Introduction

E-commerce is a process that refers to the delivery of goods and services via the Internet. The growing popularity of buying and selling online can be attributed to the fact that it saves the time and hassles required for running from one store to the other in search of an item. You can, from the comfort of your home, browse through a wide array of choices for any item you wish to buy and snap at the best deal, whenever the mood strikes, be it the middle of the night.

You can carry out e-commerce through your website. Your website is your online store for showcasing, listing, advertising and providing support for your products and services.

Our Web Windows guide lists the key issues required to plan, develop, and maintain an e-commerce system.

Defining activities for e-commerce

There are several ways by which you can benefit from e-commerce, depending on the products and services you wish to provide and what your business objectives are.

Pre-sales activities

You can use your website as a pre-sales advertising medium to create awareness about your products and services. For example, you may be a publishing company with a global audience for your textbooks on computer applications. You can advertise new titles, or inform about updations in existing ones through email campaigns, ebrochures, enewsletters and other online marketing tools. Compare this with the costs you would incur in pre-sales activities in offline advertising to appreciate how cost-effective e-commerce can be.

Direct sales activities

Though you can sell your products and services online, there are still many goods that require physical delivery to reach customers. There is a vast difference in the approach to direct selling through Internet and selling products and services through sales people. Your sales people can handle all customer queries directly; In case of online selling, you need to clarity on all aspects of sales ranging from providing adequate information on products and services, and handling customer queries through sections such as FAQ (frequently asked questions) sections, to taking care of all aspects of transactions. These can include taking orders, confirming orders, creating invoices, taking payments, making deliveries and providing ways for returns.

Post-sales activities

E-commerce transactions do not end with receiving payments and supplying goods and services to the consumers. For a long term customer relationship, you need to provide after sales services. For this, one way is to provide automated services. For example, your customers can email about their queries and you can send automated mails saying that your sales representatives would get back to you within, say two days time. Then again, you can have a FAQ section for post-sales services also

Monitoring your sales activities

An important part of any post-sales activity is to monitor the response to your products and services. One pointer in this direction is the number of sales you make. Yet, it is also important to know how satisfied your clients are with your services. You can, therefore, have an online feedback form requesting customers to give their feedback, suggestions and comments about their comfort level with not only your products and services but the entire process from providing information, the sales process and to the actual delivery of the product.

The basic requirements for an e-commerce system

Website
The basic tool for any e-commerce activities is a website. The design, layout and concept of a website should effectively synchronize with consumer interaction and also the objectives of the business entity.

Choosing a domain name for your website
Choose the domain name of your website such that it defines your business brand. It would greatly help if the domain name, in some way, reflects the services you provide.

Hosting your website
You can host your website on your own if you have a fast Internet connection and a suitable PC. Otherwise, you can host your website through an Internet service provider (ISP) at nominal costs.

Designing your website
You can ask a website design company to create your website as per your specifications or use readymade software packages or the 'shop' packages available in the market. The disadvantage with using shop packages is that you would not be able to customize your website to your requirement.

Providing security to your website
Provide for adequate transaction security so that people are comfortable buying online. You can also secure your website from unauthorized and unauthenticated users. Also provide for security against hackers. Ensure you have logos like Hacker Safe and VeriSign at strategic places on the website so that the customers know that your site is a safe place to shop.

Planning for contingencies
E-commerce, like any other activity, has its share of risks associated with it. So you must have an alternate plan of action should anything go against expectations. No matter what the circumstances, the show must go on.

Maintaining your website
Consider re-designing your website without changing its signature concepts, at periodic intervals to give it freshness and appeal. Design your website in a manner to accommodate for changes/additions in products and services, and provide for a more satisfying consumer experience.

People involved in e-commerce ventures

A successful e-commerce activity combines the services of many people with varied skill sets to meet business objectives and provide a seamless customer satisfaction experience.

Board level management: An e-commerce activity usually has a board-level management to oversee the entire supply chain management process.

Key position holders or leads: At a lower rung are the people who are assigned key responsibilities for sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management activities.

Marketing and sales people: They are responsible for planning and executing marketing and advertising strategies to promote the website and the products and services offered, provide sales and after sales support and monitor the effectiveness of the e-commerce activity.

Technology experts: These people provide back-end services to run the website smoothly. They need to be well-versed with firewalls and security, servers, programming languages, HTML and XML coding and database technologies.

Web designers: Web designers are necessary as the website has to be updated on regular basis in accordance with changes in technologies, customer feedback and updating products and services.

Customer care executives: These are the people who take care of customer queries once the product or service is sold.

External parties: These include hardware and software providers, domain registrars, customers, suppliers and also, if the need be, marketing and advertising agencies.

Promoting your website

Web Windows believes that to survive and be able to successfully compete in the e-commerce arena, you need to well-versed with the ways of promoting your website to attract potential customers and retain the existing ones. You can promote your website through:

• Print and mass media advertisements: You can advertise your website through print mediums such as newspapers and magazines and also on TV and radio if your target group includes the masses. Obviously we believe that Web Windows print advertising is one of the most effective ways of building traffic, read our section Why Newspaper Advertising?
• Online advertisements: You can place banners, pop-ups and advertisements of your website on other websites providing similar or related services and reciprocate the arrangement by allowing them to advertise their products and services by link through advertisements on yours.
• Online directories: You can list your website in online directories companies such as Yell.com and ThomsonLocal.com.
• Google Adwords/Adsense: These are the sponsored ads you see on the left side of your search results and under the section Google Ads on websites offering similar or related products and services.
• Email campaigns: You can promote your website, products and services to your existing and potential clients through emails.
• SEO practices: You can also use search engine optimization methods, such as the proper use of keywords, in website design for higher rankings in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
• Social networking sites: You can also promote your website through social networking sites and blog writings to drive traffic to your site.

Building and improving relationships through e-commerce

E-commerce provides for many opportunities to improve existing and building new, mutually beneficial business relationships. At every stage of the supply chain management process, from procurement, sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management activities, E-commerce has opened doors for new and cost effective business opportunities, methods for minimizing inventories, means to fulfilling orders quickly and smoothly and providing for improved customer services

E-commerce has also opened avenues for providers and buyers across the globe to meet at what can be termed as, e-marketplaces. These e-markets eliminate barriers between buyers and sellers through an interactive process of bids and offers. Deals can be made on the basis of a match between buyers and sellers based on variables such as costs, volume and the type of services required.