E-commerce solutions at Creative Developments in Chandler Arizona near Scottsdale, Tempe and Phoenix, AZ


Creative Developments makes it easy to take advantage of e-commerce and to conduct business over the Internet. We know what it takes to create a powerful and profitable web site by implementing and maintaining your on-line storefront.

E-Commerce Platforms

There are many 3rd party facilitators available to you when it comes to developing an on-line Store Front. A few popular options are:

PayPal Standard: PayPal makes it easy to get paid online. PayPal Payments Standard takes the hassle out of accepting payments online. Your handles the sales. They handle everything from the checkout process, to security, to mobile compatibility. The largest benefit is that it does not require a merchant account or an ssl certificate to process payments. The downside is that PayPal takes a percentage of each order.

WooCommerce: This is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin. And it’s available for free. Packed full of features, perfectly integrated into your self-hosted WordPress website. Advanced commercial plugins are available and may be added to enhance the storefront. Note: It’s beneficial to select a theme for a new website build that includes Woo Commerce as a theme option as the theme developer has created the front end of the storefront to work with the WooCommerce platform.

MarketPress eCommerce: This complete WordPress eCommerce plugin solution provided by WPMU, a 3rd party facilitator of commercial plugins, allows for selling everything from digital downloads to material goods – all the features you need are included with no additional extensions or add-ons required. This is a viable add-on option for a theme that did not initially come with a commerce module or store front.

Magento: A high-end eCommerce solution. More than 240,000 merchants worldwide put their trust in their eCommerce software. If you are looking to develop a storefront with thousands of products and SKU numbers then this may be the right platform for you and your on-line business.

Shopify: Trusted by Over 600,000 Stores. Secure Shopping Cart. Social Media Integration. Mobile Commerce Ready. SEO Optimized. 100+ Professional Themes. Full Blogging Platform. Unlimited 24/7 Support. Fraud Prevention. Fully Hosted. If you are looking for a WordPress alternative for a website that is E-Commerce focused, this may be a good fit.

The Front End of the Storefront:

This is the design side of your store that customers will “see” on-line and interact with. This can be manually designed, developed and tied to a payment gateway and payment processor or one can implement a store front utilizing any number of eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce. Note: it’s recommended for new website builds to select a theme that includes an eCommerce module as part of it’s theme package.

The Back End of the Storefront:

The back end of a shopping cart program is where you set up your store settings. It is where the products, the catalog, the shipping details and the financial information are all set up. It is where you can set up the cost of each item, calculate sales tax, shipping charges, total sale and payment information that will be used in calculating and processing any given order. At Creative Developments we can help set up and implement the back end of your storefront utilizing the pertinent information required from you about your store in order to process orders and even  instruct you on how to maintain and update your store front.

The Payment Gateway:

Once an order is placed on-line, the order needs to be processed. A third party payment gateway allows one to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express as payment for your products or services. For small scale storefronts the advantage of PayPal is it acts as a payment gateway and does not require a merchant account.

Here are a few popular payment gateway extentions that are compatible with WooCommerce.

The Merchant Account:

A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by payment cards, typically debit or credit cards. After a payment has been processed by a payment gateway a merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for the settlement of payment card transactions. Your bank probably offers a merchant account and we suggest you contact them for additional information about setting up a merchant account with them.

Additional E-commerce Features:

These features are optional and are not required in order to establish an e-commerce web site.

  • Creation of an Inventory tracking program
  • Establishing an affiliate network program
  • Creation of availability and wholesale groups
  • Installation of third party modules