Tag: online business

How to Start an e-commerce Business

How to Start an e-commerce Business

Setting up an online e-commerce business is simple. This article describes the processes and functions of an e-commerce Web site. Everything you need to know about How-to plan and start an online business is provided.

Knowing how to start e-commerce businesses is one of the first steps to setting up an online business. First, the initial business plan and idea must be established, and then the e-commerce structure follows. In case you need instruction on the initial business plan of an online business, I will briefly outline it. If you are familiar with business plans, then skip to the third paragraph.

online business,how to

A business plan defines what service or goods your business will provide. It also defines who your customers are, and which market your business should serve. Also, it includes a market analysis, which determines profitability and potential of the market you intend to serve. Next, it defines direction of your business development and growth, as well as operations. In a nutshell, that is a very simplistic business plan.

In order for me to describe the process of starting an e-commerce business, I will describe the outline of how e-commerce works. First, a customer visits a Web site that retails goods. Next, the customer selects goods to make a purchase. The selected goods are added to a shopping cart system. Once the customer is ready to pay for the goods he proceeds to the checkout, where he provides payment and arrangements to receive the goods. Finally, a receipt of purchase is provided via e-mail and usually posted on the screen.

Next, we look at the structure that facilitates this process. First, the e-commerce site is constructed on a Web site that one makes with Web development software. This kind of software is usually Microsoft Front Page or other HTML graphical software, like Flash Dream Weaver, or Joomla. The shopping cart system is usually simple to install software, like php extensions. Once the Web site is setup and the shopping cart system is loaded, the goods may be listed and priced for sale on the shopping cart system.

The next step is the payment processing. A merchant (an e-commerce Web site owner) must establish a bank account and an agreement with a payment processor. A payment processor is an entity that processes credit card numbers and other forms of payment. Processor agreements are termed contracts that usually require a merchant to provide a 1-800 number so that customers may receive help with their purchases should they need. The contracts are usually a minimum of 2 year service agreement. Also, the merchant’s bank account must be linked to the processor, so deposits and withdrawals may be made.

A merchant, like any other business retailer, must provide the processor with a tax identification number or social security (if the merchant is a sole proprietorship). Since we are discussing legal requirements, another need-to-know fact is that sales tax is only applicable if the purchaser’s home state is the same as the shipping point of the goods purchased. For example, if I’m from Texas and I purchase goods to be shipped to my home address in San Antonio, TX, and the merchant lives and ships from New York, NY, I don’t pay sales tax. However, this doesn’t mean that the merchant is tax exempt, federally.

The transportation of goods is an important step. Most e-commerce Web sites are set up for drop shipping. Drop shipping is simply a middle-man approach to retailing on the Web. Drop shipping setup is setup to process orders and payment, but the merchant doesn’t ship the goods. Actually, the order is relayed to a wholesaler, who in turn ships the goods to the original customer. In the end, the e-commerce site only captures a margin of profit from each good sold. Other e-commerce web sites function so that they process the orders and ship the goods all in-house. This is more of an e-bay approach. Beware if high volumes occur, and then you may need to hire help so that you can fill all the orders.

Overall, this is the general instruction of how to start e-commerce businesses. Now that you have seen how it functions inside and out, it’s time for you to begin your business planning.

Business Planning
Learn more about online business planning

   By JR Callihan
Published: 3/26/2009

E–Commerce Business

Finding the right business today is critical to survive in this economy, today more people are looking to the internet to find discounts on the items they buy, having the right items and the right prices can mean the difference.

E-Commerce And Affiliate Marketing

Customers buy products, you’ll receive pay based on what you sell and how many. When it all comes down to it, you’ll need to set up a business and web site to get the most from. E-Commerce or affiliate marketing.

Ecommerce Development 

How would a small business go about getting an ecommerce developed website? Search that powerful tool again, the internet. Find a reputable web design firm that specializes in ecommerce development and ecommerce shopping cart solutions.

Affiliate Marketing vs. Drop Shipping: Which Is Best For You?

With the pending release of Niche Blueprint by Tim Godfrey and Steve Clayton, there’s suddenly a lot of interest in the Drop Shipping model of setting up an online business. If you’re not familiar with Niche Blueprint you can find out what all the excitement is about by clicking here.

If you’ve looked into making money from home online you’re no doubt familiar with Affiliate Marketing. The attractions of affiliate marketing are: the ease with which you can start earning money quickly, and, the simplicity of the business model.

You can sign up for most affiliate programs, such as Clickbank, within a few minutes. Then, using Pay Per Click ads, you can drive traffic to the Vendor’s sales page and receive a commission for every purchaser who arrives at the sales page through your ad.

At the end of the month you receive your commission check. This is the simplest model, and you can make it more complex if you choose.

 For example, you can create a Review Website and recommend several products for affiliate commissions. You can optimize the website to rank high in the search engine results for specific keywords, and reduce or eliminate your Pay Per Click ads.

There are currently more than 100,000 affiliates who are registered with Clickbank, and more than 10,000 products available to promote. Many people make part time extra income as affiliates, and some make a terrific income using the affiliate model.

Tim Godfrey and Steve Clayton released Commission Blueprint last summer, and taught thousands of clients how to make full time incomes as affiliate marketers.

Now, these two successful partners are collaborating again on Niche Blueprint, an entirely new program that also shows you how to successfully make money from home with an online business. This time the business model is based on drop shipping.

Drop shipping has been used for quite a few years by small retailers. They display sample items, and then, when a customer makes a purchase, the wholesaler ships the product directly to the customer. Recently, this model has become more popular with online entrepreneurs who set up online retail sites, or even sell through eBay.

With drop shipping, as with affiliate marketing, you don’t have to handle any products. In both cases your business success rests on your efforts to market products.

With drop shipping however, you have more presence in the transaction, as a seller or retailer. You collect the money from the customer and, in turn, pay the wholesaler or manufacturer, often with a credit card.

The biggest risk in this is that the product will “back order”. In other words the wholesaler will not have the product available for immediate shipment. This leaves you, as the seller, responsible for handling the customer service challenge in such situations.

Obviously, your success as a merchant depends very much on the reliability of your “drop shippers.”

One of the advantages of the Niche Blueprint program is that it connects you with the most reliable wholesalers in the industry. This is a great advantage right out of the gate.

Now, add to that the thorough educational components, both video and manuals, and the website templates that come as part of the complete, Niche Blueprint, start-up package, and it’s easy to see that Niche Blueprint will pay for itself very quickly. Not only will you save weeks of valuable time getting your business running, you’ll start earning money much sooner from your own, online, drop-shipping site.

To find out about the entire Niche Blueprint complete business start-up package go to Niche Blueprint Reviews.