that establish a credit card processing account to meet their customer’s purchasing needs have increased their potential for growth in sales and revenues consistently. A credit card processing account linked with your shopping cart will make immediate purchases easier but will also make it easier when the customer returns to the site in the future. A credit card processing account will give your customers more purchasing options and make it easier for them to purchase products from your website.

To set up a credit card processing account system you will need a business merchant account. A business merchant account is the center of activity where your credits, refunds, fees and debits are transacted and reported. Reports on your business merchant account activities reflect data on daily, monthly and annual sales activity of your website are produced and you can use them to evaluate sales trends and inventory. Profits resulting from your sales transactions can be transferred from the business merchant account to another business account for disbursement. The fees you’ll have to pay to set up the business merchant account and credit card processing account will depend on your business merchant account agreement with the bank or service you use.

There is a lot of competition among credit card processing account services and many do not charge a set up fee to establish a business merchant account but do charge a fee that is a percentage of each sales transaction on the website. Some elements that may also affect your credit card processing account fees are: average dollar amount of each transaction and transaction volume per month. The fees associated with your credit card processing account vary from company to company but companies are competitive. If you do some price comparisons and shop around you should be able to find a service to find both a business merchant account and credit card processing account to fit your budget.

By converting your informational website to an ecommerce site you will open a host of new business benefits. Internet storefronts are not dependent on schedules; they are open 24-7 and 365 days a year; even holidays. The website business owner enjoys continued sales activity even while asleep or on vacation. Customers can purchase products from your ecommerce website and complete their orders electronically with the credit card processing account system integrated into the shopping cart. Revenues generated from sales are automatically deposited in your business merchant account upon check out.

A vast number of websites on the internet are informational websites. Informational websites are important and serve a very real function for users and the online communities who utilize them. By taking your website to the next level you’ve increased its potential for generating revenue through the sale of your products and can watch you profits soar!