There are online options for everything these days, from grocery
shopping to buying a car. A recent survey notes that more than 31% of
Internet users now make purchases online. Knowing this, you may want to
consider an e-commerce component to your Internet presence, so you can
conduct business directly.
E-commerce can mean a number of different things. It can mean something
as simple as listing all of your products and pricing, and supplying an
online form that customers can print out and mail in, or a phone number
that they can use to call in orders. Usually, however, it involves
actually completing transactions online. Secure online transactions allow
you to complete the entire sales cycle on the Internet, enabling your
customers to make purchases 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
How E-commmerce Usually Works (the Process)
Orders are accepted and processed online while the customer waits.
Then, software charges the credit card and deposits the money into your
business bank account. A copy of the order is then e-mailed to your
fulfillment company or warehouse, where they ship the order the next
day.
Accepting Credit
It is very important to accept credit cards online if you plan to do
business on the Net. If you can't, you could lose up to 60% of your
potential business. You need to make it easy for customers to order. You
stand to lose them if they have to get off the Web to call you, or write a
check and fill out an order form. Credit cards will also give you a
measure of credibility because your business will not seem like a basement
operation.
How Security Works
The consumer lands on your Web site. From there, he or she decides to
purchase something, and is moved to the online transaction server, where
all personal information is encrypted (coded). Once the order has been
placed, the information moves through a private gateway to a Processing
Network, where the issuing and acquiring banks complete or deny the
transaction. This can take place in under seven seconds! Some businesses
even save their customers time by storing names, billing addresses,
shipping addresses and credit-card information on their secure
servers.
Secured Electronic Transaction (SET) provides encrypted communications
for credit-card payments in a three-way transaction between the merchant,
the cardholder and the bank. Visa and MasterCard developed SET in an
attempt to create a standard protocol for securing online credit-card
payments via the Internet. Credit-card data and a digital certificate are
stored in a plug-in (a downloadable software module) to the user's Web
browser. A SET-enabled merchant server receives the order and then passes
encrypted payment information to the bank. The merchant receives approval
electronically.
Is There a Market for My Business on the Internet?
Some businesses are more "e-commerce ready" than others. If you sell
products from a catalog to users who have computers, Internet marketing
can be a logical extension of your existing sales efforts. It can also
help you reach prospects who are looking for businesses like yours,
prospects you might never find on your own.
How Much Can I Afford to Invest in E-Commerce?
The best way to answer this question is to estimate what you'd spend to
grow your business without it. Would you hire a sales representative?
Would you spend more on advertising or direct mail? And would an
e-commerce Web site reduce the cost of selling to existing customers? What
you can and want to afford, in money as well as time, is proportionate to
the benefits you see to your revenues.
Placing a site on the Web is the first big step in profiting from
e-commerce. Following through with customers and providing excellent
service is just as important.
|
What's the Hold-Up?
- 57% of small businesses don't think that the Internet is well suited to selling their wares
- 31% are put off by the upfront costs of site development
- 27% cite the lack of in-house IT support
- 14% are worried about security issues
Statistics supplied by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, and Inc. Magazine
|
|
|
