Online payments and donations: benefits of e-commerce

e-Commerce or electronic commerce refers to transactions completed online via, for example, a website or a mobile application. Once your organisation has decided to have a website, it is useful to also think about including e-commerce functionality because this can increase your sales or donations channels.

Including an e-commerce functionality in your digital strategy opens up your organisation to a potential global marketplace or donor pool. This can increase your revenues and donations. It offers customers, supporters and/or donors greater convenience and choice, which in turn can lead to increased satisfaction and a more positive experience when with your organisation.

An e-commerce functionality can also be a ‘call to action‘. It can provide useful and more granular data about your clients and their interactions with you than you receive in an offline world. This can be fed into your future business or community strategy, making it more targeted and responsive to what works with your customer, supporter or donor base.

Your e-commerce functionality can allow your customers to buy your goods and services online, or it can allow the collection of donation. Remember to also think about e-commerce functionality with your suppliers and other business partners. This can include ordering, invoicing, payment and other related activities.

In this section, we provide some tips for:

• getting started with e-commerce for businesses and organisations
• online fundraising for community groups

Key components of your e-commerce functionality include:

• registration and login
• shopping carts
• payment gateways
• payment methods

As e-commerce potentially opens up your organisation to transact with anyone in the world, you will also need to think about how the Goods and Services Tax interacts with international transactions.

When you engage in e-commerce, you are exposed to an increased number of potential legal issues. Take the time to make yourself familiar with the Australian Guidelines for Electronic Commerce and also review the Legal Issues section of this site.