ECommerce: Why This Is The Best Year Ever to Shop AND Sell OnLine

Why This Is The Best Year Ever to Shop AND Sell OnLine

Written by Shannan Hearne

Internet shopping has been a fad for many. They tried it one year with minimal success and major headaches and stayed away from it ever since. There have been credit card scams, delayed deliveries, and confusion over orders.

But not this year.

E-Tailers are better prepared than ever to make your online holiday shopping fast, easy, and hassle free. Online security is better than ever. Retailers are offering super buys and deals like never before. Sites like http://www.clearancecrazy.com make it fast and simple to find repparttar best deals. Retailers like eToys are sending email alerts to consumers every time they put items on sale. And consumers are learning quickly how to best utilize repparttar 109023 internet for their holiday shopping.

So not only is this a great year for consumers, but for retailers as well. The following are great ways to increase sales and develop loyal customers:

* Run sales, offer email alerts, and invite site visitors to sign up for your mailing list. Make shopping at your e-site easy and fun. Brick and mortar retailers burn holiday fragrance candles and offer cookies and apple cider. Give your shoppers holiday music, decorated sites, and great buys.

* Advertise. Advertise. Advertise. Purchase classified and banner advertising on sites that give visitors holiday shopping recommendations. Advertise specific products or services in ezines that reach your niche market. Participate in joint campaigns with other sites. If you are a reseller for someone else, find out if you have co-op advertising dollars available.

Net Retailers Face 45 Percent Growth in Market

Written by Rob Spiegel

On repparttar

day I write this column, Spaceworks, another promising Internet company has closed its doors. The fever that once encouraged business writers to claim dot coms would quickly overcome and obliterate traditional businesses, is now burning against Net companies. Now it's fashionable for journalists to scoff at Internet enterprises, ridiculing excesses such as repparttar 109022

goofy 2000 Super Bowl ads.

Ok, we've all had fun with repparttar 109023 media backlash, now let's regain our bearings. Amid repparttar 109024 stories of repparttar 109025 dot com demise, there is a hidden stream of positive reports showing a growing base of Internet consumers willing to spend ever greater amounts online. Is anyone covering this story?

Report after report shows a growing population of Internet shoppers. High-speed connections are finally catching fire. Cable modems are booming and telecom companies are struggling to keep up with repparttar 109026 demand for DSL installations. Analysts are saying nice things about Amazon.com's chances of hitting profitability later in 2001. Some bad news.

One recent piece of good cheer arrived in repparttar 109027 form of "The State of Online Retailing 4.0," a new Shop.org study conducted by The Boston Consulting Group. The quiet-but-powerful headline of repparttar 109028 report reads, "The North American online retail market is expected to grow 45 percent in 2001, reaching $65 billion." Not bad growth statistics, especially since we're supposedly in repparttar 109029 throws of a complete collapse of repparttar 109030 Internet economy.

Apparently, online retailers continue to improve their functionality while journalists report that Rome.com is burning. "While consumer demand continues to propel growth, online retailers have wrestled with operational issues. They're improving their performance in key areas such as customer acquisition and buyer conversion, " said Elaine Rubin, chairman (sic) of Shop.org.

She goes on to point out repparttar 109031 weakness of some Net companies that contributed to repparttar 109032 very real crash among some of repparttar 109033 ill-prepared dot coms. "There is a steep learning curve in becoming an online retailer - those players that were unable to excel in all facets of this complex business just didn't make it to repparttar 109034 end of 2000."

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