Setting up your online shop requires the following steps in addition to the standard website setup procedure.

Setup payment methods

There are a number of payment methods you can choose. For more advice, please see the Website training areas, or talk to your Pearl transition project manager. Note that some payment methods (SECPay, HSBC, Worldpay, Protx) require you to have an internet merchant account with your bank. This can take a few weeks to obtain, so start early. You can alternatively set up an online shop with other payment methods that do not require the internet merchant account (Paypal, Googlecheckout).

SSL secure certificate

An SSL certificate is needed to capture customer data securely over the internet, and is used on any page where you wish to take credit card information.

If you choose to use SECPay, Protx or World pay then you do not need an SSL certificate since the card information is actually entered on the payment provider's website. If you choose to take credit card details within your own website (using the Card (PDQ) payment method, for processing manually offline later) then you will need an SSL certificate. We can arrange for this to be purchased and set up.

HSBC and GoogleCheckout require an SSL certificate to operate correctly. 

Website design and layout

Your standard website template will require a few more additions to allow you to sell online, such as shopping cart information, login boxes etc.

Products and categories

Set up your products and categories so that navigation around your site is simple. We recommend less than 20 items per category so that products can be seen easily.

Shipping methods & prices

If you are shipping items in the mail then you should decide what to charge your customer. Pearl will allow you to build a matrix of shipping options, and charge a shipping fee by item weight, item price, customer location, shipping method chosen etc. For more information see the website support documentation.

Test, test, test!

Before you go live, ensure that you have run some test transactions through the whole system so that you know everything is working OK. Create some customers, browse products and generally explore as your users will be exploring.