An E-commerce Guide for Entrepreneurs

E-commerce, simply defined, is conducting business online. E-commerce constitutes selling of products/services on the Internet and accepting payment online. We are living in the age of the internet and buyers increasingly want to shop online for its many advantages.

Entrepreneurs are also equally keen transacting over the internet because it is lot more cost-effective for them. They can set up an ecommerce website instead of renting a brick and mortar shop. Besides, constant monitoring is also not needed as most internet sites are built with accounting applications. This will also mean a fair reduction in staff strength.

After properly conceptualizing your online business and weighing its pros and cons, you have to set up a website by hiring an experienced web designer, graphic artist and a few professionals. Your staff strength will obviously depend on the size your business, your line of business and the expected scale of operations.

Next comes the most crucial step – you have to publicize your website. This may require running of advertisements in Google and other social media sites.

Another requirement for efficient e-commerce store operation is a virtual shopping cart that is an electronic order form. Payment gateway integration into e-commerce websites is a good way of accepting payment for products or services offered by online shopping. This makes an online entrepreneur completely hassle free for handling payment by customers.

Online shoppers will obviously be concerned about the security aspect of the e-commerce sites. Buyers will view the sites, check their reputation or track record and will only proceed to buy if the websites are secure.

You may have to obtain certificates as most internet sellers will have to make their sites hacker proof and prevent unauthorized accessing of information.

The most formidable challenge of e-commerce is winning the trust of the internet community because a lot of internet users continue to be skeptical about the genuineness of e-commerce businesses.

As an entrepreneur, you biggest concern will be finance as many of the banks may not be willing to readily provide you loan for online businesses.

Next is the profit element – if you are operating at nominal profits, it is prudent to make your customers pay the delivery charges.

E-commerce is ushering in a new type of economy connecting sellers and buyers through the use of technology. Business organizations that ignore the impact of the Internet and the rising popularity of e-commerce sites run the risk of losing heavy chunks of business to competitors.