When
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
product or service costs more than that, then you may be better
served creating a "Lead Generation" web site and an
eSales team who are comfortable working with internet based
leads.
2) How much
time do I have? Setting up an ecommerce store is relatively
easy for any experienced web designer and can be done and out
to market in a couple days, assuming you have a limited number
back end products in place and ready to be shipped. But, if
you are a newbie, then you face a substantial learning curve.
We encourage everyone to learn HTML, and to be entrepreneurial
in their endeavors, but it does take a large time commitment
to learn enough to succeed. Also, keep in mind, that the learning
is never done. There are always new technologies effecting the
Internet and the way people buy and sell online and you need
to keep up to date with them to succeed. Another thing to keep
in mind is internet marketing. If you plan on acquiring sales
through the search engines, then you need an seo strategy that
works. For starters read Serr.biz
3) What
is your budget? Everyday you hear of people making millions
online by just having an ecommerce enabled web site that they
got for free. We would like to dispel this myth. It's simply
not true. There are technology costs associated with operating
an ecommerce site, not to mention the cost of products, fulfillment,
standard overhead costs, and marketing. The old idiom of "It
costs money to make money" is 100% true. However, starting
an ecommerce store is generally less expensive than a traditional
brick and mortar, especially if you have a successful brick
and mortar business already. However, the bare bones start up
costs associated with an ecommerce store is the cost of your
computer and ISP. This is possible, but not very probable. In
truth, you should expect to spend somewhere in the range of
$50-$1000 a month in technology costs alone. That does not account
for variables listed above.
If you have
thought about the questions above and still want to proceed,
here is a quick check list of things you recommend you have.
1) Product
or service to sell.
2) Web site and hosting company with email.
3) Shopping cart with a secure check out.
4) Merchant account so you can accept credit cards.
5) Back end technology and order fulfillment in place.
For more
details about starting an ecommerce store visit this link:
http://www.121merchantaccount.com/ecommerce/index.html
About
the Author...
Michael
Zittel most recently worked as the VP of Internet Marketing for
Payright.com. Prior to that he's held similar positions for various
other companies. Cumulatively he has over 5 years of internet
marketing and ecommerce experience. Currently he runs his own
ecommerce businesses, 121merchantaccount.com
and Serr.biz.