|
How to Start your Own
Online Store in Minutes
The good news is, you can
start your own online store in minutes. The bad news is, it will
take more than a few minutes to get sales.
System like pageBuzz.com let
anyone signup and start building an online store.
With our system there are just
a couple of basic steps to get started.
There are 4 basic things you
need to set up.
Add A product
for sale
Set up a
payment system ie Paypal
Set tax if
being collected
Set shipping
charges
The number 1 item, having a
product is pretty basic. Without something to sell, the commerce
in ecommerce is not possible. So for the sake of argument lets
assume you have something and adding the images and description
will only take about a minute or so.
All that is needed is some
basic information and a photo if you want one displayed, fill in
a form and submit and the item is added.
Only problem is, we can't
actually sell the item until you can collect money.
The most popular method to
collect money is by using paypal.
To use paypal with the
pageBuzz shopping cart is very simple, you only need to fill in 2
fields on the settings page. The email address you use for paypal
and a check box indicating to use paypal as your preferred
payment method.
Then the store is actually
open to start selling.
After just a few minutes you
have a product now for sale that anyone can buy.
But to complete the cart we
need to ask, are you collecting sales tax?
If so, we need to set up the
sales tax section of the cart. That pages just as a couple of
fields to fill in.what you need to collect, 5%, 6% etc and the
state you will collect that for.
Once that is completed there
is only one more critical issue and that is shipping.
If you want to collect money
for shipping, that is a much bigger process and could take some
time to st up.
If you are using something
simple like $X for each item or $XX for each dollar spent, then
set up is quick. If you are using USPS rates, then it is as easy
as checking a box to apply those rates and change that for
shipping the order.
But what about more complex
calculations and real time UPS and Fedex rates? Those need a
little more work and may require you to set up an account with
Fedex.com or UPS.com to access their servers in real time.
If you are building a rate
table and adding your own costs, then it will take some time.
So unlike the other features,
shipping can get complicated and may take a few hours if you are
using the more detailed shipping scenarios such as shipping
groups, return shipping or local delivery rate tables.
And that show this whole 15
minutes to build a shopping cart is not realistic. Because while
you are ready to sell, in just 15 minutes I am sure you will want
a more detailed cart.
You might want to add a wish
list or cross sell items, discount codes, coupons or other
features. You might want to customize the look of the cart,
colors, display styles and other elements of the design.
All of these things can be
done just by selecting options from the settings pages. But they
do take time.
So we want to warn people that
just because you can set up your shopping cart in 15 minutes does
not mean you should.
One of the biggest problem I
see is people using rate tables, they slap in a few values unto
say $100 and then quit. What happens when the customer spends $101?
It can't charge shipping because there is no value specified.
Not because the programming is
bad, but because the webmaster just didn't take the time to add
in a value for that size of a sale. Those types of time shortcuts
can be serious problems, so we encourage everyone not to set up
the cart in 15 minutes but rather take extra time to do it right.
Everyone is looking for
something easy and pageBuzz offers that probably better than
anything else. But anyone selling products online should be able
to spend more than 15 minutes setting up a shopping cart or
online store.
Now for the bad news.
You have a cash register, you
still need to get customers in line to buy products. The cart is
not a marketing tool, it is a store, where people can shop. You
will still need to build a client base to sell products and make
money.
That is the one thing no
shopping cart can do for you.
|
