Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Small Business E-Commerce

Are you prepared for a new way of doing business? Do you want some activity that will not take up most of your time, but will enable you to generate income? Do you want to earn more money while staying at the relative comfort of your own home? If your answer to these questions is a resounding YES, then settle down and let me explain to you the concept of small business e-commerce.

The concept of Electronic Commerce, or e-commerce has been around for many years now, ever since the inception of the World Wide Web. Basically, it is simply the process of buying and selling, even trading goods and commodities over the Internet. E-commerce has many advantages, the most well-known is the ability to do business without even leaving the comforts of your own home. So imagine the convenience of earning money while not having to go out and having control over your own time!

So why is this relevant to you? If you have read the entire article up to this point, I can assume that you are either a small business owner who is looking for ways to expand your client base or an individual who is interested in starting up a small business to earn money. Probably you are asking: what do I need to set up a small business online?

There are no concrete rules in e-commerce, but like any business, virtual or not, the following steps would be very helpful to us:

identify your customer base know the marketability of your products make sure that you have a steady supply of the products you are selling reach out to potential customers

For e-commerce, having a website for your business is very crucial. Your website is essentially your store front, and just like any good store, your website should be clean, appealing to look at, and easy to navigate. Imagine a dirty grocery store, with mismatched colors and maze-like shelves! You wouldn't want to buy products from such a store, would you? So the same goes for your e-commerce website.