Electronic commerce, usually known as E-commerce or eCommerce, is the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an electronic medium (usually the Internet), without using any paper documents and falls into three categories: business to business (B2B) , business to consumer (B2C) and consumer to consumer (C2C).
It utilises technologies including mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
Selling online can be extremely lucrative as you’ll have worldwide potential business &/or consumer audiences seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
However making your first steps into setting up an eShop can be daunting so it’s vital to choose your provider carefully to ensure your transition into online selling is seamless. Having check lists and essential tools to help you start will avoid problems and the dreaded negative online reviews.
Options you’ll need to consider include:
Payment gateways – whether to just have PayPal, or add credit cards and invoicing
Setting up an online merchant account
Search engine friendly listings
Postage and packing charges
Returns policies
Side-by-side product comparisons
Customer reviews
Social sharing icons
Discount and voucher codes
Order processing reports
