Create an online shop

Selling online has a number of advantages over selling by traditional methods, including:

• Making savings in set-up and operational costs. You don't need to rent high street premises, pay shop assistants or answer a lot of pre-sales queries.
• Reducing order processing costs. Customer orders can automatically come straight into your orders database from the website.
• Reaching a global audience, thereby increasing sales opportunities.
• Competing with larger businesses by being able to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Being able to receive payment more quickly from online transactions.
• Improving your offerings using the data gathered by tracking customer purchases.
• Using your online shop to showcase your products to existing customers.

Online selling will work best if you have:

• well-defined products or services that can be sold without human involvement in the sales process
• fixed prices for all types of potential customers
• products or services that can be delivered within a predictable lead time

Many businesses can run pilot e-commerce sites without significant investment. However, creating a fully automated online shop tailored to meet your precise requirements could be expensive.

Whatever form of online shop you choose, it's important to take a strategic view. If you launch a website that disappoints your customers or is overwhelmed by traffic, you risk damaging your reputation and losing sales.