Launching an ecommerce web store online for the upcoming holiday season. Here’s the top 7 items to ensure your online web store success.

1. Visit your Competition online including top of the line ecommerce sites www.amazon.com, www.ebay.com, www.apple.com (always a winner for new hot looks), www.circuitcity.com, www.nordstrom.com and see if you can figure out the “best practices” between the sites – like putting a toll free number on the top right.
2. Just look at each site and figure out the CORE effects you will want to be on your site which stands for web text that is Convincing, a value that is just slightly less than Outrageous, credibility that is Realistic, and an Ecommerce platform that is intuitive and sensible.  
3. Don’t do it all yourself. Working with an expert individual or experienced team of professionals is a wise investment. Once you’ve compiled your CORE list of what you need and what you don’t then consider hiring at the very least a project manager who has the ability to see your project through from beginning to completion. This will include helping you build your Web site, host it, register your domain name, maintain the site once it’s up and running and troubleshoot problems as they arise.
4. Get an ecommerce shopping cart. This is where i get to shameless plug my WebCart platform. The shopping cart platform is the online software that enables customers to select, order and pay for the goods and services they require. Multiple payment options like credit card, paypal, or even bill me later, make it simple for your customers to place an order.
5. Set up your merchant account and your gateway account. This will enable you to accept orders and payments for Amex, Visa, Mastercard and even Discover. The goal is to make product selection and payment as convenient and secure as possible for your customers and for you.
6. Load up the products in your online catalog. Make sure that the organization of your online store is logical and intuitive. Your customers need to be able to find what they want quickly and easily, through intuitive links to product categories and an efficient product search function. At the back end, a good Web services provider will make it easy to add products, change prices and manage all of the technical details that help you “manage your store.”
7. Make buying easy and secure. Design your site to ensure a seamless, one-click flow between shopping and checkout/purchase. And if you want to prosper online, your customer’s personal information must be absolutely secure. Your Web services provider will help you purchase and install a secure Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate from a company like GeoTrust.