| Businesses, which are still sitting on | | | | provides with similar service. |
| sidelines and not doing business on the | | | | |
| Internet, should think seriously about their | | | | Get an online presence |
| position! If you are one of them, chances are | | | | |
| there, that you have to pay dearly for your | | | | What should be your next step once you have |
| indecision as you might lose significant | | | | all your products transformed into e-catalog? |
| market share to your more proactive | | | | Naturally, you need to have an online |
| competitors in a very short period of time. | | | | presence to sell the products. There are |
| | | | number of options how to do this. |
| Apart from the fact that e-commerce is | | | | |
| growing at the rate of more than 25 percent a | | | | Become a member of an e-marketplace |
| year, the use of online features can bring | | | | |
| efficiency to virtually every aspect of | | | | This could be a large geography oriented |
| business process, be it supply chain | | | | fairly large horizontal market or a vertical |
| management or customer support management. | | | | e-marketplace specific to your industry. The |
| | | | membership fees are in most of the cases not |
| But, how can you build an e-commerce business | | | | so expensive. But many of them charge some |
| and take advantages of all these great | | | | percentage on your transactions, usually, |
| possibilities? After all, you are pretty sure | | | | from 1 to 3 percent. If you expect big sales |
| that anything to do with new technology is | | | | volume, you may think this might not be the |
| complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. | | | | best choice for you. However, if you get new |
| | | | customers, thanks to your mere presence in an |
| Believe it or not, this is just a | | | | e-marketplace, the percentage that you have |
| misconception that most business owners have | | | | to pay on the transaction you should consider |
| about the Internet technology. The truth is - | | | | as customer acquiring cost. Under any |
| in order to run a business online and reap | | | | circumstances, it is good to become a member |
| profits, like any new effort, you need to do | | | | of at least one e-marketplace as you |
| a little homework, have patience and | | | | -automatically get exposed to thousands of |
| determination, and get going. | | | | new prospective customers. |
| | | | |
| Take the following steps seriously and in no | | | | Build a website |
| time you will be able to embrace fascinating | | | | |
| world of online business. | | | | There are several ways you can construct an |
| | | | e-commerce site to your need. |
| Take your products online | | | | |
| | | | You can build a website in house by employing |
| Getting your product online does not simply | | | | developers or you can hire a web development |
| mean - having a nice picture and a product | | | | company to do this for you. The advantage is |
| narration to go with it. Effective use of the | | | | you can have a website with the look, feel |
| Internet is based on standards. Standards, as | | | | and functionality according to your given |
| you know, are created to facilitate common | | | | specification. |
| use of a technology. If you ever imported or | | | | |
| exported a product or service, or if you | | | | However, both of these methods could be way |
| registered your product with some kind of | | | | costly for a small business. Average cost of |
| authorities ever; you certainly know that | | | | building an e-commerce website runs starting |
| each product falls under certain subcategory | | | | from US$ 600 plus hosting and maintenance |
| according to the classification system that | | | | charges for a miniscule site with limited |
| you encountered. Internet is the same thing. | | | | features to several hundred thousand US |
| Since the emergence of Internet, several | | | | Dollars for a powerful e-commerce website. |
| classification systems have been developed. | | | | |
| | | | Another option that you have as a small |
| If you think long term and would like to use | | | | business is to build an e-commerce site from |
| same catalog with multiple e-marketplaces, | | | | prefabricated templates. While this is |
| you should adopt one of the prevailing | | | | affordable and easy, you considerably lose |
| classification system in the Internet. The | | | | flexibility and customization possibilities |
| best online catalog classification available | | | | in comparison to building a site from |
| from my point of view is UNSPSC. For one | | | | scratch. |
| thing, many prominent e-marketplaces adopted | | | | |
| this particular system, which allows you to | | | | Build a web store |
| post your products on multiple e-procurement | | | | |
| systems and e-marketplaces. | | | | All these above mentioned cases do not allow |
| | | | you to have the potentials and advantages |
| How do you do this? I would suggest you to | | | | that come with an e-business website |
| become a member of one of the e-marketplaces, | | | | integrated with a B2B exchange. Which means, |
| where you can aggregate your products using | | | | whether you are a business to consumer |
| some kind of simple wizards or forms. | | | | company with occasional sales to businesses |
| E-marketplaces based on Commerce One's the | | | | or you are a pure play B2B company, a Web |
| largest B2B e-marketplace enabler, have this | | | | Store merged into an e-marketplace is what |
| facility. | | | | you need. |
| | | | |
| Our own Rusbiz e-catalog system, which is | | | | A web store from a B2B exchange gives you the |
| also based on UNSPSC, also allows you to | | | | best of both worlds. You are having a |
| integrate your products using a very simple | | | | professional e-commerce site which |
| but sophisticated form. If you do not have | | | | incorporates all the features that an |
| time to do it by your own, you can use the | | | | e-marketplace has to offer. And you build a |
| service of a B2B exchange. Rusbiz also | | | | site from simple and easy to edit templates. |