Article 1: Opening an online store or E-commerce website

Have you been placed in charge of starting an online store or E-commerce website at your company? Are you at a total loss of how to proceed? This article discusses each step from planning to operation of your online store or E-commerce website, as well as important caution points.

Just like when opening an actual physical store, E-commerce sites also require a plot of land, or space, for the store, as well as an address which designates the location of the store.
For E-commerce involving commercial transactions on the Internet, rephrasing the address as the “domain” and the space as the “server” is easy to understand.

Normally, a request for a domain can be issued to the domain acquisition company, such as onamae.com, and a server can be rented from a rental server company
Generally speaking, when renting a server from a rental server company, there are many cases in which it is also possible to request domain acquisition. In many cases, domain acquisition is included in the service lineup of such companies.
Also, when outsourcing the production of an online store or E-commerce site to a website production company, there are cases in which it is also possible to request domain acquisition and server preparation.

When opening a store on a “mall-type shopping site” or when using a “rental shopping cart,” your online store or E-commerce site is opened at the domain of that mall-type shopping site or rental shopping cart, and there is no need to prepare a separate domain or server.

“From scratch” services are oriented to E-commerce operators with experience in constructing an online store or E-commerce site. These services offer a great degree of flexibility, and are recommended for customers who want to create a highly-original site.

“I will construct my site using website production software, so I want to create a highly-functional online store/E-commerce site!” “I want to customize my site!” —“From scratch” services offer optimal response to customers who have these kinds of desires and the requisite skills. Operation is possible via initial investment consisting of only the software purchase cost and rental server fee.

For customers seeking to operate their E-commerce site from the establishment stage, GMO Payment Gateway will introduce the optimal solution from our more than 70 partner corporations. Please do not hesitate to ask us any questions that you may have!