eCommerce:Sales and Marketing

Lead Facilitator - Dan Bond

Sponsored jointly by Downtown Delaware, the Delaware Emerging Technology Center, 

Delaware State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship

December 5-7, 2011

Outline of Topics

•Overview of eCommerce

•Website Design & Development

•Search Engine Marketing & Optimization

•Legal Issues

•Social Media

•On-line & Off-line Marketing•Shopping Carts/Shipping/Credit Cards•Inventory Management

The Most Important Parts:

• Finding your niche

• SEM & SEO

• Continually expanding your market with Social Networking and other tools

What is eCommerce?

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling products or services over the Internet.

What is eMarketing?

Internet marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

Business to Business eCommerce

Business to Consumer eCommerce

"Click & Mortar" Business Model

 

Total retail eCommerce sales were $185 billion over the past year & are growing at

twice the rate of other retail sales.

Unique Benefits of eCommerce

Low startup cost

Unlimited market size

Much greater freedom of location 

Portability of business

Anonimity

24-7 Sales

Many successful eCommerce businesses started here.

The eCommerce Market ... as soon as FedEx gets there.

As long as there is high-speed internet and package delivery service available...

Relocating - Take it with you.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night ...            ...keeps the orders from coming in.

Key Drivers of eCommerce

• Internet & World Wide Web

• Low cost PCs & mobile devices

• Search engines

• Pay per click advertising

• High speed internet services

• Secure Internet credit card use

• Digital photography & video

• Social media

• Growth of niche marketing

Source: http://blog.templatemonster.com/2010/09/08/history-of-ecommerce-timeline-infographic/

Niche Marketing

Finding Your Niche

• Identify an interest -- ideally one related to yourself, your experiences, your talents, your location, etc.

• Identify a niche with sufficient market demand.

• Discard niches where there is already too much competition.

• Make sure that the niche can become a profitable business.

Profit Margins

• Wholesale price• Location of supplier• Price points• Price competition• Information value added• Weight to value ratio • Shelf life• Market trends• Supply constraints

How narrow is your niche?

Tools for Researching Niches

Google Search Results

Google Product SearchGoogle Trends

 Google Alerts

 eBay Groups

Website Shopping Cart

Equipment

Products

Payment System

Delivery Services

Photography

Information Management System

Accounting System

Product Sourcing

Drop Shipping

The Good:

• You don't invest in inventory.

The Bad:

• You have no buying power.• Competition will drive down your margins.• Drop ship wholesales do not provide products for

niche markets.

The Ugly:

• You can work a lot, sell a lot and make no money.

If you must try drop shipping take a look at:

New York International Gift Fair

Equipment, Software, Communications

   

Domain Names

www.ladybug-shop.comwww.turtle-treasures.comwww.mispillion.com

Domain Name Selection

• Short

• Memorable

• Easy to spell

• Discribes your business or product

• Contains key words

• Has best name extension possible

.com.net.org.edu.gov.mil

Top Level Domain Names

Domain Name Selection Aids

     

Domain Name Registration

             

Websites

Website Options

Rent it

Build it yourself

Have it built for you

Rent Your Website

Build Your Website Yourself

Website Development Companies

Website Hosting

Usually best to have your website built and hosted by the same company

Make sure that they have on-site supervision 24-7

Make sure they have good telephone technical support service 

Explore their up-grade potential 

Choosing a Shopping Cart

• Product capacity• Photo capacity• Inventory tracking• Affiliate program links• Discounting & customer loyalty programs• Search-engine friendliness• Shipping Options• Payment Processing Options• Report Generation • Technical Considerations• Support• Cost

Payment Options 

Credit Card Processing

PCI DSS Payment Card Industry Data Security

StandardBe informed. Got to:

www.pcisecuritystandards.org

Failure to understand the PCI compliance standards could result in higher merchant account fees and fines from the credit card issuers.

What to Secure:

As a small merchant, you are responsible for protecting cardholder data at the point of sale, and as it flows into the payment system. The best step you can take is to not store any cardholder data. You also need to protect:

• Card readers

• Point of sale systems

• Store networks & wireless access routers

• Payment card data storage and transmission

• Payment card data stored in paper-based records

Essential Photo Euipment

Carriers

SKU

WARNING!

Internet sales are not always tax free.

There are over 11,000 sales tax jurisdictions in the United States.

Ecommerce merchants located in a state without a sales tax do not have to collect sales tax unless they have taken some action to create a physical presence in another state.

"If you build it, they will come."

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

Comparison of SEM & SEO

SEO You Can Do Yourself

Use your keywords as much as possible.

Have good, well written content.

Establish back links from popular websites.

Maintain a blog.

Use Social Media to promote your site.

Social Media

Avoid the Hard Sale

WARNING!

SOCIAL MEDIA TAKES TIME & CONSTANT ATTENTION.

Alexa.com

Sources of eCommerce Information

www.practicalecommerce.com

www.business.gov

Dan Bond

302-228-6590 (cell)

Daniel.L.Bond@gmail.com