Electronic commerce

Let's discuss e-business and e-commerce. Until recently having an e-business meant having a website and occasionally sending emails to customers as a way to keep them updated. However, in a short time things have changed drastically, nowadays doing business online means having a greater number of options and completely different sales and business models that we didn't have before.

They were not possible a few years ago, but today's technology allows us this great variety of methods to establish our business. We can put our company page on Facebook, on Instagram, we can have a link to other platforms like Twitter or a website. All of this allows us to reach a higher number of customers and find new potential in the market. In the old market we only had to worry about putting our ads in newspapers or magazines, now we have to worry about things like search engine optimization (SEO), data traffic analysis as a whole. Industries and businesses depend on it.

Of course I can understand that the idea of starting an e-business may seem too much for some entrepreneurs, because in this branch of business everything happens very fast and changes quickly. But I'm telling you right now that managing your online business or social media platforms doesn't have to be that complicated. With all the tools that exist today and are at our fingertips, managing our time consciously doesn't have to be time consuming either.

Principles common to all businesses

Running an online business is not that different from running a conventional business, whether it's fully online or a mix of the two, some principles apply to all types of businesses equally:

• You must know what marketing is.

• You must open a legal entity.

• You must use accounting.

• You must pay taxes.

• You must conduct market research to identify your target customers.

Initial Considerations

I advise you not to feel overwhelmed by the idea of starting an online business and all its mysteries. Look at it as an opportunity to expand your entrepreneurial horizon and sell more of your products or services as in a parallel market. Look at it as an extra global marketplace that brings with it multiple opportunities. So, try not to stress yourself with the hundreds or thousands of options to expand and establish your online presence, focus first on what you can handle both in terms of time and budget, compare it to getting a physical space to establish your new location.

Ask yourself the following questions to assess your need for this type of venture: How much do I want to spend on this? Do I really need it? How much time can I spend each day on this? And as your business develops you can revisit the questions and adjust accordingly.

Whether you want to start a small email campaign to promote your small store or you want to start an online e-commerce business, I will help you create a realistic strategy that serves your business purpose. Let's start by delimiting the potential concepts of e-business and e-commerce.

E-business

This is a very general term referring to the general range in which a business can develop online, from having a simple website, sending emails to promote your business to operating exclusively on social media platforms or performing complex electronic transaction operations.

The focal point of any business could be a website or platform, a blog or YouTube channel, a podcast or promotional emails or any of those together and others I haven't mentioned.

E-commerce

E-commerce falls under e-business, and refers strictly to commercial transactions by way of websites, which allow the processing of credit cards, PayPal or other acceptable types of payment in this way. It is the exchange of services and goods over the Internet, and is part of a larger strategy that includes physical stores and various sources of income.

Steps to start your e-business or e-store

Before starting your e-business I advise you to sit down and write your strategy for this step and add it to your general business plan, for the same reason we created this plan, so we can use it as our framework when we need it. You should update it as changes arise and the business grows. Also to show potential investors that you have a comprehensive business plan that will generate profits and this needs to include online operations.

Here are the broad steps you need to follow to start your online business or store and make it successful:

• Get a name and a domain: The first thing you must do before you start is to choose a name for your business name (we already talked about this aspect in the first point of this topic) and register a domain, which is the address of your web page. This process of choosing your domain is a bit more complex, where depending on the name you want and its extension will cost you different amounts of money. As I have advised you before, try to buy your name with the dot com, since it transmits more security to customers and potential investors.

• Select a content management system: The content management system or CMS are the platforms where you will create and manage your website. This content management involves everything from the creation of your online store, to how you publish your products or services, to the design of the page, to how you set up the payment and shipping methods, as well as the day-to-day organization of your business. Most likely all this sounds very complicated to you, but CMSs are specifically designed for anyone to use, regardless of whether they have the technical knowledge or not. I recommend using some like WordPress, Joomla! or Drupal, which are free and the best on the market today.
• Choosing a hosting option: This is an essential step on your way to the e-business world. You must make sure that the site where you host your website has good connectivity and traffic speed. To choose the right hosting you must take into account several factors, such as the type of hosting, the operating system you are going to use, the performance and load times, the monthly bandwidth, if the interface is easy and some more. It is up to you to do the research and choose one that suits you and has the best quality-price ratio.
• Design your site: Once you accomplish the outside steps, you can start with the design you want to give to your page. You must study to know what is the right design for your type of business, and explore all the options and select the most suitable for you. Once you have chosen the template, which will be the pillar on which all the other decisions you make will be based, such as colors, banners, logos, typographies, etc. One of the best advantages of selling through the Internet is the quality and quantity of information you can offer to the customer in a single space. Make sure you delimit your entire catalog, such as pictures and details so that the consumer has all the information he needs.
• Configure the payment methods: Once your products or services are already loaded on the page, it is time to choose the payment method. Here you will define which payment methods you are going to offer. You can use completely electronic means, such as through bank accounts, PayPal, even cryptocurrencies or use the payment in effect when the customer receives the product or service. Each system has different characteristics and requirements, take your time to review them all.
• Define the shipping methods: Up to this point you can sell your services or products through the Internet, but if you are selling physical products, you need to choose a way to deliver them to your customers. Depending on whether your shipments will be only local, national or international, you will have to overcome logistical and budgetary obstacles. Think carefully about how to create a good system that will get products to customers in a sensible time frame but not be cost inefficient.

Setting your budget

Let's talk now about the budget you are going to use for your e-business, because you should be aware that as you should not skimp on resources and end up with a low quality product, you can not spend most of your budget in this aspect and ignore the others.

I recommend you to start by knowing what you want to do with the site, because depending on what you want to do the cost will be different. For example, if you hire a developer to create a simple site it could cost you between 1000 and 3000 dollars, depending on the country you are in. But if you want to add other functionalities such as e-commerce, 24 hour registration, a blog or events calendar, then the price will increase.

You have to consider also the third party payment fees, such as payment processing systems, security certificates for the e-commerce domain of the site. The costs of purchasing the domain and hosting site. When you add all this up it can add up to a considerable amount of money, and if you have the ability to do it yourself it can save you a good amount of money. You must also have the time and money to keep the site active and updated, so if you are going to pay someone to do the site for you, are you going to keep paying them to maintain the site or will you do it yourself?

The site must be kept up to date with new content all the time, if you do it yourself you will have to write update the pictures and descriptions of your products or services. If you have an electronic store you have to promote it in the different platforms, when you get to analyze, there are too many things for you to handle by yourself, most of the time you will have to hire one or several developers and marketing specialists.

If you want you can use platforms like Go, Daddy, Weeks, Homestead or Squarespace as hosting sites for your website. These have pre-made templates to make it easy for you to get your site started. They are not that expensive, they can cost anywhere from $20 to $25 a month, depending on what you want to do, and sometimes even less. You upload images and create content as you need it. To be honest, these platforms are promoted as very easy to use, that anyone can use them without any knowledge of web design or programming, but you do need at least a basic understanding of computers and design, otherwise they will take up more of your time than the money they save you. It's up to you, whether you are able to handle them or not.

Search Engine Optimization

Let's say you already have an established business, a gym, and you also want to have a website with the latest news