Rarely does a company need an e-commerce site when first starting out. Although it might be fun to look around your store and imagine putting everything online for the whole world to see, the reality is that it is an enormous amount of work. An e-commerce site can take years to become profitable. It also takes a lot of work to maintain. You’ll have to update products, create shipping labels, process orders, communicate with customers about missing packages, or returns, and make a number of decisions about shipping providers and costs, international orders, and much more. You’ll also have to maintain due diligence in keeping up with your online store. There are ways to make this easier on you – and we’ll teach you those ways – but you’ll want to carefully review all your options before taking the plunge.
Brevard Web Hosting offers two different e-commerce solutions, ranging in price and ease of use.
1. Yahoo Merchant Solutions: This is generally recommended for those who have a large amount of volume business online, or thousands of products. You’ll pay your hosting fees to Yahoo, along with a small transaction fee for each sale. Plans start at $99.95/month, billed by Yahoo, and offer a very easy administrative panel for new beginners. You’ll still want to hire a professional developer like Brevard Web Hosting to get you started or help maintain the site. Search marketing is also a must when you reach this level, and you’ll need an expert to help guide you through the options.
2. Custom Solutions: This is the option we recommend for most small businesses starting out. Some of the above options do not allow for the sale of certain types of products or services. Also, some clients prefer an all-in-one solution, or perhaps already have a working custom solution that they need a developer to maintain or upgrade. You’ll need to call us so we can go over your project to determine pricing.
| PLANS | Yahoo Standard | Custom (Recommended) |
| Monthly Hosting Charge | $99.95 | $0 |
| Design Fee | $595 | $995 and up |
| Renewal with Support | $1951 | $295 |
| Transaction Fee | 1% | VARIES |
| Storage Limit | 20Gb | VARIES |
| Monthly Bandwidth Limit | 500Gb | VARIES |
| Product Insert Fee2 | $3-4 | VARIES |
| Custom Domain Name | YES | YES |
| Merchant Acct Gateway | YES | YES |
| PayPal | YES | YES |
| Affiliate Linking | YES | YES |
| Reports | EXTENSIVE | VARIES |
| Email Included | YES (1,000) | YES |
| SSL Encryption | INCLUDED | AVAIL3 |
1 Optional Renewal Fee: This is the fee you would pay to have Brevard Web Hosting continue to monitor and update your Yahoo site for the year following your first year. This price is subject to change. Many store owners feel comfortable enough to run the online store alone after their first year, but you can pay this fee to retain our services.
2 The Product Insert Fee is determined by how much work Brevard Web Hosting will have to do to prepare the items for sale online. Typically, it ranges between $3to $4 per item. The Insert fee is a one-time fee only and does not apply to renewals. Clients are responsible for making changes and adding new items. However, many clients choose to let us insert the first few items for them and then show them how its done so they can take it from there. The first five items are always free. The insert fee is only for database entry; it does not include custom photography.
3 SSL Encryption is available on Custom plans. Shared SSL is free, but a Private SSL is an additional $200 ($100 for the certificate, and $100 for the installation).
Be sure to see our additional services and fees for more information.
