Hi Dave,

Some of the chief considerations are NOT the technical issues. I recommend
any museum considering ecommerce start by considering what they already
sell in their shop. Is it mostly small trinkets that are under a dollar?
Books and dvds easily available on Amazon for less? Branded items that
appeal mostly to visitors as a way to mark their visit? If the answer to
any of the above is yes they might want to reconsider.
Shipping can get expensive quickly so you have to be selling something(s)
that is not otherwise available and worth the shipping expense. Merchandise
that is not available elsewhere (or is, but not online, or not from a major
retailer) tends to work best. Other merchandise might sell as part of a
larger order, but will not entice shoppers to choose your online store.

Museum store purchases are often impulse buys ("I'm here and this book
looks interesting. I know I can get it cheaper elsewhere, but I want it
now"). It's more difficult to take advantage of that online.

As far as the technology, the best solution depends on existing
infrastructure and needs. If they'll only be selling a few things online,
just adding Buy It Now/Add To Cart buttons from Paypal can work. Google
payments are nice - they have been waiving transaction fees for nonprofits,
but I don't know how long that will continue. There are a number of good
opensource options, such as UberCart, that work well (and will use your
payment processor of choice) for larger enterprises that might need more
advanced inventory control or other special features.

It's also important to keep in mind that someone will have to fill - and
ship - orders and this should be taken into consideration when setting
shipping prices.

So, in brief: start with what you will sell, how the logistics of
fulfilling the order will work, and then make a list of needs & wants for
the technology, and make a selection based on those. (Also, it might be
worth starting with a very low-cost option to test the waters, and moving
to something with more features once it looks to be profitable/worthwhile.)

Kaia


On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Dave Barr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I'm trying to pull together some information for a small museum/gallery
> that already runs a successful museum shop but would like to expand to
> include online sales. There's plenty of information available to help small
> businesses get started with e-commerce, but not much that is specific for
> museums.
>
> Do members of this list have experiences to share about how they have gone
> about this: use a commercial service like Volusion, Google, Yahoo, eBay,
> etc.; build it yourself using commercial or open-source software; just add
> PayPal enabled pages to your own website?
>
> I've searched this list back for several years, and there doesn't seem to
> have been much discussion of this topic.
>
> Dave Barr
> Museum Consultant
>
>
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