Definition of Ecommerce

The definition of ecommerce is the buying and selling of products and services on the internet. When most people think about how they can make money being online, their first thought is to sell products through an online storefront .

Other people think of Ebay and other net auction sites.While this can be a very lucrative online business, there are a few things to consider before going this route.

Niches and Products

The products in your storefront should be a natural progression from your niche and the content on your site.

If you have a passion and knowledge about baseball, then baseball products will naturally follow. Don’t make the mistake of finding a great supplier for a certain type of product and deciding to build a site around that product. You’re setting yourself up for failure.

If you already have a store and you’d like to expand your business online, there are other ways to approach it.

Concentrate on your strengths of being a local business and the customers you’ve already established. You already know a lot about your products if you’ve been selling them from a “bricks and mortar” business. So capitalize on that strength.

Product Sourcing:Finding a Wholesaler

Where will you get your products? If you aren’t already a “bricks and mortar” business with product suppliers already in place, you need to find a good product source and establish a business plan for your store.

Most wholesalers won’t sell to a start-up online business because the volumes you order won’t result in a sufficient profit for their business. The solution is to find a product source who can negotiate with multiple wholesalers to serve multiple online storefronts.

Once your business starts to grow, you can begin to find wholesalers on your own. Many ecommerce businesses that are just starting out will use dropship companies that will ship to the retail customer directly. You need to have a good combination of product sourcing that has the ability to expand as your business grows.

How to Get Paid

If you’re going to sell hard goods online, you have to have a way for your customers to pay for their items on your site. You need a system that allows for payment by check, or debit and credit cards. It also needs to charge for shipping, handling and taxes, in some cases. The term for this is a “shopping cart”.

A low cost shopping cart solution for those who are just starting out is Paypal . They provide everything you need to accept checks, debit and credit cards. All you do is set up the code on your site. You do pay per transaction so there is a cost to using Paypal. But until you can afford to get a merchant account of your own, you can build that cost of doing business into your product price.

Get Legal!

There are people who call themselves wholesalers but are really middlemen between you and the wholesaler. They will tell you that you don't need a tax ID to do business with them but in reality, they are buying from the wholesaler, marking up the price to cover their fees and then selling to your customer. Your profits will be eroded by doing business this way. Make the effort to do the necessary paperwork so you can build a successful online storefront.

More Articles about Ecommerce

Dropship Companies

Ecommerce Store Software

Ecommerce Storefront

Product sourcing and the 4 different types you should have for your online business. How to spot a dropshipping scammer.

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