ECommerce Business Technology Series, Part I – Getting Past The Fear Of Web Technology

Many potential ecommerce business owners never get past the task of opening an online store.  This can be due to a lot of reasons, but more often than not, it comes down to lack of action and follow-thru, or a fear of technology.  Inaction may be caused by laziness, but in a lot of the cases I see, it is due to being overwhelmed with the tasks at hand. The other reason, fear of technology, is not the same kind of fear that a child has of the ‘Boogeyman’, but rather
the kind of fear, “I don’t know how to do web stuff, so I shouldn’t try“. This is also known as the fear of failure.

When you stop and think of all the things that you need to do to get an online store up and running, it can be daunting even for those of us who are technically proficient.  For those that aren’t, it can be down-right, overwhelming. Over the next several days, I will be putting together a series of blogs, articles, and tutorials to familiarize you with the technologies involved in building websites, particularly ecommerce websites.

The goal is not to teach your “how to code” websites, but rather give you a basic, working knowledge of ecommerce web technologies that makes up the online stores you see on the web. This  information will help you whether you are considering building the site yourself, or hiring outside help.  If you do not know this information and think you can ignore it because you are not the one building your website, then you are sadly mistaken.  Regardless of your technical level of expertise, as an ecommerce business owner, you need to understand what makes up your website, and why. If you outsource your site development, do you know how it is put together and what technologies are being used behind the scenes? Do you know that just because a web developer can build a visually stunning website, does not mean that your online store will be friendly to search engines, easy to maintain, or convert into sales?  Most web designers build great sites, but most do not know squat about actually running an ecommerce site. What may be visually stunning, may block access to search engines, increase page load time, or be distracting to your customers.

So back to fear for a second.  Getting past the fear of web technology so you can create your ecommerce business really comes down to:

1.  Knowledge -  Learning what is required to build an online store and getting a feel for the types of technology available will help you break down the fear into manageable chunks that can be understood and addressed. Whether it is advancing your knowledge in a specific area, or hiring it out, you will at least know what to do and how to communicate your wishes.

2. Seek the input of others – Don’t just take one person or company’s word  for it.  Opinions on technology direction are as opinionated as ever.  Web developers will develop in whatever language or technology platform that they feel the most comfortable in.  There are many ways to skin a cat when it comes to building a site.  Knowledge you gain on your own and through talking to others will ultimately get you to a best practices approach.

Technology is not the solution to your problems. While technology can make your life easier, it won’t solve all your problems or make your decisions for you.  But having a basic technological knowledge of how websites are built and how they can integrate with your backend solutions (including external systems), will go a long way, in building your confidence on the technological side of ecommerce.

In the next post, ECommerce Business Technology Series, Part II – The Building Blocks Of A Web Page, I will start with a background on simple web pages.  We’ll cover what they are and how they are constructed as well as how they come together to form a website.  I’ll introduce you to terms like HTML, XHTML, CSS, and IDE.  I promise this won’t be technical, but rather described in layman’s terms.  This will provide some of the foundation we will use as we jump into other technology discussions in later posts.