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E-commerce Store - Build Your Own
If you have a product oriented business, the Internet offers a
unique ability to reach a broad audience. With new technology,
it is easy to build your own e-commerce store.
E-commerce Store
Today's world is an E-commerce (electronic commerce or e-com)
world. E-commerce, clearly termed as web commerce, basically
means selling of merchandise or services over the Internet with
electronic transactions and also through a secure network. E-com
is not merely buying and selling or providing services but it is
also a method of advertising and marketing through an electronic
system as well. E-com also means facilitating the progress of
commercial transactions electronically. Right now e-com is a
well-established technology in all major countries. In most
cases Internet marketing requires you to have your own
E-commerce store for maximum return.
Requirements of an E-commerce Store
Building an e-commerce store is not an easy job. Software is
required that can manage customers as well as their needs.
E-commerce software should be able to handle inventory, shipping
and handling costs, taxes, dispatching and payment processing of
client's orders. You may encounter many options when setting out
to build an e commerce store. Before choosing any of them it is
important to have a clear view of your requirements. Technical
requirements might include coupons, tracking systems, customer
login options or any number of other things. Other requirements
include what type of impression you want to provide to your
valuable clients.
Study the Sales and Marketing Cycle to Determine Your Needs
Before you opt for any of solutions for building e commerce
store, study the basic model of e commerce that represents the
entire sales and marketing cycle. The first building block of
this cycle is audience in which you define what type of
customers you will target. Second are commodities, in which you
characterize the types of products you will put on the market.
Third is customer support where you will answer the questions
and offer solutions to clients' or potential clients' problems.
Next is advertising, marketing and endorsement where a business
promotes the products or services. Then there is transaction
processing, the most important technical phase of the cycle,
which will handle orders, taxes, payment processing and order
delivery.
Transactions may be automatic or manual. In manual processing
you have to enter credit card information manually through an
offline terminal. In the case of automatic processing a client's
order form will be setup with a program that processes and
charges the credit card for you. After that there are post-deal
services regarding how you provide solutions and services after
the sale. Last but not least is brand name with which you will
create a distinctive business image to correspond with
customers. Nobody is going to pay attention to your online store
unless something catches their eye.
Research your Options
Once you have defined
your needs, you can then begin researching
your options. There are two basic paths you may follow when
building an e-commerce store - either buy ready made software or
build a custom system with components and parts according to
your requirements and budgets.
Flexibility
Some business firms offer gifts and well placed impulse products
for better marketing approaches. This requires an e-com solution
to be flexible enough to allow various give-aways, coupons and
promotions. Also, if your product comes in a variety of models
or styles, with different options and different prices then you
must communicate these factors and portray them distinctively in
your online store. A true businessperson will certainly follow
the patterns of his or her usual clients as well as those who
directly visit the site. Web statistic tracking tools can be a
great help to this end.
Ease of Use
Some e commerce stores are very easy to use and require only a
few minutes to learn while others are more complex with so many
features that they can be overwhelming. Being able to see a
demonstration of software before buying it is a great help to
determining ease of use.
Scalability
Being able to grow with your company is very important. If you
choose a very simple solution now, then require a more robust
solution down the road, you will lose time converting your
store. If the URL structure of your store is not consistent, you
can also lose search engine rankings by changing e commerce
solutions. Therefore, it is important to choose an e commerce
solution that can grow with you. For example, some stores owners
may not want coupons in the beginning but then down the road
decide it is a good idea. Some stores may also have limits on
number of products, inventory control and tracking that down the
road will be very important.
Security
Of utmost importance to online stores is transaction security.
The priority for any business firm should be secure
transactions. Thanks to Netscape for introducing SSL (secure
socket layer), data can be protected by online store owners. SSL
is an encryption technology that encrypts a message and the
receiver decrypts it by using RSA security. To enable SSL on
your web server you need a digital ID (a form of identification
that will recognize you). Many web hosts provide SSL
installation for anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred
bucks per year.
Overall, in building your own e commerce store, four things are
essential - flexibility, ease of use, security and scalability.
Research your options before you make a final choice, and
whenever possible, get a free trial of your solution before you
buy.
About the author:
Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm -
http://www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing
and advertising company offering automated web site systems -
http://www.businesscreatorpro.com - create web databases,
e-commerce sites, business lead management systems and more.
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