E-commerce: Selling online - Business

Lesson 3: Ways of selling online

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO START SELLING ONLINE:

  1. Know what to sell
  • You should know what you’re going to sell.
  1. Know how to sell
  • People generally prefer to express their preferences rather than listen to someone whose intent is to sell.
  • It’s best to know your audience in order to sell to them
  1. Choose a place to sell
  • It helps you get discovered just like a physical store that customers can and through a postal address.
  • Your store reflects your name or brands and how you do business.
  1. Decide how you’ll get paid
  • This can be done if you use a payment gateway like PayPal or a shopping cart service which your customers can also use to send you payment.
  1. Get customers
  • A business will not work if you do not know who to sell to or if there aren’t any customers coming along
  • You need to learn about your customers for them to patronize your business. Customers make a business possible.

PLACES TO SELL ONLINE

You need to have a way to accept payment.

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  • AUCTION SITES
    • Provide the convenience of not having to set up a website to begin selling.
    • Auction sites cater to specific categories of items.
  • Fixed price marketplaces
    • Websites where goods are sold with definite prices, just like amazon.
  • Online Craft Fairs
    • It is like a bazaar and is an excellent place for craftspeople, who are generally specialized artists, to connect to the public and garner followers.
  • Classifieds
    • Often associated with newspapers wherein small ads are grouped together into categories in their own sections.
    • The term was coined by Graham Tolhurst.
  • Online infomercial
    • A direct response video advertisement.
    • Began to invade the internet as early as 2003
    • Social Networks
    • Only meant to connect people with one another.
  • Own storefront
    • It is a website where you can post the things that you sell.

LESSON 4: TOOLS FOR SELLING ONLINE

  • The shopping cart

    • Used by a customer to “load in the products he wants to purchase, just like you would a shopping cart in a supermarket.
  • Payment

    • The shopping cart tools available on established e-commerce website services are a good way to get started.
  • Storage and delivery

    • You have to find a way to stock, or warehouse your goods somewhere.
    • The products must be shipped so that the customers can get what he paid for. •
  • Promotion

    • Is essentially all about letting potential customers know that your business and its website exist, as well as what your business offers
    • “Tip of the day” feature is one way to keep visitors coming back.
  • Google’s feed burner

    • Is a popular service business people can use to create feeds of blogs that display short version of posts with links to video or audio content that followers can consume
      Analytics
    • Use to analyze existing or simulated future data to develop realistic decisions for future actions.
  • Web analytics

    • Another popular and versatile analytics tool which can be used by beginners and experts alike.
  • Feedback form

    • A form that a reader fills out and sends to the person designated by the e-business.
    • These can be used to elicit information or to have them purchase something from the site.
  • Logistics supplier

    • A company which specializes in handling and delivering goods from one point to another.
  • Survey form

    • A document with blank spaces to be filled out with particulars on a certain subjects.
  • Viral marketing

    • Promotion of marketing messages through online social networks.

LESSON 5: CREATING YOUR ONLINE STORE

Compared to a traditional brick and mortar store, an online store is easily created or set up.

  • Transaction system
    • Necessary for a physical store to have a cash register for recording transactions and sorting and keeping cash
  • Weebly
    • It is a website creating service that is free to use and offers an easy and comprehensive way to have your own place on the World Wide Web.
  • A store in your blog
    • Easiest way to get up and about selling things online is to create a blog with content that’s related to the products or services you’re selling.
  • Products access and delivery
    • You will need to consider the method of delivery for your product.
  • Affiliate marketing
    • A marketing method employed by various companies in which a business pays an affiliate for every sale resulting from the affiliate’s own hard work.
  • Trade
    • The exchange of goods for money

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