E-Commerce Basics
By Paula Constantino, Women's Support TEAM
As women, we tend to be collaborative and enjoy sharing what we know and love with other women. The Internet provides a ready vehicle to do this with minimal investment of time and money, but with the potential for significant rewards—namely, via a ebsite that really works for you and your business.
All you need is a Web site with e-commerce capability, enabling you to harness the power of the Internet and offer information about what you know and love, all delivered in the form of a downloadable product.
A downloadable product can be any type of digital information file—written, audio, video, or any combination of these media. For example, a business “toolkit” can be a written workbook with audio. A customer simply clicks on an Internet link that provides access to the specific digital content file(s) purchased. These links can take the place of a printed book (e-book), CD (downloadable audio), DVD (downloadable video), and so on.
The key requirement is that your web site have that most basic e-commerce solution—a “shopping cart.” If you have every purchased anything online, you have most likely used this online application. You simply select whatever you want to buy and put it in your virtual shopping cart, essentially the same as in a brick-and-mortar store, then proceed to the checkout and pay.
Numerous shopping-cart solutions are available, with various options. Regardless of the nature of your business, you can benefit by delivering digital products on your web site because they provide your potential customers with information about what you have to offer.
Internet technology now enables you to create these digital products with relative ease. You can upload any written material to the Internet as a digital product by saving the content as a PDF file, for example, and upload audio material by saving it as an MP3 file. You can then upload these files to your shopping cart for automated purchase and downloading by customers. It is a straightforward process once you understand the basics.
The beauty of this is that you only have to create and set up a digital product once, and then your shopping cart delivers that product to customers automatically, without further action on your part (no physical inventory—just digital files).
Once you (or someone on your behalf) has entered the proper product data into your online shopping-cart program, the shopping cart makes all the necessary calculations for all subsequent online transactions. This e-commerce solution usually also requires that you set up a merchant account and gateway or similar solution such as PayPal to facilitate credit card or other payments. Transaction data may even be compatible for automatic download to your accounting program.
With most shopping carts, your customers receive automated e-mail messages, known as “autoresponders,” confirming their purchases. The shopping cart can also provide customers with the Web site link(s) they need to purchase more digital products. Make certain your shopping cart includes this option for downloadable files.
In addition to downloadable product capability and automated e-mail, your shopping cart may also have other features, including newsletters (an excellent marketing tool), custom forms (great for feedback), affiliate programs (so others promote your Web site), and so forth. You would be amazed at what a top-notch shopping-cart application offers.
Now you have a brief overview of how you can maximize your Web site by packaging your knowledge and expertise and delivering online products through the effective use of e-commerce solutions. Now is the time for you to package yourself by harnessing the power of the Internet…for more success with less stress!
Paula Constantino has created her own Web site—www.WomensSupportTEAM.com—a one-stop resource that helps women achieve more success in life with less stress, including a suite of digital products. She has leveraged her experience as an in-house attorney for a high-tech company with her passion to help other women succeed, encouraging them to package their knowledge and expertise and make it available to other women on the Internet. Contact Paula at paula@w-s-team.com.