Bottom line: I’m convinced that Yahoo Store platform is most conducive for garnering high search engine placement primarily because of this feature but also because of additional complimentary optimizations you can make to your Yahoo Store.

Other Important Features/Benefits Include:

•Site-Wide Variables: Make a change once in a user-friendly environment, and have it take effect throughout your entire site

•A large and experienced public company (Yahoo) hosting your site: 1 in 8 e-commerce websites are hosted on Yahoo Store / Yahoo Merchant Solutions platform. Presumably, hundreds of millions of dollars in online sales are transacted on Yahoo platform each year. Yahoo has too much to lose to approach hosting of e-commerce stores lightly. As a result, I’m confident they have resources and commitment to ensure highest possible uptime for your site. In 6 years, I can’t remember a client’s store going offline.

•24x7 Customer Support: This speaks for itself. Many small e-commerce platforms (especially custom e-commerce solutions) don’t come with free 24x7 support.

•A large selection of independent professionals to support you Many companies throughout country specialize in customizing Yahoo Stores for their clients (better designs, better features, etc). The fact that Yahoo Store solution is so well supported makes it a truly compelling choice.

What’s biggest downside to a Yahoo Store?

You don’t have access to source code. While you can customize 99% of a Yahoo Store, you can’t customize all of it. This rarely becomes a problem, even for larger stores, but you should be aware that there are some things you might like to do with your Yahoo Store that you simply won’t be able to do.

How can I take advantage of Yahoo Store?

Assemble right team of professionals to help you. You’ll need:

1. An online marketing specialist

2. A Yahoo Store Developer/Designer

3. A Good Travel Agent

With all business you and your company are about to do, you’ll be able to afford (and maybe need) to take more frequent vacations.

Alternatives

I’ve evaluated dozens of alternatives, but I’ve found nothing that can hold a candle to Yahoo Store. That said, I remember years ago, before I understood power of Yahoo platform, a prospective client asked me about Yahoo solution. No offense to folks at Yahoo, but I figured it was a Mickey Mouse, template-based, mass-market solution that was not worth considering. It’s a good thing that I’m an open-minded person, because once I took time to properly evaluate software, I recognized its true potential.

Bottom line: There is no better way to achieve your sales objectives than combining robustness of Yahoo Store solution with power of search engines to drive qualified prospects to your site.

GA-001

It isn't just DVDs that fall into this category. Take mobile (cell) phones. Here in UK you can walk down just about any high street and get latest phones either free or for a minimal token payment. The stores are relying on making their money from line rental contract that you will have to sign in order to get phone. Of course, actual cost of phone is not free - most new mobiles are actually worth £200 or £300 which means that if you want to buy a batch of phones at wholesale, you are going to be looking at a pretty high unit cost. As with most electrical products, market is competitive and prices have been forced down which means that difference between your wholesale buying price and your retail selling price is minimal.

There are numerous products that suffer from same market conditions as DVDs and phones and new/small traders really should avoid trying to sell such items at all costs because it will usually be frustrating and ultimately not financially rewarding. When trying to decide what products to sell, you need to be thinking about type of market that a particular product is sold in. If there are already numerous sellers and many large companies selling at considerable discounts this is far from ideal. The exception to rule is if you are able to add value in some way to make your 'offering' more unique. I wrote about adding value last year in one of my newsletters - you can read it here: http://www.thetraderonline.com/jul2204.html

At end of day, it is all about research, being realistic and having an understanding of market that you want to operate in. Whilst it would be great to be able to buy and sell new release DVDs (or whatever) all day long, doubling your money every time, I am afraid that this is just not going to happen.