E-Commerce: Intro
A brief guide to the art of selling things on the web.
What Is It?
E-commerce is just a name for selling stuff on the web. It's a lot like selling stuff in the real world. Or would be if the real world had teleporters that allowed a large proportion of the global population to beam themselves around the world in search of illusive products.
You only need to look at the likes of ECommerce-Guide or the E-Commerce Times to read the continuing cycle of stories about which is the latest area of retail in the real world to have been out-performed by the explosive growth of online sales.
Why? Simply because the web is busier than the busiest high street, shopping mall or market place on the planet. And the more useful the web gets, the more people need and want to use it. And the more people use it, the more incentive there is to provide useful services.
Without pesky details like geography getting in the way, anyone can use the net to buy pretty much anything from anywhere on the planet.
So, selling on the web means being able to sell more thing to more people in more places. Potentially.
Just putting up a website is no guarantee that anyone will visit it. Or, if they do, that they'll buy anything from it. The web does not feed a constant stream of automatic consumers into your shop. The web, despite the hype, is really just made of people. OK, there are bits of wire and computer software involved, but it's still driven by real human beings.
Next...
E-Commerce: Getting Found