How to Establish an E commerce Site
E-Commerce or (Electronic-commerce) is an open platform where buyers meet sellers, who offer their products and services online or on social networks. It is very popular these days because it is user friendly, 24*7 availability, and global reach and customer services. Basically it has three types of transactions:-
- Business to business
- Business to Consumer
- Consumer to consumer
Nobody wants to go out and do shopping when you can shop at ease of home and with lot of options and discounts available. One can compare number of products with just few clicks and can choose a best option for them. Another important feature of E-Commerce is Delivery at your door steps with exchange facility available. These features have actually contributed a lot in increasing faith in e-commerce businessess.sales are growing at these websites at a faster pace due to lack of time and changing lifestyles. Smartphone era has also made things convenient to shop on the go. You need not to wait to get back home and login at laptop to buy some product. With smart phones you can to do it while travelling to office or waiting for a meeting to start.
Anybody who has a business plan or start-up idea can actually invade the market with the help of e-commerce websites. An individual does not have to buy a space or warehouse to sell or keep his products. He can start selling his products or can provide his services from his place only. He just needs to have a business idea and tactics and can develop his own website. And let's find out how one can create a website with the following steps:-
- Identify your Product/Services
First and foremost thing to do is you need to know what you are going to offer to consumers. An in-depth knowledge about the product or service is required. Who all are competitors, to whom we are catering our services?
Once you have decided that what your product is going to be and how your website is going to work, one needs to decide on domain name which is first and very important step towards building a website. You need to buy a domain so be specific while choosing it. For eg .org or .com
- Getting your Business registered
You need to identify business structure like you will go for partnership or Sole Proprietorship. According to business structure you can register business by doing the paperwork by yourself or can take some professional help.
- Getting Business licenses/permits
Every business which has employees or not, need to have a unique identification number. It helps in filing taxes and other important paperwork. It identifies your business.
Getting license or permits is must to run a smooth business. It depends upon your city or area which permits you need to have before start operating a business
To make website accessible through world-wide web to customers you need to choose a web hosting service. These companies basically make internet connectivity and space on servers available for your website. To make a user-friendly website, where a customer can leave his comment or suggestions one can choose from different application platforms such as PHP, ASP.NET etc.
- E-Commerce Software Platform
You need to identify your requirement as features in your website and then you can choose from available e-commerce packages. These packages include customized site templates, Search engine optimization, integrated shopping cart and email marketing. You can choose a vendor which can provide the best solutions to meet business goals. Basically it makes website easy to use for customers. Structured design helps customers to navigate from one page to another.
- Identify methods of payment
Choosing a right payment gateway is also essential to create a hassle free transaction of money between buyer and seller. It provides a platform there are two ways where in payments can be processed whenever there is a sale of product.
Payment Gateway: which allows payments through credit cards. These are direct and instant payments.
Another way is through digital payment method. For eg PayPal
- Designing website and logo
It is again very important part because it is going to be the face of your business. Website can impact the number of visitor purchase. Logo can add up many things to a brand such as brand recognition. People often forget the name of a brand but are able to recall after seeing a logo. A logo design should reflect your products USP.
- Adding content and products
Giving your website a user-friendly touch where in a customer can have best experience and end up buying something. Pages should be sorted and hassle free. How the products are displayed is very important to catch customer's attention. Any information a customer might require should be clearly mentioned under different tabs.
After all the above things your website is live now and your are ready to capture the market. But wait, not without the help of marketing. To have professional marketing strategy joins publishing agencies which can provide large traffic numbers such as Google or Yahoo. Right kind of marketing tactics and tools can help to get desired results.
It depends on what kind of business you have chosen, whether you deal in products or services. If you dealing into products then make sure you have the right number of products in stock to meet future demands.
Creating a website is definitely a onetime execrise.But to obtain profits from this particular medium one needs to remain updated.Updation of website according to new technology and softwares.Keeping an eye on competitors products and marketing strategies.
These are the main and important steps to create an e-commerce website for any business. Once you have established a website you need to be complaint in terms of filing those taxes and permits. It provides global access, creating a large number of customers through a cost-effective method. And above all it can be handled by an individual, so need not invest in manpower until unless required-commerce websites creates endless opportunities to grow your business. It is continuously growing and one needs to keep an eye on new technology and customize their business according to customer needs.