Practical eCommerce have created a great free guide for online merchants who are starting their own business and want to extend the sphere of influence and enlarge the number of customers – “Getting Started in eCommerce – An overview to selling products online”. The guide is a powerful resource that provides general marketing tips, overviews of selling products online, describes the character of ecommerce site, payment processing, merchandising, marketplaces and other selling channels, email marketing and strategies, the work of search engines and more.

At first glance, the creation of an ecommerce site, such as Marysbikeshop.com, may seem complicated. You’ll have to locate a company to host your website and another company to process your customers’ credit card payments. You’ll have to decide how the site will actually look, how the products will be displayed and how they will be shipped once a customer purchases them. You’ll have to enact steps to prevent the acceptance of stolen credit card numbers and steps to prevent thieves from stealing your customers’ legitimate credit card numbers. You’ll also have to develop systems to respond to queries quickly and efficiently. And you’ll need to market your website: You’ll want to make certain the major search engines can locate your site (so prospective customers who search for your products can find them), and you’ll likely want to email your past customers when you’ve acquired new products or services.

In spite of this complexity, thousands of entrepreneurs have established successful ecommerce businesses without any related experience. And with Getting Started in eCommerce, we hope to help you launch an ecommerce business, too.

Follow this link to read the Guide.

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Just a couple of words about Practical eCommerce. It was launched in July 2005 by Kerry and Joy Murdock in Grand Junction, Colorado, USA. Its mission from the start has been to provide down-to-earth articles and advice to help smaller businesses succeed online. This editorial content was originally delivered primarily through a monthly, printed magazine, but it now (2009) includes this website, three podcasts, two email newsletters, but no printed magazine.