Starting an E-Commerce Website in Trinidad & Tobago, Part 1

Trinis are very enterprising by nature (and by Trinis I mean both Trinidadians & Tobagonians). Proof of this is the sheer variety of businesses you see in every community all over the nation, some well-appointed and some so make-shift that you wonder if people actually stop to buy there. From a simple curbside table with home-grown fruits and vegetables, to the guys with the fish vans, gas vans, doubles vans, coconut vans, even the guys selling newspapers and cold drinks at the traffic lights, the penchant for business seems to be in every born Trini.

Nowadays we’ve become more savvy and abreast with the times and of course we’re talking internet. It’s all online now and we Trinis are wising up and keeping up. Many are business-minded individuals doing their thing on the side for an extra income, but still not in a position to quit their day jobs. Others are brick and mortar businesses who realize that they keep their doors open 24/7 by selling online. Either way, everyone is interested in or curious about E-Commerce, and in this article we discuss the the options available to make it happen.

The first thing you have to do is determine the best E-Commerce solution for you. Your choices are:

A Shopping Cart service This is a turnkey solution that takes all of the guesswork out of the equation. It’s a subscription based service (in US Dollars starting from around $25 US per month for 100 products) where the shopping cart service provides everything you need to have a fully functional online store. Choose a design for your store and configure your site from their admin panel at the back end. It’s a simple case of adding your product images and details by following their tutorials depending on your level of expertise. Some people savvy enough can figure it out on their own while others will prefer their web designer start them off and get them going. The advantages and features of such a service are:

• Relatively easy to use visual interface
• Domain¹ name can be bought with the package and the subscription includes hosting².
• The sites are built for e-commerce and therefore optimized for search engines
• The site’s design and features are all focused on generating sales with special deals, featured items, related items, coupon integration, wishlists, newsletters etc.
• You usually pay on a monthly basis, $25 US is around $160 TT per month, not bad if you have 100 products or less
• You can use a shared security certificate³ to protect your customers’ information
• It’s pretty much plug and play

An E-Commerce website theme For this option you need a website designer. It’s basically setting up a website using a theme (template) that’s designed for e-commerce. There are many themes designed for different industries, like fashion, jewelry, real estate so it’s simply a matter of finding one that has the look and feel that suits you. The advantages and features of this option are:

• The theme (template) are a one time cost or your web designer may include it in his price, so no monthly subscription
• You have to buy your domain¹ and hosting²
• It’s also managed via an admin panel using a CMS- Content Management System⁴ like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Magento
• It’s designed for e-commerce but may not have as many features as the shopping cart service site
• It mainly supports PayPal, Google Checkout. Other payment processors may not be built-in

Payment Processing

This is the main area that potential online sellers in Trinidad & Tobago have questions about as it’s common knowledge that Trini customers are skeptical when it comes to using their credit cards online. There are no local payment processors to handle online transactions paid by credit cards issued by Trinidad & Tobago banks as credit cards issued here are essentially international credit cards.

Scotiabank however, does provide an e-commerce solution called Scotiabank Merchant Services, which I’ll discuss in Part 2, and I’ll also talk about another US based payment processor, 2Checkout, which seems to be in favor these days.

At present, there are no laws passed in the country governing online transactions like these. In terms of  legislation, according to the Ministry of Public Administration,  Stakeholder Consultation Sessions (see link) were held in February 2011 to provide the basis for the update and review of the National Electronic Transactions Policy. According to them, the Electronic Transactions Bill 2011 is currently before Parliament.

This is the end of Part 1, please feel free to comment and make suggestions or even corrections. If you have any questions you’d like answered about E-Commerce please feel free to post.

Part 2

The second part of this article will continue with insights into payment processing, how to set up and recommendations on who to use and what to do next if you’re considering selling online.

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Footnotes:

1. Domain: The name of your website, e.g. www.yourdomain.com
2. Hosting: Where your website content will be stored for your visitors to access via the internet. It’s stored at a ‘host’ server that you pay for
3. Security Certificate, also called SSL Certificate. Secure Sockets Layer. SSL, is the standard security technology for creating an encrypted link between a web server and a browser and is used by millions of websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers.
4. CMS- Content Management System– A content management system (CMS) is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content.

© 2011