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Article by: Halstatt Pires
The Internet is great at leveling the field for
businesses. Where else can you put up a site and immediately compete
with huge companies on an international basis?
What It Is
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 online 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 are 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, you want flexibility, ease of use, security and scalability
in your store. Research your options before you make a final choice,
and whenever possible, get a free trial of your solution before
you buy.
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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