Starting an E-Commerce Business
Starting your own e-commerce business can be a very daunting task. Many would like the freedom involved, but just need a guide on where to start.
Make a plan
A business plan is a must for an start-up business. Whether you plan on selling $100/mo or $10000/mo, a business plan will help gather your thoughts. A great business plan website can be found at: bplans.com. Make sure you have knowledge in the business you would like to pursue, or be prepared to do hours of research.
Pick a domain that best describes your company
Choosing the right domain can very very complicated. A .com is generally preferred, but not required. Many sites allow you to register domain names, I prefer godaddy.com. If you would like to purchase a domain name, a great site is sedo.com.
Find web hosting
With a completely saturated web hosting market, finding the right one for your business is very difficult. Make sure you order web hosting from a reputable company. This can be found by if they list a toll-free support line, are registered with BBB Online program, and have high reviews. It is highly recommended you purchase at least 100mb space and 5gigabytes of transfer [bandwidth] a month. This will ensure enough space for a large store, yet can be purchased for as little as $5 a month. MySQL databases (are required for most shopping cart software and other advanced scripts), email addresses, and webstats are a must. cPanel and Fantastico are recommended, but not required.
Install the shopping cart software
We highly recommended CubeCart (cubecart.com) over Oscommerce (oscommerce.com) for easy of use, functionality, and customization abilities. If your hosting provided has cPanel with Fantastico, the software can easily added to your site with a few clicks. If not, you can download the software on the cart’s website and do a manual install. Shopping cart software is highly recommended over a PayPal shopping cart because tax, shipping, and payment gateways are much more easily integrated. Cube Cart also offers many customizations which can be found at cubecart.com.
Promote your business
A strong affiliate program makes it very easy to get traffic (and sales) to your site while you concentrate on making the customer happy. Other means to help promote your business are directory submissions, article submissions, press releases (preweb.com or prleap.com), social bookmarking, and purchasing backlinks (backlinks.com).
Going the extra mile
As your revenue, and hopefully your profit, increases, it’s is a very good idea to invest back into your company. Offering more to your customers than your competitors will greatly help your business. There’s many things that can be done, but we will just highlight a few. First of all, a 1-800 support/sales number will greatly increase customer trust. Toll-free lines can be purchased for around $20, and some can even automatically re-direct to your cell phone. Customers like to see more than just an email address, and a phone gives them that security. The better business bureau also has an online program. This greatly increases customer trust and more information can be found here: bbbonline.com.
