Lesson 3: Ways of selling online
FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO START SELLING ONLINE:
- Know what to sell
- You should know what you’re going to sell.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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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