Σάββατο 7 Ιουλίου 2012

Tips for Start Up e-Commerce Businesses

The barrier to entry for starting an e-Commerce business is incredibly low, but that doesn’t mean that the chances of success are high.  According to research conducted in 2010 by the Small Business Administration, more than 70 percent of new online businesses fail within the first ten years, and that figure is probably higher now that there are so many "one click setup" online store packages available.

How to Avoid Adding to the Failure Statistics

If more than 70% of new businesses fail, that still means that there are some success stories.  What separates the successes from the failures?  Sadly, there’s no magic answer to that question.  Running an online business is similar to running a traditional business.  Success requires a sound business model, careful planning, and a lot of hard work.

e-Commerce is Not Set and Forget

There are lots of work at home opportunity scammers that promote online business models using eye-catching advertisements that promise "Passive income!", or "Make $$$/day while you sleep!", but those promises are unrealistic.  Running an online business requires hard work and patience.  You need to set up a website, maintain and update it, perform SEO and promotion work, and handle billing and efulfilment.  There’s nothing passive about ecommerce.  Even if you’re selling eBooks via an automated efulfilment system, you’ll still need to keep your books updated, promote them, answer questions, and handle refunds.  It’s not an easy job.

Giving Yourself the Best Chance of Success

The online businesses that succeed are the ones that have a sound business plan, and that approach it like a real business, rather than a way to earn some easy money.  If you’re thinking of running an online business, ask yourself the following:

    Is there demand for what I’m selling?
    What’s different about my product or service, compared to my competitors?
    What system will I use to sell my products?  Do I have the experience  required to maintain it?
    How will I attract new customers?
    How will I take payments, and how much will it cost me to receive those payments?
    What system will I use for efulfilment?
    How will I handle refunds, and how will I protect myself from malicious chargebacks?
    How much time do I have to maintain the business in the long term?

You may find that you need to outsource some parts of running your business.  If you aren’t a web designer or programmer by trade, then you may want to let someone else set up and maintain your website.  Likewise, accounting and efulfilment are candidates for outsourcing.  These tasks can be quite time-intensive, and your company may benefit if you let someone else do them while you focus on research and development of new products.

When you launch a new website, getting it noticed by prospective customers can be a challenge.  Don’t just expect to sling up a website, do a few link exchanges, and let the traffic roll in.  If you want to succeed, you’ll need to invest in a long term SEO plan. However, if your product is good, and your pricing appropriate, that plan should pay for itself.


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