Expansion used to be a costly “next step” in many businesses. However, with the advent of e-commerce, you now have the option of extending your brick-and-mortar business on the Internet without having to spend as much as a traditional expansion to more locations. By expanding online, you have the capacity to gain access to global customers, offer more products with little inventory costs, and advertise to online customers your shop location.
First, register a domain name. In choosing a domain name, it may be useful to use the name of the company you already have to take full advantage of any brand loyalty and awareness you’ve already cultivated. If the domain name you want is already being used by another company, find alternative names that may still suit the identity of your business.
Then, find hosting services for your websites. Be sure to avoid webhosts that offer very minimal features designed to meet only the demands of personal pages. As such, find a webhost that caters specifically to e-business websites, thus offering enough memory space on the server, e-mail aliases, and sufficient security systems and protocols to protect your customers’ data.
Check big companies that already provide you your Internet services. Affinity Internet, Yahoo! Online, and Network Solutions are big companies that already have hosting packages for small and medium-sized businesses.
The next thing to worry about is designing your website. Programs with user-friendly interfaces like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, and Freeway already let you choose templates or make it easier for you to start from scratch. Otherwise, enlist the help of a web designer. In both options, it’s important to keep in mind that the design must always be reflective of your brand’s identity.
Find a shopping-cart service that will facilitate the way your customers place their orders online. Shopping carts calculate shipping costs and sales taxes, and automatically send a copy of the customer order to you and an order confirmation email to your customer. Major providers of this service are GoEcart, 1Shoppingcart, and ShopSite.
It is important to remember that people value their privacy very highly. Draft a privacy policy, and employ the services of a secure server on which to carry out your transactions. eCom Resource Center lists some important tips in drafting that privacy policy. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology already encrypts and authenticates information transferred through secure channels. VeriSign, Comodo, and GoDaddy offer SSL certificates.
Moreover, offer sufficient customer service and after-sales support, as well as clear guidelines regarding customer returns to any of your offline retail stores.
Lastly, offer your customers flexible payment methods. Add an additional online merchant account on your existing business bank account. Through this method, you’ll be able to accept online credit payments, and will only have to setup a gateway account to process these payments.
Obviously, an online business will need offline operations. Have a plan regarding inventory and warehousing, packaging, and distribution. Determine who will be in charge and which channels will be used in this matter.
Your site is up and hosted, and it’s capable of handling e-business. The next important thing to do now is to promote your website through the other offline efforts of marketing and advertising your brand. Display your website’s url prominently on all your publicity materials.

Tags: eCommerce, Internet Marketing, Web Store