Basic Guide to E-Commerce (Doing Business Over the Internet/Web)
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting,
LLC.
Table of Contents
Basics of E-Commerce (including assessments to see if your business is ready)
One Basic Overview of E-Commerce
Overviews About Getting Started
Getting a Computer, Connecting to the Internet, and Developing a Web Page
Getting a Computer for Your Business
(learning about them, buying one, maintaining it, etc.)
Getting Connected to the Internet and
Web (learning about them, get an ISP, etc.)
Building, Promoting and Managing Your
Website
Computer and Network Security for Your Computer (including usage
policies, etc.)
Etiquette of Communicating Online
Understanding Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Understanding Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI)
Building and Managing a Virtual Team
Product Development
What's Involved in Designing and Managing
a Product?
Product Creation and Development (ideas,
market research, competitive analysis, etc.)
Developing Your Online Store, Online Transactions, etc.
Store Basics
Processing Online Credit Card Transactions
With Customers
Online Marketing and Monetizing Your Website
Online Marketing, Advertising and Promotions, and Sales and Service
General Resources With More Help for You
Telecommunications
Laws
General Resources
Also consider
Related Library Topics
Learn More in the Library's Blogs Related to This Topic
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog's page to see various posts. Also see the section "Recent Blog Posts" in the sidebar of the blog or click on "next" near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Library's
Customer Service Blog
Library's
Marketing Blog
Library's
Social Enterprise Blog
Introduction and Basic Overview of E-Commerce
The Free Management Library will help you address the major considerations in setting up an e-commerce business. The considerations are as follows.
E-Commerce is Like Any Other Business, Except ...
Developing a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business. You should do some basic business planning. After all, you need a product. You may need funding to get your business going. You need customers. You need to market products to your customers. You need strong customer service. You need to manage purchases by customers, finances, staff and other resources.
Not All Products Are Very Compatible to Sales Over the Internet
But there are some features unique to e-commerce. Not all products are real compatible to be sold over the Internet. For example, they may require a lot of face-to-face selling. They may cost a lot to ship (a primary practice in e-commerce is that customers buy products, and you ship the products to them). You need to make sure that, because your product may be advertised to the world, that you remain in control of your ideas, or "intellectual property".
You Need an Online "Store"
Basically, you need an "online store" to be an "e-tailer". (Don't fret. You may be able to outsource, or hire, a current store to work with you.) Your store will need a "merchant" account, or the ability to process your customers' credit card transactions over the Internet. This includes needing a "secure server", or that your online store be on a computer system that ensures that customers' credit card numbers cannot readily be read by people who are not supposed to read these numbers. You'll probably need some kind of online order form that customers can complete, in order to purchase your products. You may even want your the processing of customers' order to include processing the customers' credit card numbers right away while they're still online and connected to your Website.
Let's read on to understand the very basics of e-commerce.
Obviously, You Need a Website
You need to design and promote a Website. You'll need access to expertise that can regularly design and maintain this Website for you -- and it will require ongoing attention. Fortunately, there is a great deal of free information available to help you with this design and promotion.
Overviews About Getting Started (including assessments for your business)
Basics
How to Build an Online Business
7 Tips for Effective E-commerce
The Nuts
and Bolts of Business-to-Business E-Commerce
10 Questions to Ask When
Creating an Online Store
eCommerce
101: Getting Started
Is E-Commerce Really Such a Breakthrough?
Myths and Realities of a Successful eCommerce Business
Top Ten E-Commerce Myths
Assessing if Your Business is Ready for E-Commerce
Ready for Commerce?
E-Commerce Readiness Self-Assessment
Is YOUR Business
Ready for Ecommerce?
Getting Started
About.com "One-Stop Workbench"
Starting
Out in E-Commerce (extensive, well organized set of useful links)
Ecommerce
Guidebook
Quick Start Guide to Online Business
Some "Advanced" Topics
Getting A Computer System for Your Business
You'll need a computer system to manage information for your
business. The size of the system depends on how much you want
to do with it. However, today's desktop personal computers (especially
if they're configured as part of a client-server system) can handle
many of the demands of e-commerce. (Note that you may need a different
computer system to actually host your Website, conduct financial
transactions with customers, etc.)
Planning
and Buying a Small Computer System (including information for
nonprofits)
Software
for Small Computer Systems (including general and nonprofit-specific
information)
Learning
About Small Computer Systems
Basic,
Technical Support and Maintenance of Small Computer Systems
Computer
and Network Security
Getting Connected to the Internet
Internet
(including information for nonprofits)
Intranets
(Computer Networks Internal to the Organization)
Getting
Connected to the Internet
Building, Promoting and Managing Your Website
Building, Managing and Promoting Your Website (including for disabilities & various browsers)
Computer and Network Security
Computer
and Network Security (including worms, viruses, hoaxes and spam)
Polices
about Using Computers and Networks
Etiquette in Online Communications
Netiquette - Techniques and styles of writing e-mail messages
Understanding Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
EDI appears to be the current standard format used by businesses
to exchange documents between computers. The following links will
give you a basic understanding of EDI.
What
is EDI?
Developing and Managing a Virtual Team
If you are conducting business over the Internet, it's not
unlikely that you'll use the Internet for most, if not all, of
your communications with employees. You are also likely to use
the Internet to communicate with collaborating organizations,
suppliers, etc. You'll benefit from reading about virtual teams,
or groups of people working together primarily by using the Internet
for means of communications.
Virtual
Teams
What's Involved in Designing and Managing a Product?
It will benefit the reader to have some basic sense of what's
involved in developing and managing a product or service. Read
the section
Product
and Service Development
(Optional Reading)
It's common for businesses to develop a business plan whenever
they start a major new venture, for example, a new organization,
product line, etc. You might review the basics of business planning.
These basics will include information needed in the following
sections, including product creation, marketing, advertising and
promoting, and sales and service, as well. See
Business
Planning
Product Creation and Development
The Library topic Product and Service Management provides a
complete overview of how to develop an idea into a product, how
to build and regularly produce that product and how to advertise,
promote and sell the product. See the following sections in that
topic:
Product
Idea
(Are
You Planning a New Business Around Your New Idea?)
Product
Evaluation -- Can Your Idea Become a Viable Product or Service?
Product
Development -- Building Your Product or Service
Product
Production -- Ongoing Building of Products or Services
Online Stores -- Basics
Now you're read to begin selling your product over the Internet. The following
links will help you set up your "virtual store" to begin transactions
with customers.
Shopping Cart - Building
an Ecommerce Plan
Why
Your Eommerce Store Needs a Business Plan
(There will be more about online marketing, advertising and sales, later on below.)
Online Credit Card Processing
The ability to process credit card orders over the Internet
is a major convenience to customers -- if they believe their credit
card numbers will remain private to the transaction.
Videos
of How to Do Online Credit Card Processing
How
Does Onlne Credit Car Processing Work?
You can learn about these services just by looking at some
of the ads from businesses that offer merchant accounts.
Internet
Media Solutions
1-888-MerchantAccounts.com
Online Marketing and Monetizing Your Website
There is a great deal of information in the library about marketing,
advertising and promoting, and sales and service. However, when
these activities are carried out over the Internet, they have
unique features.
Marketing
Advertising
and Promotion
Selling
Online
Customer
Service
Customer
Satisfaction
Ultimate
"Marketing" Tactics - How to Turn Online Traffic into
Money #1 of 4
Ultimate
"Marketing" Tactics - How to Turn Online Traffic into
Money #2 of 4
Ultimate
"Marketing" Tactics - How to Turn Online Traffic into
Money #3 of 4
Ultimate
"Marketing" Tactics - How to Turn Online Traffic into
Money #4 of 4
General Resources With More Information for You
There are an increasing number of online resources about e-commerce.
The following links will help to get you started in finding more
resources.
About.com's Electric Commerce Workbench (many,
well-organized links)
For the Category of E-commerce:
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.