Starting an online E-Commerce Business (http://www.hostdepartment.com/ecommerce-hosting/) is very easy, you just need a website, a merchant account and a payment gateway. Definitely by this you will own an online business but there is lot of home work you need to do for a successful eCommerce business. An Ecommerce(electronic commerce) is a technology where buying and selling of products is done through internet or online.
You need to check for these 5 main points when you want to run a successful eCommerce business.
1. Research on your product:
The very first thing you should do when you want to start an E-Commerce Business is make a research on the product that you are going to launch. Know the demand of the product, know your competitors in this field, know the market value of the product, know the raw material or other materials which are required to start your business. Make an estimation of the amount you have to invest in this business and how much profit you may get. You also need to check the negative side of this so that you can deal with it.
2. Make a Website:
You should be very careful when designing your website because it is that which creates interest in the visitors to know more about your website. Make your website user friendly, Have a responsive web design (http://www.hostdepartment.com/blog/2013/11/20/responsive-...) because due to growing technology most of the people are preferring to browse sites on their tablets and mobiles. Design your website such a way that it supports all most all the web browsers and mobile devices.
Ecommerce Software:
By using E-Commerce software you can directly start your business just by adding your products, each ecommerce has a different theme and different web design. You can choose softwares that suits your field. Some of them are zen-cart, oscommerce, cubecart, prestashop, opencart etc.
3. Merchant account and payment gateway:
When a customer is purchasing a product online then the first thing he will be looking for is a secure transaction. A merchant account is an account where a customer makes a payment to an account (i.e, the merchant from whom he is purchasing the product) and there will an agreement between the merchant account and the bank. Every bank has its own terms and conditions regarding merchant account. Choosing a payment gateway is also very important , it is an ecommerce application which provides service for payments through cards. When a product is purchased the buyer types his payment card information and the payment gateway using SSL (http://www.hostdepartment.com/blog/2014/02/03/secure-sock...) encrypts the data, making a secure payment. There are many types of payment gateways each with a level of security, You need to choose that gateway which suits for your business.
4. Drive Traffic to your website:
This provides a vital role in SEO, you should know how to drive more traffic to your site as it increases your site ranking. Site ranking is very important because based on that ranking visitors think about trusting your website. There are many ways to drive traffic to your website by blogging, advertising, offers and many more. You need an experienced SEO to direct and help you in increasing traffic to your website. In the same way you need a writer to maintain and write articles in your blog regarding the type of business you are doing. Know more about On page and Off page optimization (http://www.hostdepartment.com/blog/2009/05/26/on-page-and...).
5. Marketing :
After you setup your website and making all the preparations to launch your website, you need to do a little bit of marketing. Make your brand page in facebook, create an account in twitter and other social media networks. Just don’t sit and expect people to come and buy your product, go online and try to sell them in all possible ways. Give advertisements in youtube and other sites, link up with other sites, let people know that there is a brand. There may be many competitors you should do anything unique so that it attracts more customers. If your product is unique or new in the market give people a reason to buy your product.
You should also be updated with the new technologies, marketing strategies and advancement in the products in your field. These are the five basic things you need to keep in mind while starting a eCommerce business.
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