Earn Online Money Without Investment

Ten questions to consider before setting up an e-commerce store:

But we hope the extra information will help you as well as some of our other articles, you may be unable to answer all of these questions. But these are some of the initial areas to consider once you have a basic idea of what you are selling, there is a lot to consider when setting up an e-commerce business or taking an existing business online.

It could also be something very simple such as having a quicker and easier site to use than your competitors It can even be a mixture of advantages not available elsewhere such as being the only site to offer a particular product to offer next day delivery and to offer gift wrapping; you need to have some reason why people will buy from you and there are a number of ways you can do this. Products available to you cheaper than your competitors, a product not sold online, this could be something like an exclusive product? Do you have a competitive advantage or unique selling point? 1.

Another potential pitfall is to research and find that there is demand for a product but not check what people are willing to pay and find your unable to make sales at a profitable price. A lack of competition can be good but can also indicate a lack of demand. New products can be particularly difficult as can your own products to predict without carrying out research. Or more importantly sufficient demand at the price you can offer to break even, is there demand for the products you are going to offer? 2.

Online promotion can be very good value if you use it effectively and much of it is purely effort driven, your decision should depend partly on your target market and of course your budget. Also offline promotion will help you reach a slightly different audience. Bricks and Mortar stores with an online store as well will have an advantage against purely online stores because of the reassurance this will give customers but offline promotion can help purely online stores seem more reputable. Will you depend purely on online promotion? How will you promote yourself? 3.

The main costs being space and having money tied up in stock there will inevitably be an opportunity cost to this and a risk that your stock may not sell or will lose value, however there are of course many costs in holding stock especially if you only have an e-commerce site. You will need to rely on your suppliers to send products out quickly and be easy to contact, you may be unable to send out products on next day delivery, you have to rely on suppliers keeping you up to date on low stock and product discontinuation, most suppliers don't offer Direct Despatch and issues of Direct Despatch include the charges which can be expensive. (at a cost). Will you hold stock or depend on Direct Despatch where suppliers will send products directly to your customers? 4.

Having a customer service number gives security to shoppers online and you may lose sales where customer have questions they want answered quickly. Will you offer a high level of customer service for at least 9 to 5 Monday to Friday or try to get away with shorter hours or relying on e-mail? 5.

In the UK many e-commerce stores will also send to Ireland where the proximity means that postage costs don't make products uncompetitively expensive. Of course many e-commerce stores start aiming at one country and then expand often starting with big markets such as the United States or countries with the same language. Will you sell to your country only or sell continent or world wide? 6.

For most customers this is a good thing of course and usability should be top of your priorities in almost any case, off the shelf sites do often have the advantage of free upgrades to the software and generally follow accepted web design concepts meaning the site will work in a way that customers are used to from other sites. For example if you are aiming at a group who are likely to be less experienced web users you may want a very simple website, a bespoke site can give you some uniqueness and be designed to suit your target market. Bespoke websites can be very expensive but some level of bespoke design can be bought for less than you might think from designers who reuse some of their code but can add to it, the most obvious difference is the price. Will you use an off the shelf website or have one designed to your needs? 7.

WorldPay is another option as is Google Checkouts which is similar to PayPal. Your Bank is unlikely to provide you with web payment services unless you have some history of trade with them. A well recognised and trusted brand but also fairly expensive plus transfers to your bank account are slow and you are likely to have to keep a reserve in your PayPal account, payPal is simple. Which payment provider will you use? 8.

Using similar promotion or suitable products for the same end user, they are a competitor but then so is a site selling different products but also aimed at the gift market especially if they are at the same price, for example you may be aiming products at the gift market where a competitor may be aiming at the homewares market, however these competitors may not be as important as you think if they are aiming at a different market. People with the same or similar products, some of your competitors may be very obvious. Who are your competitors? 9.

Your duty to accept returns for example may effect your potential costs. +
Also make sure you are aware of the Distance Selling Regulations in the UK or the equivalent for your country or area and understand what they require of you. Descriptions can help but often if the main image doesn't impress: people will not consider the product any further. Videos and interactive 3D images can help here, using multiple pictures. Some impressive products may not appear as impressive online and some products may have more of the value in tactile rather than visual qualities; thirdly how easy is it to view the product online. You may have to refund costs including postage costs and you may end up with excess stock especially after Christmas when items have been returned, especially shoes, secondly consider whether they are products where there is likely to be a large number of returns such as clothes. Products that are cheap but expensive to post are the biggest problem, consider the potential postage cost as a percentage of the retail price, though from experience some products surprise you, heavy or large making postage very expensive, they may be fragile. Firstly will it be practical to post them, this breaks down into three main questions? Are your products suitable for sale online? 10.