IN last week’s edition of the Digipreneur, we gave you 10 reasons why your business needs a website. If you have a business in the Caribbean, the only way to get paid online is through having an e-commerce-ready website, since none of the e-commerce features on social media are turned on for our region.

This week, let’s take a look at the most affordable way to build an e-commerce-ready website and also how to send digital invoices to international clients so that you can get paid in both JMD or USD.

Let’s tackle the website first, your digital home, the place where you want to have all of your business info, your products and your content.

The reason why this topic needs to be done correctly is that according to Intergrowth.co 2023 research, 68 per cent of all digital sales start with a Google search. Your audience Google‘s their problems or desires, finds a link to an article that will provide the answers or the products they need, they visit the site, add to cart and make the purchase.

Also, with the new Linx Visa debit cards that have been rolled out by the banks, all of them are enabled for local e-commerce, meaning that more people have access to pay for your products or services online than ever before.

Here is the recipe for those looking to build an e-commerce website on a budget, you are going to need a couple of things.

The platform you need will be WordPress and the payment gateway to make this work will be Wipay.

WordPress web hosting can start from as low as US$3.99 per month but you will need a credit card to pay the fees monthly. I would suggest checking out Siteground as a WordPress host or Google “WordPress hosts” and you can read the reviews to make your own decision.

Wipay has a free option where they do not charge you monthly and the transaction fee is 3.5 per cent +$0.25 per transaction. This is good because if you are starting and you do not make any sales, you don’t have to worry about paying additional fees outside of the monthly hosting fee for your website.

Now, many of you get confused about WordPress because there are two versions, WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is their blogging platform and has major limitations that we won’t get into here. You are looking to use their website building software which falls under WordPress.org.

The good thing is that any WordPress hosting provider comes with the WordPress website software ready to install. Popular hosts like Siteground, Bluehost, Hostgator, Dreamhost, all come with 1-click WordPress software installation and their support teams can help you get started.

The other issue people have with WordPress is the learning curve since it is open source and there are over 1,000 ways to build on their platform. I would recommend you install the Elementor plugin for your WordPress platform and build your website using that tool or you can purchase themes online that are built using the Elementor tool.

Visit Elementor’s website or YouTube channel to learn more about their tool and how to create your website with their easy-to-use drag & drop builder.

So, if you use the combination of WordPress, Wipay and Elementor, your monthly costs will be US$3.99 per month at a minimum.

The cost could rise depending on the hosting provider you use, or which plan you select, if you decide to take Wipay’s paid plan or if you choose to use Elementor’s Pro plan.

If you are on a budget, you can create a website with the tools listed and stick to using the Wipay and Elementor’s free plans until you grow.

Service providers that do not have a website but need the ability to send a digital invoice to clients around the world can use Wipay’s free plan to send out those digital invoices.

You can receive funds in both USD and JMD. You will need a local USD account if you want Wipay to deposit those funds and keep them in USD, otherwise, you will have to convert the funds to JMD on their platform.

To use Shopify in the Caribbean, their monthly plans start at US$25 per month and Wix E-Commerce plans start at US$17 per month. They integrate with First Atlantic Commerce (FAC) payment gateway and to use FAC, you will need a merchant account from your bank which usually starts at US$75 per month, depending on your bank.

FAC will charge 3-5 per cent per transaction plus $0.25. You will also need Tilopay to connect your FAC gateway to Shopify or Wix and they take 1 per cent per transaction.

Squarespace does not connect to any of the payment gateways in the Caribbean and will only connect to PayPal or Stripe (Not available in the Caribbean).

Happy Selling!

Keron Rose is a Digital Strategist that works with Caribbean Entrepreneurs to build their digital presence and monetize their platforms. Learn more at KeronRose.com or listen to the Digipreneur FM Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast.