Putting a small business online is getting easier every day. No longer do businesses need to invest in expensive leased lines and run their own electronic commerce software. Instead companies all round the world are offering to take away the risk and pain that building an online store always seemed to entail. An online presence for an SME (Small/Medium Enterprise) is becoming almost essential, with website addresses appearing on the side of white vans and on shop awnings around the UK.

So where should a small business that wants to trade online start? One approach is to use an Application Service Provider. ASPs are web services that host applications for remote users. Big businesses outsource IT to companies such as EDS and IBM all the time, and there's nothing to stop a much smaller company doing the same. Certainly a number of ASPs have thought as much, and offer everything from low-cost services paid for with what's known as a transaction tax - a few percent taken off every transaction - to subscription services rivaling those of a big online store.

One of the more interesting ASPs is a small US service called CaféPress. This is a service that creates simple online stores for artists, by offering print-on-demand services for T-shirts, mugs and mouse mats. Just upload an image, choose a price and wait for the cheques to start coming in.

The ASP handles everything from printing the merchandise to handling credit card payments and posting the goods. The available product lines may be small, but it's a simple place to start - and every pound earned is profit. Businesses use CaféPress to sell everything from photographs of cats to comic strip merchandising. It has proven particularly popular amongst the online comic community, where a popular site means that what was a hobby now needs a business to support it.

One of the biggest players in the whole IT industry runs one of the most successful ASP web store systems. Intel purchased iCat, a software company with a set of tools for creating secure online stores, and turned it into an online service. ICat now gives small businesses a set of services that reduce the risks in building and running a web store.

As well as offering a full-blown catalogue-driven store system, iCat's service also includes a separate shopping cart system that can be used in existing stores, so businesses with specific design needs can still take advantage of Intel's infrastructure.

ICat's service is well designed, and works well with traditional business models. If an item isn't selling well, or is new, it can be turned into a special offer, or linked to cross-selling and up-selling services where other items can be used to promote sales.

To make things easier for British businesses, iCat has a partnership with BT, and provides the tools used in BT's StoreCentre service. This is an inexpensive way of starting to sell online, as the quarterly costs vary with the number of items you're selling. A 50-item store will only cost you £114 a quarter, affordable for most small businesses.

Some software packages help greatly in putting a business online. One of the most helpful is the SME-targeted web site design package NetObjects Fusion. Version 5.0 includes an "online" tab, which is actually a web site helping with design and site hosting decisions. Fusion is also designed to plug into existing online offerings, and earlier versions included the tools to design pages that linked into the iCat system.

NetObjects also offers small businesses two other online tools, GoBizGo and eFUSE. GoBizGo is an ASP that allows businesses to create web sites and e-commerce services without needing anything more than a credit card and a web browser. This is a fee-based system, with monthly charges. It is still very focussed on the US market, but is a good example of the type of ASP service that can make putting a business online a matter of a few mouse clicks. A set of testimonials on the site show how it can be used to sell everything from bowling balls to stained glass windows and wildflower jewellery.

The closely related eFUSE is intended for a different audience: businesses that have taken the plunge into designing and running their own online presences. It is full of design tips for e-commerce service providers.

Actinic's Catalog has proven very popular and has received rave reviews. It is a wizard and template tool that allows businesses to create and manage their online stores, with hosting either carried out by Actinic's ISP partners or on a user's own servers.

With Actinic Catalog, businesses can work with third-party payment sites, or process credit cards themselves, with all communications between customer and store handled by heavily encrypted messages. The latest version 4.0 of Actinic's software adds many new features, including the tools for managing back orders.

Virgin has recently entered this market with Virginbiz.net, an online service with information for small businesses wanting to go online, as well as web space and an online store.

It has the advantage of offering a complete design and build service, taking the strain away by completely handing over the site to Virgin's team. Freeserve's small business section Clearly Business offers similar services. Freeserve's offering could have an advantage over some of the others, as it includes linking to stores from the Freeserve online mall.

Clearly Business partners with the popular WorldPay credit card service. This service provides credit card clearing and authentication for online businesses. WorldPay's WorldDirect service operates in 125 countries, with nearly a million customers in the USA alone. Businesses can use this service to handle credit card payments, with WorldPay taking a 4.5% handling fee on every transaction. This may seem expensive, but is often cheaper than a new online merchant relationship directly with a bank.

International stores can also use WorldPay as it can work with most currencies and credit cards. WorldPay is now also offering a one-stop shop for starter online stores, with its new Click and Build service.

The more ambitious can start to create their own online store using design packages targeted at the SME market, in conjunction with online catalogue and payment services. Using tools like these, free web space from an ISP, and a domain purchased from a service like Clicknames, an effective online presence can be put together for very little outlay.

Whether it's a "roll-your-own" presence, an ecommerce package or an ASP, putting a small business online has never been easier.

Of course this doesn't mean a quick path to dot.com riches, just another way of bringing customers to the door. Businesses will need to work on how they manage their relationships with their online customers, and how they will handle the trickiest part of the e-business chain: fulfilment. No matter how fancy the online presence, the goods still have to reach the customer.

Links

Clicknames
www.clicknames.net
WorldPay
www.worldpay.com
VirginBiz.net
www.virginbiz.net
Freeserve
www.freeserve.net
ICat
www.icat.com
NetObjects
www.netobjects.com
EFUSE
www.efuse.com
GoBizGo
www.gobizgo.com
BT StoreCentre
www.ebusiness.bt.com/storecentre/
CaféPress
www.cafepress.com
Actinic
www.actinic.co.uk