Ecommerce: Your Opportunities Are Unlimited Peter Drucker believes ecommerce will be to the InformationRevolution what the railroads were to the Industrial Revolution.* To oversimplify, the Industrial Revolution was a time in whichtools were produced that replaced people in the manufacture ofgoods. ... Quick Ecommerce Tutorial Quick Ecommerce TutorialWhen choosing to create an ecommerce store, there are 3 important questions to ask yourself.1) Do I need ecommerce? This is important. Generally speaking, consumers are comfortable making purchases online for under $250. If your ... Web Ecommerce: Where To Begin? In web ecommerce, you are going to find a wealth of information about what it is and what it can do for you within minutes of looking on the web. The problem with this is, it is hard to sort out the good from the bad and the worthless from the ...
An Arm & A Leg for eCommerce?
As a site designer myself, I realize how much time and effort goes into registering, setting up, and designing a site; not to mention the creation of content and seamless navigation. But it is unbelievable how complicated and expensive this process has become!
Let's face it, very few entrepreneurs and small businesses can afford to spend hundreds of dollars to set up their dot-com presence without knowing how successful it will be! We've seen the results of high expectations and over spending with the demise of many well-known companies as reported in the news recently.
It doesn't have to be this way!
Are you planning to sell products or services?
You do NOT necessarily need expensive shopping cart software or merchant accounts to sell your products or services. You can begin your online venture by setting up a few of your most popular items or services that can be purchased online. Once a customer has made a purchase, you can then follow up with details on how to purchase additional items.
There are low cost ecommerce solutions that can help you start conducting business online without breaking the bank.
First, determine exactly how sophisticated your ordering process needs to be. Then decide which of the following options best suits your business needs.
Option A - PayPal
Set up a Premier Account with PayPal. PayPal is a stable and secure company that has been around long enough to establish a credible reputation. I can personally vouch for them, I use them consistently.
Benefits:
Doing Business As: You have the option of using a business name or your personal name, regardless of how your bank account is registered.
Low Cost: There are no monthly fees and no set up fees. That's right - it's free. A small fee is with-held each time a transaction (purchase) is processed.
Hassle Free They process all orders and notify you when payment is received.
Referral Bonus You can earn a small cash bonus for qualified referrals you send to PayPal.
Features:
Shopping Cart Premium members can set up a shopping cart that links directly from their site to PayPal.
Send an Invoice If your services or product prices vary, you can send customers an invoice from PayPal once the purchase price has been established.
Option B - eBay
Consider selling your products or services through eBay. You can accept checks and money orders by postal mail, or you can accept credit cards and checks using PayPal, or eBay's version of PayPal - BillPoint. You can provide links to your site with each item you list for auction. You can also set up a reserve amount - the least dollar amount you will accept for your service or product.
Ebay also offers an affiliate program.
Option C - ClickBank
Sign up as a merchant with ClickBank.net. There are some fees involved, plus you have to determine what percentage of each sale that you will allow the referring site to earn. Affiliates with ClickBank can choose merchants they like (higher commission percentages do better) and then place links on their sites. There is a setup fee for merchants, but you'll also be providing your site a great deal of exposure. Plus, ClickBank allows you to accept credit cards and other methods of payment. You'll be setting up your own affiliate program!
Option D - Find a Host that provides Shopping Carts
Many hosting packages are set up with shopping carts with a buy feature. Do your homework. Check on the setup fees and the monthly fees. Make sure it's a reputable company so you aren't worried about your money transactions.
These are just some of the options that are available for setting up shop without going broke. I'm sure that there are many more options available - it just takes some net research.
About the Author Sandra Cobb is a work at home site designer and homeschooling Mom. Visit her website for free resources at http://www.designsbyabelle.com, and sign up for her monthly ezine - Comets4Him at http://www.sandracobb.com.
Ecommerce News
Online retail sales growth slumps as consumers cut back - Dallas Morning News E-commerce sales continued to slow in the third quarter as online sales aren’t immune from this downturn. The U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday that e-commerce sales increased 5.7 percent in the third quarter, only the second time the quarterly ...
eCommerce Growth Screeches To A Halt - Alleyinsider.com US retail eCommerce grew 1% year-over-year in October. One percent--that's not a typo. A year ago, US retail eCommerce was growing 20% year over year. Six months ago it was growing 15% year over year. To call this a "slowdown" would be an ...
Greatland Selects MarketLive to Build Three New eCommerce Websites - Market Wire FOSTER CITY, CA--(Marketwire - November 17, 2008) - MarketLive, Inc., the leading global eCommerce software and service provider for retailers, announced today that Greatland, a leading provider of W-2 and 1099 reporting solutions for small ...
Multichannel Retail & Ecommerce Articles - dmnews.com Marketing services firm Sapient Interactive announced today it has partnered with Shubert Ticketing, a provider of ticketing services throughout the US, to revitalize its Telecharge.com Web site. Recent results posted by Whole Foods Market have ...
IT execs say learned the lessons of dot.com crash - Forbes BARCELONA, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Technology executives told a conference this week they learned lessons in the dot.com crash that wiped $5 trillion off tech stocks at the start of the century that would help them through current difficulties. Queuing up ...
Auctiva Expands Beyond eBay with Ecommerce Web Stores - Auctionbytes.com Auctiva has launched a beta version of an ecommerce platform that will allow merchants to develop full-featured, independent Web stores. Auctiva provides free tools for half-million eBay sellers, and Auctiva Commerce is its first off-eBay service ...
comScore: Ecommerce grows only 1% in October - BizReport.com "It's clear that the increase in the country's unemployment rate along with the shock of the financial market meltdown have had a negative impact on the psyche of the American consumer, and the effects were clearly felt in the online retail sector ...
