Getting Started with E-Commerce

"Bootstrapping" as it's called, which represents the act of starting a business with little-to-no money and propelling oneself upwards, may be the most convenient option, but it is not the easiest. Having plenty of money to pay for a hosted web service which automatically provides all the enticing store-front and shopping cart features a business desires would be a dream, but not everyone is in the position to start their business that way. Here is a list of options and resources for a bootstrapping netpreneur looking for inexpensive options for selling their products online:

EBAY - List for auction and fixed-price sales on ebay.com and reach millions of customers who look to barter on goods and find deals. It is easy to get started selling on EBay. An item can be listed in just minutes. They offer consultant services for advice on product sales as well as listing tools and access to 3rd party solutions. EBay also allows a business to host its own "store front" page or create an online store of its own on the eBay site. In order to have a storefront, businesses are charged a small monthly fee, but with that fee the business receives tools to analyze their performance and drive traffic to their site. To learn how to sell products on EBay, go to my blog www.intheboysclub.com.

AMAZON - Selling products on Amazon is becoming very popular because they offer a small business access to millions of online shoppers. Their interface is very user friendly and they provide training to aid the seller in handling transactions. The seller does not pay anything until they sell a product, then they pay a small percentage of the sales to Amazon. Amazon's seller account page allows the user to manage all sales. They also provide a very simple shipment option, which allows the seller to print the packing slip from their site. Their payment system also acts as a helpful merchant to the seller by depositing funds into an account and then sending payment to the seller’s bank account every two weeks. To read more about how to sell your products online with Amazon, please access this link to my article at www.intheboysclub.com on the topic.

CRAIGSLIST - Selling products on craigslist is significantly different than the other two stores discussed above - most notably because it is completely free. Another large difference is that it was designed to sell things in the same general vicinity of the actual vendor, so it is organized by city and state as well as the type of service or product being sold. Most customers will only search for products near their home, so it is comparable to running a brick-and-mortar store which only allows for local customers. With the benefit of locality, a business can choose to pick-up, drop-off or ship products. Small businesses and individuals have expanded on this concept by listing their products in other areas and making use of PayPal for accepting credit card payments.

PAYPAL - PayPal is not a marketplace in itself, but it is a very important tool to mention in this article. Created by EBay, PayPal is an independent site devoted entirely to providing the merchant and payment end of online sales transactions. PayPal allows small businesses to accept credit cards without maintaining their own merchant account. There are three levels of PayPal account, with only the "personal" category being free. Personal services are limited though to transactions between members, which does not include credit card acceptance. There are low monthly fees associated with credit card transactions for the Premier and Business levels of service. They offer tools and advice on integrating their payment modules with a web store front and shopping cart, and more recently offer other services such as shipping, reporting, and finance tools. To read more on how to utilize PayPal, please read my blog posting (www.intheboysclub.com) on the topic.

ETSY - There are new small niche online marketplaces sprouting up all over the web. One that has received much acclaim is Etsy, which provides a forum for craft sales. Etsy only allows sales of handmade items, vintage items and supplies for crafts of these types. It provides a listing space, accepts payment, and coordinates shipping for its vendors. There is a lot of collaboration between Etsy sellers, there are online workshops provided and it allows direct access for consumers searching for that specific type of product. To find a listing and short description of other niche online marketplaces, please view my blog on entrepreneurship topics (www.intheboysclub.com).

There are many online resources to help a business owner "get their feet wet" when it comes to e-commerce without diving in head first. In order to choose a service, the business must identify which characteristics are most important to it: such as social media interaction, ability for customers to leave feedback, customer analytics, or lowest cost. Even then, the best solution may be to utilize more than one or many of these sources to reach the most customers. Armed with this information, the curious netpreneur is in a better position to make the choice to take the first step into e-commerce which could someday lead to much larger scale, personalized and cutting edge sales sites.