Ecommerce

It is now very easy to set up an on-line store. Unfortunately, a high proportion of E-Commerce sites started by small businesses or individual traders are unsuccessful. The main reasons for these failures are usually obvious and often down to not paying enough attention to a few basic rules.

In this feature, the basic guidelines for setting up a successful E-Commerce site can't guarantee that if you follow them your site will be successful. However, saying that ignoring these rules will reduce the chances of success.

First of all, provide a good product or service that is worth selling.

If the offered product doesn't meet the customer needs, don't bother providing it. If you have a good idea for making money on the Web, the chances are dozens of competitors have thought of it already. What is needed is a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) - something that makes customers use your site rather than other similar ones.

Moreover, selling through the web needs to provide efficiency in payment. So, offering a credit card facility is necessary to forget about checks and cashiers.

Furthermore, keeping customers up-to-date with all aspects of their order is important. Personalized order confirmations, payment receipts, dispatch notification and post-ales satisfaction inquiries are cheap and easy to set up and give customers a positive impression of your business.

Notice that what can make or break an on-line business, especially during the start-up phase is concerned with marketing. Everything else can be perfect, but if you are unable to bring customers to your site then it is doomed to failure. Know that about 80-90% of the work involved in starting an on-line business should be concerned with marketing.

It is essential to attract customers to your commerce site by generating repeat business such as bulletin boards, newsletters and regular competitions. One important aspect is to pay attention to web site design. Ease of use and reliability are far more important than flashy graphics or Java applets. Another important aspect is to choose a good hosting service that is fast and reliable. Customers get bored and may leave from a slow unreliable response. Finally, products must be sold internationally. You may loose customers by limiting products to a certain country. Payment by international customers is a breeze through on-line credit card transactions