How to Start a Business on the Internet

Having a successful business online is very rewarding. However, it can not be done without some work and this is probably one of the biggest misconceptions out there. Generally, peoples perception of online businesses is that those who are successful just happened to get lucky. In reality though, this was probably never the case, they got there through hard work and dedication. If you feel that you have this, I would encourage you to continue reading. However, if you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, you probably do not want to hear the reality of online business, and you should stop reading here.

Step 1: Get Legal

Sure, there is some initial costs of getting legal to run a business online. However, it is well worth it in my experience. Especially if you want to be taken seriously by other businesses you may want to partner up with. In my experience, any business I wanted to associate myself with required that I have at minimum a sales tax ID. This was simply a number that verified I was serious about my business venture. When they see that you are serious, they will be much more inclined to work with you. On top of this, if you have a booming website, you do not want the federal government to come in and take ownership of it. I have yet to see this happen, but in theory, it is possible.

Step 2: Develop a Website

Once you are a business, now you need somewhere to sell your products. This may seem like a very simple task for some, but really a lot of thought and care needs to go into it. The first thing that people online will see is some page that represents your company. If that page screams something like the terms “unprofessional”, “child play”, or “snake oil salesmen” your visitors will not buy from you. You should ensure that the page represents you well so that the traffic you do receive might covert to paying customers easily. Spend a lot of time making sure there are no grammatical errors, it is easy to read, and that the website gets straight to the point you want it to make.

Step 3: Market Your Business

No matter how great your website looks, if no one sees it then no one will be buying from you. The best way to think about owning an online business is that you have built your business in the middle of a dry and desolate desert. This is a scary thought, but it is reality for all online start up businesses. Unlike brick and mortar businesses built on main street that the minute they open their doors they have people walking in, online businesses have to work to get their traffic. You must advertise your products and services using various online marketing methods. This is a topic that can be reserved elsewhere as there is much more to it than placing it in a single paragraph. However, the concept is simple, to get people to a store in any desert, you must go out and tell people that it is there and entice them to visit. Otherwise, it will simply be a store that never sells any products. This is not meant to scare you, but to help you understand that you are not done with the hard work when your website is finished and online. It is really just the beginning.

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The Importance of Product Reviews for Ecommerce

Buying products online has a bad reputation from the many people who have really treated their customers badly. Since you can not just walk into a store talk directly to the manager or force the owners to speak with you, you are limited to phone calls, emails, or maybe not even this much in some cases. People online will not hesitate to tell others about their poor experiences to keep others from buying from any company that did not treat them right.

Since people are so skeptical of online businesses, they will frequently visit review sites before ever making a purchase. In fact, some will go to the degree of going to review sites before ever checking out their products or going to their website. For example, lets say I know that hundreds of business are selling computers online. I want to go with one of the more reputable businesses, so I will go find reviews on sites. Then I may go to their site and see if they have a computer that I am looking for. This is not an uncommon practice which means that your reviews can be crucial to your businesses success.

Reviews can help your ecommerce business gain credibility in the marketplace. This is especially the case if you are in a packed market where you are competing with several businesses. You should look forward to having numerous reviews, even if all of them are not positive. Others will note that you are doing business with other people, and therefore, you are not new to shipping items properly or handling online buyers.

The biggest thing you want to do online is create a buzz about your products or services. You want others to talk about what you are doing, how you treated them, and about where they purchased their product or service. This is referred to as “going viral”. If you find that others are talking about your business without you having to force them into a conversation, you will likely find your traffic growing substantially, and in return, more conversions into sales. This is the overall goal, and it can be jumpstarted by positive reviews about your business.

So you may be asking, how do I get positive reviews or keep from getting negative ones? The biggest key to keeping your business on track is to go above and beyond in customer service. There is no doubt that you will run into some problems on occasion. You may ship a product and it might get smashed in shipping. You might get an email that they even received the wrong product. You will have some angry customers every now and then but you have to find the best way to deal with them. This may cost you some money out of your pocket, but this is far better than scratching it up as an unsatisfied customer. Rather, send them a free shirt, if you having shipping issues, let them mail it back, you cover costs, send the next item as a high priority mail and try to get it done as quickly as possible. You will find that instead of a negative review, they will more than likely take what was a bad situation and let others know how well you treated them when things were out of your own control. When going above and beyond what you have to do, you will see the appreciation given from your online buyers.

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Making Online Profits through a Profitable Website

Internet marketing is actually more than just advertising a certain product or service on the web, but it is a way to communicate to the world the value of a product or service. Most businesses realize that online marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies they could ever rely on. So for most ecommerce business operations, whether it is a large-scale business or individual sellers, having a website becomes a necessity.

Because competition is really tough in the world of business, sellers have to make it a point that their website is at par with the competition. The goal is to invite potential customers to view and explore the website, not to just let it pass them by. But having an aesthetically designed website doesn’t automatically mean it is profitable. You need to make sure it serves its purpose in effectively advertising the product. Otherwise, your website will end up getting unnoticed.

The first thing to take note is to showcase what you sell. Let customers have an easy access to the marketing page of your site. This should have a product or service description along with pricing and availability and most importantly, the benefits of the product. Make it easy for the potential buyers to land to the shopping site or a noticeable shopping order form. If this becomes a hassle for them, they will eventually close out your site and find a friendlier website with ease in accessibility.

Other than getting to the marketing page quickly, customers should also be able to easily navigate the site. In order to walk them through, it would be convenient to place a navigational bar on the home page. It is usually positioned on left portion of the home page where they can directly click on the page they want to check. To help them narrow down their research, a search bar or search function would be helpful.

Make sure that your website has a professional approach. Customers get attracted to eye-catchy images and illustrations but if it seem to look quite distracting due to its huge size and improper use of image, then that would make the site look messy and unattractive. Keep the website professionally neat just as how it would appear in printed form. The articles should make sense and be informative to the customers. This gives a positive impression and projects reliability of the company.

Talking about reliability, customers would appreciate it if there is a way your business can be contacted. Just as they would want to know the product, they also want to know who you are and how you can be reached. Customer service doesn’t end at the point of sale but most especially after the purchase. Provide a “Contact Us” tab or page on your site where they can find contact information such as phone number or email address for future reference. Having this attribute in your website will build credibility of the business operation.

Lastly, adding a feedback form would allow your customers to express what they think about your product or service. Their feedback will help a lot in improving your business.

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The Use of Product Reviews and Other Ways to Improve E-Commerce Buying

When you have started your e-commerce websites, sometimes making a sale is not achieved rapidly. Therefore, you have to make some actions in order to improve e-commerce buying. In order to do that you will have to incorporate some factors to assist in the enhancement of your website.

The following are some of the ways which can be supportive in improving e-commerce buying:

• Product Reviews

These will help to entice your potential consumers and discover what your site can offer. As you elaborate the functionalities of a certain product, the visitors will learn how your offers can be beneficial to their daily living.

• Simplified Shopping Cart Process

A sure way to lose your potential sales is through having a lengthy shopping cart having excessive fields which are unnecessary. Preferably, try to reduce your checkout procedures to few pages, make it at most 2 pages. If you are in your customers’ shoes, you will not like to fill out too many fields before completing your order. Remember to provide your visitors with an option to order even without registering. Integrate this option after they have completed the entire necessary procedures when they placed an order.

• Live Chat Service

Among the excellent methods to guarantee that your visitor is able to finish the buying procedures is to provide them with the preference of live help. There are brilliant new methods to assist in incorporating this live chat. Most significantly, you will be able to assist your customers if ever they are having difficulties with a certain area in your site. Having outstanding links for you potential customers will assist in improving e-commerce buying.

• Realistic Reasons

This is about giving unique value suggestions to your potential clients. Consider the reasons why customers should order items from you instead of your competitors. Do not presume that customers already know the reasons. Communication with your customers is a helpful step to speed up the buying procedures.

• Hacker Security Seals

Online shopping is more secure compared with orders done through phone call. However, some individuals are reluctant to provide their credit card information over online stores. This is apparent due to the increasing identity theft on the net. Placing hacking security seals will assist in lessening the anxieties of potential buyers. Be reminded to place these seals all through the entire checkout process.

• Testimonials

Provide a section for feedbacks and testimonials of your customers who have purchased items from your store. This will show that your items are truly selling and customers are satisfied with your products and services. Testimonials will help for customers and other potential clients to observe the views of each other regarding your merchandise.

• Related Items

The most convenient technique increase sales are not to find additional clients but to promote other related items to each potential customer. Offer them related merchandise on the product pages, checkout, and during the completion of order.

There are several possible methods to improve e-commerce buying and you simply have to research and try different approaches.

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Product Reviews and More Helpful Approaches to Improve E-Commerce Buying

E-commerce buying is the hype of the new generation. More people would rather go for online shopping than going to malls in order to purchase certain merchandise. But, how can you stay leading with other competitions?

Here are some of the approaches that you can try to improve e-commerce buying:

• Include Product Reviews

It is suggested to place product reviews on your website. Some owners might be reluctant about integrating such in their site because of the fear for acquiring negative reviews even though they are aware that their merchandise are excellent. These negative reviews may come from their competitors who are pretending to be their customers. There is a great potential advantage than risk about product reviews.

• Improve Product Page

PRODUCT NAME
It should describe the product precisely.

IMAGES
It should suit the product, fast loading, appears in an attractive way, having options to view the product in different ways.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
It should sight the reasons for buying the merchandise. Emphasize the advantages and unique benefits of the merchandise.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
It should offer essential alternatives to adjust to the budget of the customer, metrics should agree with the measure scheme of the client, and the description should be comprehensive.

“ADD TO CART”
This link should be entirely visible, below the product description or image, or at the right portion of the screen.

RELATED ITEMS
Display related items under the particular merchandise or other complimentary to the item. Show the items which are best sellers.

CLEAR PATH
Potential customers should learn how the whole order processes go. Therefore, you must provide the instructions on ordering, shipping, handling fees, and others.

ENHANCE THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
This is the most significant component with e-commerce buying. It helps to motivate the visitor to order your items. Elaborate the function of your merchandise and other significant things. This is the reason why it is vital to stress out the advantages of getting the product, ways to apply it, and inspire the consumers to avail it.

FURTHER DETAILS
Create your site describing the product and its benefits to the customer.
Provide useful information that the visitors will find when buying.
Supply the “add to cart” option for customers to see the total of their purchase before finalizing their orders.
Scatter information to gain the trust of your visitors. Include quotes, reviews, personal and informal information.
Provide methods to opt for related products.

When you want to improve e-commerce buying, the most significant area that you must keep in mind is the visitors’ convenience. Potential customers and returning clients should be able to feel they can trust you and be confident when ordering items from your online store. This means that you are responsible in providing the necessary information about the company and the products. Therefore, you must not simply follow the beaten course of design optimization, but observe your website from the viewpoint of your clients and from there you will be able to take necessary actions to enhance your business well.

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How to Source the Right Product

If you hear nothing else that is written here, please here one thing. Finding the right product to sell online is the single most important part of starting a business online. A bad product from a good product can be there difference of millions of dollars in your bank account. Below, I have listed some of the most important factors in finding the right product.

The product must be somewhat difficult to find

It is absolutely imperative that you find a good balance here. When people first ask me the question, “Why isn’t my product selling?” I ask all of them the same question. “Are you selling toilet paper?” Most of them come back with a puzzled look on their face or simply answer the question and say “No, I’m selling rubber bands.”

Do you see the problem here? Anyone can probably drive within 5 miles of their home and find toilet paper for near nothing in price. Unless it is like ultra-sensitive with designs on it, toilet paper will not sell online. No one cares to buy it and then pay for the shipping costs, or have the patience to wait for the duration of having it shipped. Rubber bands are in the same category at toilet paper.

You must find a product that people can not go directly down the street and buy. This defeats the purpose of buying products online and you will find it very difficult to compete with local markets on a wide variety of products.

The product must be in demand

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the requirement for demand. Another question I am frequently asking is, “Does your product solve a problem?” Often times I hear the word, “No”.

You have to find products that people want and need. I do not care how well you market purple ceramic frogs with pink polka dots on them, there is such a small market and demand, you will certainly find it difficult to market. Almost no one would want to put a two foot tall pink and purple ceramic frog in their living room. Nor do people really need that product.

Instead, your product must serve a purpose as well and solve a problem of some kind. Think of your most needed products in the world. We can even go back to toilet paper. People need toilet paper. There was a need for it. Find products along those lines.

Factor in Shipping Costs

The one downside of working online is that everything is shipped. The benefit is that there are no taxes online unless you are buying from someone in the same state. Therefore, the taxes and shipping costs kind of balance out if you are selling the right product.

At the same time, a lot of extremely heavy and large products simply do not sell well online. When you are selling a product such as this, you may have to charge a hundred or more dollars for an item that sometimes only costs forty or fifty dollars. This is a huge problem when trying to sell things online and compete. You should always keep this in mind when thinking of products to sell.

Learn how you can increase your Internet business with ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.

Finding a Good Merchant Services Provider

Overview

When you first get into online business, it is imperative that you think ahead and be ahead of the curve. For this reason alone, you should start out by accepting credit card payments. The vast majority of people who might buy your products are likely to have a credit card. It is much more likely than them having a PayPal account.

I am certainly not saying that offering PayPal as a form of payment is a bad thing. But I read elsewhere that only about 1 in 10 people who own a credit card have a PayPal account. Even less use their PayPal account regularly. Therefore, you might be cutting your potential business by 90% just so that you can avoid paying for merchant services. You certainly do not want to cut your own throat before you ever get started.

Below are some tips for finding a good merchant services provider.

1: Know the kinds of fees you will be expected to pay

Merchant account fees can vary widely. One of the initial tactics some will use will be to encourage you to use their services with low upfront cost. Little do you know until you read the fine print that you are going to be charged a hefty percentage for each payment that is processed. When selling expensive products, they could be tapping into twenty or thirty dollars of your profits. Try to find one that has lower fees and not too expensive on their setup costs.

2: Check out the Customer Service

Before you ever sign anything or before they ever have the opportunity to charge you a dime, you should test out their customer service. You can simply do this by asking them a couple of questions about their services. Keep in mind that quickest is not always the best. A lot of companies online will now have automated systems setup to answer questions. This is not always the worst thing, but I have always felt more comfortable talking to someone directly.

You know that if it takes several days for them to get back to you that they will likely be the same way when you decide to use their service. People buying from a company they have never dealt with before are already going to be somewhat skeptical. If it takes a few days for you to get a response back from your merchant, and then another day or two to get back to your potential customers about something, this is detrimental to your business. You need them to be prompt and handle the questions professionally.

3: Price is not always the single most important aspect

When looking at a merchant service provider, there are many other factors than price to take into account. You may be shopping around for a website and it is important that it will be easy for you to setup their credit card processing system with your shopping cart. Some merchant accounts may require that you manually run the credit card as if you were an actual retail store and this is not what you want either. Instead, you want someone who has plenty of features and will make it easy on both you and your customers to go through the ordering process.

4: Find one that fits your needs

Not all merchant accounts offer the exact same features. Some work well and have modules setup for specific shopping carts. You want to be thorough and find one that will actually work with you to get everything setup properly. If you are having to twist their arm and are confused on whether it will work or not for you, I would perhaps avoid this company. They want your business, but you want them to be familiar with the types of things you need. Whether it is their ability to work with a certain shopping cart or some other specific situation, it may be best to go with merchant accounts that directly advertise that they allow for the features and capabilities that you need.

5: Read others reviews

When in doubt and trying to narrow down your decision, read what others have had to say. A lot of times, a bad reputation is a good sign that you want to steer clear of that company. Unfortunately, many people get sucked into the “too good to be true” situations. They see extra low fees and jump at it. You may be contemplating falling into the same trap. Always read reviews and if you see more negative ones than positive ones, then I would recommend looking elsewhere.

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Choosing your Shipping Provider

Once you have the idea of what products you will be selling and have everything setup to do business online, the next large step is to evaluate who you will be using for shipping. Customers will want to know this upfront and it is important to take the shipping process very serious. Poor shipping practices will mean the difference between positive reviews and negative ones. Internet buyers have little patience for terrible packaging, products arriving damaged, or products that are arriving well after the purchase was made. Below are your three primary options for shipping products.

United States Postal Service (USPS)

The Cheaper Option for Light Weight Products

The benefit to going with the United States Postal Service (USPS) is that they have extremely affordable shipping costs on products that are under about two pounds in weight. Keep in mind that when I suggested that you find a product you should keep in mind shipping expenses. Many items sold are under two pounds and therefore a good portion of the items can be sold via USPS for less expense than the other two primary carriers. The opposite is true if you start getting heavier than this. The price will start increasing dramatically if you have oddly shaped and large, heavy items to ship.

Products can not be tracked accurately and no guarantee on delivery date

The downside to using the USPS is that the tracking system is not done very well. Generally, you cannot track exactly where the items are, you simply know if they were delivered or not.

Another huge flaw is that the USPS does not guarantee a quick delivery. Especially during Christmas time, the postal service can get backed up and items can take weeks to be delivered. It is very likely that clients will be unhappy if this occurs.

FedEx

The shipping company for heavy items

If you feel as though the benefit outweighs the problem of the cost of shipping large heavy items, then you should certainly check into FedEx. On anything over three pounds it is very likely you will find them to be the cheapest of the three shipping carriers.

Good Tracking System

FedEx has really done a good job with their tracking system. I have never had a problem with their system. Your clients will see that you shipped the item, that the item is in route, where it is exactly at, and when the item should arrive.

UPS

A little excessive in price

UPS has been around for quite a while. They do offer good service but FedEx is usually the best option for heavy items, USPS is the best for lightweight items when it comes to price. UPS probably falls somewhere in the middle for items that range two to four pounds in weight.

The primary benefit here might be that you have one close to you so that it is easy to drop off items. You may be able to justify paying just a little bit more for the benefit.

UPS started the great tracking system

UPS really does pride itself in having a good shipping service. They seem to do a really good job of getting products to their delivery address on time and safely from what I have seen. Their tracking system is much like FedEx and they have been using the system for quite sometime now. You are able to see where the package is at all times and receive an accurate delivery date.

Learn how you can increase your Internet business with ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.

Adding Products and Setting up the Store

You now have your shopping cart lined up, you probably have most all of the backend setup so that you can add products to your store. You might even be looking at how many products you want to add. Now is the time to start evaluating that process.

Adding products should be a fairly simple process

If you picked the right shopping cart for your products, this should not be a difficult task. On the other hand, it can be quite time consuming depending on how many items you have. Evaluate your shopping cart and see what options you have for getting this process done. Try to eliminate or modify the shopping cart if you have to take repeating steps.

For example, let’s say the vast majority of your work requires that you select a category for the product to go in, but most of the products are going into the same category. Perhaps have it setup so that this category is already chosen when you go to add a product. This may not seem like a time saver, but if you have hundreds of products to add, this can be a significant amount of time wasted here.

Outsourcing the work

If you have too much work, you might consider outsourcing the work. I highly recommend that if you can avoid doing this, you should. There are a couple of reasons. First of all, adding products is primarily copy and pasting anyway. You typically copy and paste from the vendors’ description, you type in the price, copy and paste the name, and submit it. Therefore, if you are telling someone else, add “this name, this price, and this description” you are simply defeating the purpose.

Another problem is that this costs money. I highly recommend that you save money where possible so that this money can be invested into marketing your website. If you are on a budget, this is especially true. You do not want to run out of funds before you ever get started.

Feature your big items

Always keep in mind that your big items should be featured in some manner. It is not uncommon for your ecommerce store to be tailored to a specific product you have. For example, you may sell candles. If your website is devoted to this, have some of your best candles directly on the front page and easily accessible and highly visible. Products such as candle holders or candle lighters should take a back seat. This way the products you want to sell most of are the ones that are most likely to be purchased.

Always keep in mind your initial concept

If you have read all about sourcing your products and things, you probably had an initial concept for your shopping cart. It is understandable that you deviated from this a little bit, but try not to go too far. A lot of people, once they get right into it may see dollar signs on some products and totally revamp the direction that they originally had for their website. This is terrible because you have already done research and rationally thought out what could potentially work. Straying away for this only increases your chances of failure. While studying the marketplace on products, do not change the direction you are going simply because of profit margins. Stick to the original plan, and then maybe add on if you see these other products selling too.

This is not to say that you can not add additional products to your website. You just should keep in mind what products are the ones you have done research on and are most likely to sell well online.

Learn how you can increase your Internet business with ecommerce shopping cart software, content management system software, and email marketing software by Interspire.