What Is Electronic Commerce?
Electronic Commerce is a way to present your products to your customers in a "store" that they can access on the World Wide Web. It enables your customers to browse detailed product information at their own speed and at their convenience. Orders are placed by customers independently by adding products to a "shopping basket," and then those orders are loaded into an order processing system for processing and fulfillment. Without adding any additional customer service staff, electronic commerce expands your business operation to the entire world of Web users and makes your company available 24-hours each and every day! For direct marketers and catalogers, electronic commerce is a natural extension of your print advertising. By taking your catalog of products and making an electronic commerce site, you can add a brand new and very inexpensive media dimension to your overall marketing program!

What's the Difference Between a Web Site and a Commerce Site?
A Web Site is typically a registered domain name (like www.dydacomp.com) that identifies a physical address somewhere on the World Wide Web. It often is simply an "about our company" page of information about the firm, but can be quite involved with hundreds of pages of information, interactive video, soundbytes, etc. A Commerce Site is, strictly speaking, a group of Web pages that conducts Web visitors through a store of products with a "checkout" option for purchase of one or more of those products. Typically a Commerce Site is usually "part of" a Web Site. For instance, in the Dydacomp site, there are several pages of "general" information, and a special section called "our store." If a commerce site is not part of a Web site, then the commerce site needs to have a registered domain name to enable customers to "go to" that site on the Web.

Do I Need a Web Server to Have a Commerce Site?
No. A Commerce Site can be hosted for you just like a regular Web Site. For SiteLINK users, Dydacomp can host your store for a monthly service fee.

I Already Have a Web Site. Can I add a SiteLINK Store to it?
Yes! If you have your Web Site hosted by a local Interent Service Provider (ISP) and want to incorporate a SiteLINK store in that site, Dydacomp can host your entire Web Site for you including your SiteLINK store without any extra service fee. In addition, SiteLINK enables you to have as many extra pages of company or welcome information as you need, so it is not necessary to have a separate Web Site.

Why Use SiteLINK?
In a word, Integration! Your entire business is already setup in M.O.M - products, special pricing, sales tax rules, customer shipping charges, advertising source keys. SiteLINK lets you use all of this information to create a complete commerce site without having to purchase any extra store creation tools or Web publishing tools. Electronic Commerce just does not get any easier!