| With a little knowledge, skills, and | | | | |
| determination, anyone can start an ecommerce | | | | 4 - Communications |
| business. In this article, I'll go over a few | | | | |
| of the basic components that you'll need when | | | | Even in ecommerce, communication with your |
| starting your ecommerce business. | | | | customers is very important. At the bare |
| | | | minimum, you should have an email address and |
| 1 - Product or service | | | | physical address for your customers to |
| | | | contact you at. Ideally, you should also have |
| If you don't have your own product or service | | | | a toll-free number. |
| to market, you can market other people's | | | | |
| products, either via affiliate programs, | | | | 5 - Webhosting |
| dropshippers, or network marketing programs. | | | | |
| Once you've found a top quality product or | | | | Of course, you'll need a server to host your |
| service to market, you're ready to get | | | | website and software on. There are many |
| started! | | | | reputable hosts that offer everything you'll |
| | | | need for under ten dollars. Use a web host |
| 2 - Shopping Cart software | | | | rating website to find a good host. |
| | | | |
| To sell products online, you will need some | | | | 6 - Marketing |
| kind of shopping cart software, to facilitate | | | | |
| online ordering and order processing. I | | | | Many small business owners fail at one of the |
| recommend Oscommerce - It is free, very | | | | most important points - marketing. If you |
| flexible, and feature-filled. | | | | don't properly market your website, you won't |
| | | | make any sales, and your business will fail. |
| 3 - Online Payments | | | | The key is to utilize marketing methods which |
| | | | are effective and profitable for your |
| To sell online, you'll need a way to accept | | | | business. Experiment to find what works best, |
| online payments. The easiest way to do this | | | | but here are a few tried and true methods to |
| is via Paypal. However, Paypal is not the | | | | start with: pay per click marketing, search |
| most convenient for your customers - it's | | | | engine optimization, article marketing, |
| better for them if you get a merchant account | | | | shopping comparison websites, email |
| and accept credit cards. | | | | marketing, and joint ventures. |