A dummy’s guide to ecommerce, #3: Tips for Success

Posted by on Aug 9, 2008 in Archive, Ecommerce, Web & Internet Marketing

Top tips for turning browsers into buyers Do your research and try to sell products that have a market and are in demand. Set your prices as low as you can. Market your business from the outset, don’t leave it until after your site has launched, and make sure you have a healthy marketing budget for at least the first year. Do show photos of your products, and make sure they are good quality. If you have to get them done for you then so be it, people want to see what they are buying. Use conventions. The Internet is beginning to establish ways of doing things that people are becoming...

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A dummy’s guide to ecommerce, #2: taking credit card payments

Posted by on Aug 6, 2008 in Archive, Ecommerce, Web & Internet Marketing

There are four main ways for your ecommerce business to take credit card payments. Secure capture & swipe This method is probably the most common, is the cheapest to you the retailer and works as follows: Firstly, your ecommerce system stores your customers’ card details securely online, usually in a database used by the system. I most highly recommend that you ensure that the details are strongly encrypted whilst they are stored, your ecommerce provider will be able to reassure you in this respect and if they can’t, maybe think about getting another provider who understands...

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A dummy’s guide to ecommerce, #1

Posted by on Aug 5, 2008 in Archive, Ecommerce, Web & Internet Marketing

This is an introduction to Ecommerce aimed at people who know nothing or very little about the subject. Which, judging from the number of people I get questions from, is a fair many of you. Firstly, learn the jargon: selling online, e-tailing (yuk), web and Internet stores – these are all the same thing, and are simply just different ways of saying “ecommerce”. Ecommerce is what you are doing when you sell something via the Internet, it’s that simple. Next, go and read all the articles on this website about web marketing. You need to look into that before you start...

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