Building An Ecommerce Website / Business

So you want to build an ecommerce website.

Before you begin, lets talk about what ecommerce is and how it is different than traditional brick and mortar commerce.

The reality is, ecommerce is exactly the same as brick and mortar commerce except that instead of hiring a cashier for $20 an hour, you can have a website do the work for you for $20 a month.

The truth is, today, retail and etail go hand in hand and in many cases even small retail stores make sales because shoppers have checked their website previous to traveling to the store. The consumer knows what they want, how much it costs and how many are in stock.

This saves the consumer time, and speeds up the entire shopping process.

But lets say you don't have a brick and mortar store but the post office is your delivery staff then the website is your cashier.

You can do the same things with a website as a retail store, but just like a retail store you need customers and that is the one thing a website will not deliver on its own.

Without a regular advertising and marketing campaign you wont have any sales.

That is just the reality of business. It does not matter what host you use, what shopping cart you use or what network you are on. The website is simply a tool which can process sales automatically.

The good news is that it can process a shit load of sales, more than any cashier or even a team of cashiers and baggers.

So lets explore the process of creating an e-commerce business.

Choose a product or service to market
Apply for Tax ID from your state
Get Bank Accounts & A Business License
Secure a payment system to collect credit cards
Get a domain name / website name "mysamplebusiness.com" $10-$15/year
Get website hosting service that fits your needs
Start Advertising
Begin selling products and Making money!

Of course, there is much more than that required to start an ecommerce business but those are some of the main steps we want to talk about in more detail.

1. Choosing a product or service

The biggest challenge is to find a product or set of products to sell. You want something that you understand and are passionate about.

Everyone makes the mistake of looking for a product that they think will sell. Looking for the hottest trend or commodity of the month.

But you can't build a long term business on a hot right now product. You need something for the long haul because if you think it is going to be as simple as opening an ecommerce store and getting rich, you could not be more wrong.

Find something that you can sell into the next 10 years or longer. Make sure there is room for expansion.

For example, lets say you like 'Bowling" and want to sell a new bowling ball grip in a few different sizes. You could expand the store later with bowling balls, bowling shoes, bowling towels and other bowling products that will make your business stronger and make you more money from the existing customers.

Whatever you choose, make sure it is legal.

While you can buy Fireworks on the Street in in Florida it is illegal to ship them to NY or other states. While you can ship to Georgia and some states, some will put you in jail.

Do do some research, know your product and make sure what you are doing complies with the law.

2. Apply for Tax ID from your state

Next you will need a TAX ID or resale certificate from your sate so you can collect and pay sales tax on items that are sold. It is a quick process, usually done online and very simple.

Having the TAX ID is important so you can set up the business name and bank accounts next.

3. Get Bank Accounts & A Business License

You will need a company bank account and if your state requires a business license you will need that as well. In most cases, you wont need a business license, but to operate as a company yo might need a DBA (Doing Business As) or Trade Names, Fictitious Name or other depending on the state.

You might also choose to set up a corporation to isolate your business from your personal assets. Look into forming a C-Corp, S-Corp or LLC.

4. Secure a payment system to collect credit cards

Once you have the credentials you can apply for a merchant account with a bank so you can collect credit cards. These accounts will have fees between $20 and $50/month as well as a set up fee and require extensive credit research into your finances.

Or you can use paypal, which is free, requires no credit check and can be done online in about 15 minutes.

5. Get a domain name / website name "mysamplebusiness.com" $10-$15/year

Now you are ready for the website part. The big problem is choosing a name that is available.

Make sure you get a name that:

Is short and sweet, shorter is better
Easy to spell
Easy to remember
Not used whole or in part by anyone else (ie, part of a trademark or popular brand)
Something that you can build a brand around

Once you have registered the domain name, and I do suggest doing that asap or someone else might buy the name. Then you can move on to getting website hosting.

Once you own the name, you can host it with any company, so who you use is not as important as what the name is.

6. Get website hosting service that fits your needs

You will need to find a website host like pageBuzz.com that offers the tools and services that you need.

In our case, we have a full suite of ecommerce tools for $20 a month that can accommodate most small businesses, but not all. For example, we do not deal with digital delivery of ebooks or electronic files. So if you need that feature, make sure the host offers it.

Take a good look at the marketing tools, the website building tools and the ecommerce features. While we have items like wish lists, wholesale pricing, bulk discounts, coupons, taxable and nontaxable markers, blocking sales to states, counties, minimum order options and even discount group pricing options.

What I am going to tell you is that 95% of the shopping cart solutions out there do not have those options and may even require programming or more software to add credit card processing or shipping modules.

Since our software is managed in house, we have full control and manage all of those functions for you. Other carts, require you to hire a programmer and pay to have code written or configured to meet your needs.

The time you spend today asking questions and doing research will save you a bundle down the road. The worst thing that could happen is if you get started, your successful and the software you are running can't handle it or does not allow for any growth as you get bigger.

7. Start Advertising

Once the website is built, you will need to advertise it. If you just sit and wait for something to happen, nothing will. So you need to hustle and find customers and send them to your website to start ordering your products.

Hopefully, you thought this out before you opened the website and have a marketing plan.

That plan can be as simple as knocking on doors and talking to people or you might even run TV, Radio and Print ads. How you do it is up to you and will be different for every product. or service.

The important thing is that you do something, or all the work you have done up to now is just wasted.

8. Begin selling products and Making money!

Now, you should see some activity on your website and you can continue on with your new ecommerce business and hopefully grow into a major brand.

If you follow these simple steps, stay educated and informed it is not hard to run a successful business.

The biggest mistake people make is that, they think it is easy and it is not.

You can't just open a website and collect money. It will take a serious effort and some hard work. If you are ready to do that, pageBuzz.com is ready to support you during that process.