Welcome back to the third
installment of this four part series “Internet Marketing, Still a Viable
Economic Alternative”. Today we’re going to look at online stores as income
producers. First let me say that I have less experience in this area, although
I do know many who have made a considerable commitment to this form of
eMarketing. The concept is a simple one; you pick a platform to host your
store, it can be hosted, or self-hosted and use the software provided by the
parent company to acquire and process customers. The stores are pretty much
third party retailers for wholesale distributors. From all accounts, you should
not expect a quick return on your initial start-up investment, which, depending
upon the type of store you opt to open can be as little as $600 to several
thousands of dollars. It is my suggestion that anyone considering on-line
stores as an option, do a thorough research into the types and options that are
available, that you do not commit financial resources that you cannot afford to
be without, that you make, replacing your current income the target before
considering going full-time and finally, you give it at least a year before
giving up on the venture, assuming that you can successfully operate
financially.
History
Michael J. Aldrich is
generally regarded as the inventor of on-line shopping and marketing back in
1979 when he "connected a26” domestic color
television to a real-time transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line,
put together a shopping transaction program and waited for someone to buy my idea.
It was 1979. The IBM PC didn’t exist, nor Microsoft and the Internet was 11
years away. The idea today is called online shopping and it is probably the largest
part of e-commerce."
Aldrich implemented the first Business to Business system that was used
to order spare parts, check vacation reservations, check credit ratings and
initiate bank transactions.
Aldrich noted the communication advantage of his system and that
advantage holds true in 2014. According to Tristan Handy VP Marketing @RJMetrics,
as of the summer of 2014 there are 110,000 on-line stores listed in the Alexia
top 1m websites. The United States Census indicates that e-commerce retail production
increased 13.6% from 2011 when it was $198 billion, to $225 billion in 2012
So before we look at how to open an online store and the different
types, let’s quickly look at why you should NOT open an online store.
Things to Consider when starting an Online Store
I don’t mean to lecture anyone about your motivations for starting a
store. But here are some points by eCommerciafuel’s Andrew Youderian on ‘4
Signs you shouldn’t open and Online Store.”
You Need Money Fast
“If you
need to make money quickly, starting an e-commerce business is a really bad
idea. Building an online store is an involved process that takes months to
research and launch, and usually years to build into a significant and
sustainable income. If you need extra cash to pay this month’s rent or just
don’t have enough to make ends meet, your best bet is to increase your income
through a traditional job for the short term.”
You
Need a Guarantee
Being an
entrepreneur means taking action without that guarantee of success. You do it
strategically and with a well-thought-out and researched plan, but at the end
of the day you move forward despite your doubts. With every business I’ve ever
started, I’ve had doubts and reservations as to whether it would be successful
or not. And while some ended up doing nicely, others didn’t fare as well. But
I’d never know if I didn’t overcome my fears and take the plunge. Educate yourself, research, agonize, and then make a decision despite your reservations.
You're not willing/Able to take a step back
You're not willing/Able to take a step back
Starting a
business requires a sacrifice of some kind, usually in the form of time or
cash. You need to have one of these two currencies! If you’re not able to
invest either, you won’t be able to build a viable business.
You’re not Web Savvy
…if you’d
describe yourself as “not web savvy” (like Alice), you’re likely going to
struggle.
Being “web savvy” is simply the
price of admission for trying to get a viable business online. If you have a
hard time setting up an email account, doing online banking or using Facebook,
you’re going to become incredibly frustrated trying to get a
store online, even with all the easy-to-use tools available. As simple as these
tools have become, they do require a basic level of online competency, as will
most other resources you’ll need to build/market/operate your store.
What type of On-Line store should I open and
what’s the best?
The thing
to remember is there are two kinds of stores. You can have a drop ship store or
a pre-made platform store. I will not include stores where you can be an affiliate
because to me that is Affiliate Marketing.
With Drop Ship stores you either keep your
own inventory or place orders and have them drop shipped from a wholesale
supplier. The key to remember about drop shipping from a real whole sale
provider is that you’ll need to have a wholesale account and prove that you’re
a legitimate company in order for them to take orders from you. If not they’re
a retailer selling items at inflated prices and calling them wholesale. I have
experienced this with as an Affiliate of an online electronics program
professing to be an online store. For those on Facebook, friend Kerry Alison, owner of Ally Cat fashion
LLC, has a
drop ship company that she markets primarily from Facebook and word of mouth.
E-Commerce platforms can be either Hosted, Shopify, Volusion, or BigCommerce, or they can be Self-Hosted like Magento and
WooCommerce. Forbes recently did a thorough assessment of all
five of these platforms.
Here are some key links to more information about setting up your own e-commerce
store. I am not an affiliate of either of these programs.
Our final segment of this four part series will be on MLM companies.
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