eCommerce Resources
Background
You hear a lot about eCommerce, but what does it really mean? Short for Electronic Commerce, it refers to the buying and selling of goods and services online. When people think of finding ways to earn money online, they often think of an online store, which is a form of eCommerce.
Many online stores that sell products do not warehouse the products themselves, but use drop shipping instead. This means the retailer (you) transfers customer orders and shipping directly to the manufacturer or wholesaler who ships the products to the customer. Proceed with caution if you take this approach and investigate your drop shipper very well through online research.
If you sell goods and services online, you need a website for the store and software for purchasing products and making the transaction, often referred to as the shopping cart. Resources for accomplishing these goals are listed below.
eCommerce Resources
Automate Sales
Shopping cart software that’s quick to set up and that works. This shopping cart is recommended by the gurus of Internet business, Internet Business Mastery. That’s a good enough recommendation for us.
E-commerce for Everyone (E4E)
This company will provide you with a unique storefront to have your own Amazon online store, for a monthly subscription. Although Amazon provides its affiliates with a storefront for free, E4E is more of a turnkey solution.
E-junkie
This is an inexpensive monthly subscription service that allows you to sell downloads or tangible goods from your website.
How to Create An eCommerce Website
Download this guide from VeriSign about how to start and secure an eCommerce site.
Magento
Magento is often considered the best open source eCommerce platform around. Open source means the underlying code is available to all and that a download of the software is free. The Magento software provides site management, product browsing, checkout, mobile commerce, payment, customer accounts and shipping.
Online Image
Online image offers a free eCommerce course that covers the seven basic components of getting started in eCommerce.
ProStores
ProStores is a one-stop solution for setting up a professional eCommerce site. It provides a way for you to set up and design a storefront, accept online payments, handle online marketing, and built-in inventory and order management tools. The service charges a monthly fee and .5% fee on every transaction.
Site Build It
Site Build It is an amazing all-in-one site building, hosting and marketing system. It’s flexible enough to use for many different types of sites and eCommerce is definitely one of them. Clicking this link will take you to their eCommerce page with lots of examples.
Taming The Beast
You’ll find lots of eCommerce articles and tutorials for free on this site.
Volusion
An all-in-one solution for opening an online store with a free 14-day trial.
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions
Yahoo Merchant Solutions is a turnkey solution for eCommerce. For a monthly fee, it offers a quick way to get up and running.
Zen Cart
A free, eCommerce open source shopping cart application. This is a well-known and popular product that is reputed to be easier to use than OS Commerce.
Zlio
This site allows you to create an online store for free. Your store stocks products from Zlio’s affiliate merchants. Pros: You can get a store up and running for free. Cons: You make less money than if you were an affiliate at your own site as Zlio takes a cut of your affiliate and AdSense commissions.
Related Articles:
eCommerce Basics
eCommerce In Action
