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E-Commerce and Online Sales – On The Rise
By M2 | May 11, 2006
The Internet offers exciting potential for developing new sales potential for your companies products and/or services. Business owners are quickly recognizing the fact that their websites have the potential to reach a greater number of consumers than all other forms of traditional brick-and-mortar sales outlets.
This is exciting stuff! Because of today’s technology it is no longer necessary to spend large sums of money in order to develop a full fledge storefront – albeit, not a “traditional storefront.”
Brick-and-mortar establishments have recognized the need to adopt their sales mentality to include online outlets for their products and services. Some of the largest organizations have developed extensive online sales initiatives to supplement their traditional over-the-counter sales. Quickly, however, many of these big vendors realized that selling online allows for a much wider sales window (e.g. where else can I buy ink cartridges at 3:00 AM?), lower overhead (no mortgage payment), with greater return on investment.
Here are some interesting facts:
It has been demonstrated that Between 1998 and 2000, online shopping GREW A TREMENDOUS 580%. Forrester Research (the online arm of the National Retail Federation) reported growth from $7.8 billion US in 1998 to $45 billion US in 2000 – and it is still growing rapidly today. Current research shows that online retail sales grew by nearly 24% in 2004 and by another 22% in 2005.
The exciting thing about all of this is the reality that small businesses can also use online sales to supplement their traditional product distribution. As I mention above, the technology of the Internet allows for some pretty amazing things. One result is that the potential for selling products in a highly efficient and effective manner is well within the reach of the average business owner.
Over the next month or so I will be writing several articles about online sales and the necessary steps that are required to get a hi-performance E-commerce site up and running. I will be covering the ins-and-outs of developing an online E-commerce pressence from start to finish, and will be sharing some helpful information. From the initial planning, to Secure Certificates (SSL), to the shopping cart system and hosting – we will definitely have a good time of it.
Stay tuned for a good read!
Topics: Business, E-Commerce, Technology | No Comments »
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