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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