下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
1. Overview
E-commerce plays an increasingly important role in the way in which products and services are purchased. Selling products and services online can help your business become more profitable and lower your costs. E-commerce can also strengthen and improve the efficiency of your relationships with suppliers and other key trading partners.
扫码听课文
It's important to plan for the ongoing development and maintenance of any e-commerce system from the start. You also need to be aware of your legal obligations when selling online.
2. Get Started with E-commerce
Investigate your options for getting online. Make sure you choose the right website and e-mail addresses so your customers and suppliers can find you quickly and easily.
Consider the different ways to connect your business to the internet. A range of options are available including ADSL, dial-up, cable and satellite.
Pay attention to the design of your site. The overall look and feel will play an important role in its usability. There are also legal issues to consider in the design of the website. For example, you must ensure it's accessible for disabled people.
If you want to sell directly through your website, you'll need to have the infrastructure in place to showcase your products, services and process orders electronically.
To complete your e-commerce solution, you'll need to set up the facility to accept payment through your website.
Once your shop is online, consider how to monitor its effectiveness, make it more powerful and ultimately sell more through it. Think about how you can drive traffic to your site.
3. Maintain and Develop Your E-commerce Services
Your work doesn't end once your initial e-commerce system is up and running. You need to maintain the site, constantly review how well it is operating and consider new opportunities and ways of working that it may present to you.
(1) Maintaining Your E-commerce Site
You must ensure that the content of the site is accurate and updated regularly. This will help to promote a positive image for the business, attracting and retaining visitors to the site.
As your e-commerce presence grows, you must protect yourself against the threats posed by hackers, viruses and fraudsters. Identify the risks they pose and implement appropriate security controls to counter them.
(2) Identifying New Opportunities
Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is a type of e-commerce using mobile devices such as mobile phones, smart-phones, tablet computers and other devices with a wireless connection. M-commerce brings new opportunities to small businesses both to sell new services and to operate existing businesses more efficiently.
Extranets enable your business to communicate and collaborate more effectively with selected business partners, suppliers and customers. They can play an important role in enhancing business relationships and improving supply chain management. Intranets are an invaluable way to communicate with employees, especially for businesses with multiple locations and staff who work remotely or from home.
An e-marketplace allows you to use a variety of online services such as electronic catalogs, business directory listings and online auctions to sell your goods and services more effectively to other businesses.
4. Selling Online: The Advantages
Selling online has a number of advantages over other selling methods, including:
●Saving set-up and operational costs. You don't need to rent high street premises or pay shop assistants.
●Reducing order processing costs. Customer orders can automatically come straight into your orders database from the website.
●Reaching a global audience, increasing sales opportunities.
●Competing with larger businesses by being able to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
●Quicker payments from online transactions.
●Improving your business using data gathered from tracking customer purchases.
●Using your online shop as a catalog for existing customers.
Online selling will work best if you have:
●Well-defined products or services that can be sold without human involvement in the sales process.
●Fixed prices for all types of potential customers.
●Products or services that can be delivered within a predictable lead time.
5. Selling Online: The Disadvantages
Selling online also has a number of disadvantages over other selling methods, including:
●Authenticity and Security. Due to the lack of trust, a large number of people do not use the Internet for any kind of financial transaction. Many people have reservations regarding the requirement to disclose personal and private information for security concerns. Some people simply refuse to trust the authenticity of completely impersonal business transactions, as in the case of e-commerce.
●Time-consuming. The time period required for delivering physical products can also be quite significant in case of e-commerce. Hence it is not suitable for perishable commodities like food items. A lot of phone calls and e-mails may be required till you get your desired products.
●Inconvenient. People prefer to shop in the conventional way than to use e-commerce for purchasing food products and objects that need to be felt and touched before actually making the purchase. So e-commerce is not suitable for such business sectors. However, returning the product and getting a refund can be even more troublesome and time-consuming than purchasing, in case you are not satisfied with a particular product.
6. Selling Online: Types of Shops
(1) Basic Online Shops
Basic online shops allow you to sell a small range of products, provide photos, descriptions and prices as well as accept orders online.
Most customers shopping online will want to pay by debit or credit card. You can create electronic mail-order forms using web authoring software packages. These order forms let customers e-mail their orders to be processed offline. You'll need a more sophisticated online shop if you want to accept card payments online.
A basic site is of low cost and easy to create for a limited product range. But it might have restricted design and functionality, and might be less secure than more sophisticated options.
(2) Intermediate Online Shops
An intermediate online shop is typically an e-commerce package and should include catalog management, enhanced order processing and a broader range of design templates.
It should also include encryption for secure ordering. Using Secure Socket Layer
technology to collect card details (noted by the “golden padlock” symbol in your browser's status bar) is key to encouraging online sales.
Some e-commerce packages may offer back end systems integration, i.e., they connect to your product database and accounts systems.
An intermediate-level site might not be suitable if you want to offer more complex products and services.
(3) Sophisticated Online Shops
Sophisticated online shops should provide a range of options, including cutting-edge design and functionality, personalized pages and product news.
Software can be integrated to trigger order confirmations and automatically dispatch goods and replenish stocks.
You may need a design and development company to help define your technical requirements and integrate the website with your existing systems.
You could also consider free, open source
shopping cart software packages. This should allow you to set up a sophisticated e-commerce website that has a wide range of options, features and support, even if you have only basic computer skills.
7. Selling Online: Common Mistakes
Customers will be put off by:
●Out-of-date or incorrect information.
●Difficult site navigation and purchasing processes.
●Poor customer fulfillment and late delivery.
●Lack of customer support.
●Lack of business information.
●Poor visual design.
To make customers feel secure about buying from your site, you should:
●Make your site easy to navigate and user friendly.
●Make sure photographic images on your site are accurate and show products in their best light
●Hire a customer service representative who can give advice on the phone to customers on more complex or expensive products.
●Make ordering procedures straightforward and quick.
●Confirm orders immediately by e-mail.
●Be honest, i.e., tell the customer if you can't deliver on time.
●Provide a way for customers to track down the progress and availability of their order.