Six Components Of A Good E-Commerce Site

Businesses, which are still sitting on sidelines and not doing business on the Internet, should think seriously about their position! If you are one of them, chances are there, that you have to pay dearly for your indecision as you might lose significant market share to your more proactive competitors in a very short period of time.

Apart from the fact that e-commerce is growing at the rate of more than 25 percent a year, the use of online features can bring efficiency to virtually every aspect of business process, be it supply chain management or customer support management.

But, how can you build an e-commerce business and take advantages of all these great possibilities? After all, you are pretty sure that anything to do with new technology is complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.

Believe it or not, this is just a misconception that most business owners have about the Internet technology. The truth is ? in order to run a business online and reap profits, like any new effort, you need to do a little homework, have patience and determination, and get going.

Take the following steps seriously and in no time you will be able to embrace fascinating world of online business.

Take your products online

Getting your product online does not simply mean - having a nice picture and a product narration to go with it. Effective use of the Internet is based on standards. Standards, as you know, are created to facilitate common use of a technology. If you ever imported or exported a product or service, or if you registered your product with some kind of authorities ever; you certainly know that each product falls under certain subcategory according to the classification system that you encountered. Internet is the same thing. Since the emergence of Internet, several classification systems have been developed.

If you think long term and would like to use same catalog with multiple e-marketplaces, you should adopt one of the prevailing classification system in the Internet. The best online catalog classification available from my point of view is UNSPSC. For one thing, many prominent e-marketplaces adopted this particular system, which allows you to post your products on multiple e-procurement systems and e-marketplaces.

How do you do this? I would suggest you to become a member of one of the e-marketplaces, where you can aggregate your products using some kind of simple wizards or forms. E-marketplaces based on Commerce One's the largest B2B e-marketplace enabler, have this facility.

Our own Rusbiz e-catalog system, which is also based on UNSPSC, also allows you to integrate your products using a very simple but sophisticated form. If you do not have time to do it by your own, you can use the service of a B2B exchange. Rusbiz also provides with similar service.

Get an online presence

What should be your next step once you have all your products transformed into e-catalog? Naturally, you need to have an online presence to sell the products. There are number of options how to do this.

Become a member of an e-marketplace

This could be a large geography oriented fairly large horizontal market or a vertical e-marketplace specific to your industry. The membership fees are in most of the cases not so expensive. But many of them charge some percentage on your transactions, usually, from 1 to 3 percent. If you expect big sales volume, you may think this might not be the best choice for you. However, if you get new customers, thanks to your mere presence in an e-marketplace, the percentage that you have to pay on the transaction you should consider as customer acquiring cost. Under any circumstances, it is good to become a member of at least one e-marketplace as you -automatically get exposed to thousands of new prospective customers.

Build a website

There are several ways you can construct an e-commerce site to your need.

You can build a website in house by employing developers or you can hire a web development company to do this for you. The advantage is you can have a website with the look, feel and functionality according to your given specification.

However, both of these methods could be way costly for a small business. Average cost of building an e-commerce website runs starting from US$ 600 plus hosting and maintenance charges for a miniscule site with limited features to several hundred thousand US Dollars for a powerful e-commerce website.

Another option that you have as a small business is to build an e-commerce site from prefabricated templates. While this is affordable and easy, you considerably lose flexibility and customization possibilities in comparison to building a site from scratch.

Build a web store

All these above mentioned cases do not allow you to have the potentials and advantages that come with an e-business website integrated with a B2B exchange. Which means, whether you are a business to consumer company with occasional sales to businesses or you are a pure play B2B company, a Web Store merged into an e-marketplace is what you need.

A web store from a B2B exchange gives you the best of both worlds. You are having a professional e-commerce site which incorporates all the features that an e-marketplace has to offer. And you build a site from simple and easy to edit templates.

For a detailed information about the features that come with a web store and benefits that you can get from them, follow this link: Powerful E-business Store

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir, Ph.D., is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of Rusbiz.com, a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade. An author of many B2B and business related articles; he publishes a bi-weekly E-zine for online business community. You can subscribe to his newsletter free of charge from http://www.rusbiz.com.

nowshade@rusbiz.com

---

Google News Updated : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:58:10 GMT It's officially over: Madonna and Guy Ritchie are divorcing - New York Daily News ABC News It's officially over: Madonna and Guy Ritchie are divorcing New York Daily News - 3 hours ago BY LEO STANDORA Madonna's marriage to Guy Ritchie really is kaput , her rep told the Daily News on Wednesday. "Madonna and Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after 7 l/2 years of marrige," Liz Rosenberg said in a statement. Video: AP Exclusive: Madonna, Guy Ritchie to Divorce AssociatedPress It's Official: Madonna And Guy Ritchie To Divorce MTV.com BBC News - The Associated Press - The Gossip Girls - Just Jared all 1,632 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:56:56 GMT Migraine-hit Janet Jackson to resume US tour - Reuters CTV.ca Migraine-hit Janet Jackson to resume US tour Reuters - 55 minutes ago By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A rare form of migraine forced Janet Jackson to cancel several dates on her Rock Witchu concert tour but she planned to return to the stage on Wednesday in Washington, DC, her manager said. Jackson was laid low by migraines BBC News Janet Jackson: She's Baaaaack* Washington Post Blogs The Associated Press - eFluxMedia - FOXNews - Access Hollywood all 846 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:02:47 GMT Jerry Jones exposed as gutless by Goodell's ruling - FOXSports.com TSN.ca Jerry Jones exposed as gutless by Goodell's ruling FOXSports.com - 1 hour ago by Ian O'Connor Ian O'Connor is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry," which Kirkus Reviews calls an "exemplary sports history. Video: Dallas' Adam Jones Suspended Again AssociatedPress Give Cowboys credit for not counting on Adam 'Pacman' Jones too much Dallas Morning News Los Angeles Times - New York Times - Fort Worth Star Telegram - Detroit Free Press all 1,080 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:52:30 GMT Hurricane Omar gains strength and nears Puerto Rico - Reuters BBC News Hurricane Omar gains strength and nears Puerto Rico Reuters - 1 hour ago By John Marino SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Hurricane Omar strengthened on Wednesday as it bore down on Puerto Rico and the small islands of the northeastern Caribbean, and could be a "major" storm by the time it reaches them, US forecasters said. Omar on the Move. Paloma Next? Washington Post Blogs Hurricane Omar heads for US Caribbean islands The Associated Press BBC News - United Press International - USA Today - NBC 29 News all 2,556 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:12:36 GMT AMR Plan to Buy 787s Will Update Fleet, Bolster Boeing Program - Bloomberg KING5.com AMR Plan to Buy 787s Will Update Fleet, Bolster Boeing Program Bloomberg - 34 minutes ago By Susanna Ray and Mary Schlangenstein Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- AMR Corp.'s American Airlines said it may buy as many as 100 Boeing Co. AMR overcomes fuel costs to squeeze out small profit MarketWatch AMR 3Q Net Down 74%, To Buy Up To 100 Dreamliners CNNMoney.com Bizjournals.com - International Herald Tribune - Reuters - Flight International all 186 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:24:10 GMT Obama’s spending how much on ads? - Christian Science Monitor Times Online Obama’s spending how much on ads? Christian Science Monitor - 1 hour ago By Jimmy Orr | 10.15.08 It’s been a week of non-surprises thus far. Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones has been suspended - again. McCain calls for 'voter fraud' inquiry Los Angeles Times A stolen election? Washington Times New York Times - Talk Radio News Service - Boston Globe - Seattle Times all 859 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:03:33 GMT Polls: McCain forced to play defense in some red states - CNN Telegraph.co.uk Polls: McCain forced to play defense in some red states CNN - 1 hour ago HEMPSTEAD, New York -- New polls out Wednesday in some crucial states that could decide the race for the White House suggest Sen. John McCain is having to defend himself in areas that once were reliably Republican. Union sues over policy banning political material at polling places DetNews.com Pollsters say odds of McCain winning election 'incredibly remote' guardian.co.uk Boston Globe - New York Magazine - San Francisco Chronicle - AFP all 989 news articles Publ.Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:34:00 GMT RSS to Blog Add RSS Feeds to My Website

PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts, Websites, and more...

Adsense websites

The Rise of Multinational Virtual Corporations

The virtual corporation is the emerging organisational form, which best... Read More

Is ECommerce Right for Our Business?

If your business features products or services for sale, undoubtedly... Read More

The Essential Christmas Web-store Makeover

Ten great tips to turn online holiday shoppers into eager... Read More

Say Something Worth Talking About

I recently published a short e-book called 'One Thing I... Read More

Intranet Portals ? Collaboration through Team Rooms

Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply... Read More

E-Commerce Is Back On The Fast Track

How much holiday shopping did you do on-line this year?... Read More

Selling From Your Website

Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More

Why Arent People Buying From Your Ecommerce Website?

Your stock is tempting, your prices right - your ecommerce... Read More

Ten Reasons Why Online Surveys Are The Future of Marketing

Customers are tough cookies. They're extremely media aware and increasingly... Read More

Shopping Cart Usability

Usable Shopping Carts Increase SalesE-commerce has been around since 1993... Read More

Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace ? Part II

Selecting the right emarketplaceAlthough, IT spending has been staying flat... Read More

Something new in e-commerce: the Echo System Build

How four partners build and manage an exclusive art posters... Read More

The Census and the E-Commerce Wave

Understanding business and product sales can sometimes put me in... Read More

The Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting E-commerce Errors

While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, the... Read More

The Art of Being Human

This isn't the first time I have written about the... Read More

Paypal Primer

To conduct business on the Internet, whether informal, one-time only... Read More

Set Yourself Apart From The Ordinary

I have written at length about the need to anticipate... Read More

Shopping from Your Cell Phone with Froogle Wireless

Many surfers already know about Froogle, Google's shopping portal that... Read More

Choosing An Internet Merchant Account

Surf to Google and perform a search on "Internet Merchant... Read More

Distinguishing Features of E-Commerce

E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in... Read More

How Merchant Accounts Can Save You Money

We all know that accepting credit cards is the key... Read More

Pitfalls of Doing Big International Brokerage Business Online

Nothing has helped international brokerage business more than the internet:... Read More

Are You Making These E-Commerce Excuses? (part 2)

Last time, we started to take a look at the... Read More

Saving Money On Your E-commerce Site

After building and transferring many e-commerce sites it still amazes... Read More

How To Start An Internet Business ? Site Layout

The fourth step of how to start an Internet business... Read More