Easy Way to Build an Online Store

You’ve got products or services you know will delight your customers. In fact, you’ve been selling locally for awhile now and are convinced you could sell like crazy online, too. Now, if only there was a way to get up and running on the Internet with an eCommerce site that looks good and works perfectly.

What’s holding you back? Is it the fact that you have no design experience and fear that anything you create will look amateurish and might not even function correctly. That’s going to ruin your reputation and send customers away for good. Getting shopping cart code up and running? Ha! That’s got disaster written all over it.

What you need is more of a turn-key solution with proven code and the flexibility to easily customize it to reflect your brand. Well, now there is just such a solution and you can even try it for free before you make any commitments.

It all starts with a library of professionally designed templates. No cheesy graphics or “I just got started with HTML” look. If you have a template you would like to use, you do have the option of doing that too. I’m guessing that you are just getting started in eCommerce and would be best off choosing from one of the pre-build templates that look like you are reputable and serious about selling online.

Let’s say you are selling your own creative T-shirts. You know that offering just one size or color limits sales. With this eCommerce solution, you can give your shoppers a choice by offering various sizes, colors, men’s or women’s fit, and even up-sells like custom slogans. Shoppers get to see what the finished product will look like and cost before they place their order.

How about other products like artwork, jewelry, stuffed animals, photography, specialized electronics, cell phone covers or unique tools? You can showcase your products with multiple images and views, including a magnifying glass so that potential buyers can get a close up view.

By the way, this solution also works for services like lawn service and gardening, ebooks or other digital goods, and subscriptions. If you’ve got it to sell, you can get it online quickly and easily.

You also know that many customers are now shopping from their tablets and smartphones instead of traditional desktop computers. No problem. You can have a mobile-ready version of your store up and running in minutes. It’s just an extension of the standard eCommerce tools. You can also get instant order alerts from your store while you are on the go. The mobile notifier for iPhone gives you instant notification when orders are placed.

This particular solution goes far beyond simple shopping cart software and a standard website. You also get business tools to let you easily manage orders, so you can track status updates from receipt of payment all the way to order shipment. Customers can even register for an account and look up their own orders.

There’s a lot more to this, too. You can capitalize on social media by offering unique promotions on blogs, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Create your own affiliate program to expand your reach. Use autoresponders for targeted email campaigns to your best prospects. Offer discount coupons or free shipping. Whatever it takes to bring in those sales.

Are you ready to find out if this simple but sophisticated eCommerce solution will work for you? There’s no risk involved. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial and see for yourself . If you like the way it looks and works, you can then decide to keep going with a monthly or yearly subscription. No contracts and no long term commitments. Plenty of experts available to help you along the way, although you may not even need them.

Marco, it's Polo on Your Mobile

Ralph Lauren, the trendy clothier, is moving beyond online shopping to mobile shopping. Not just shopping while on the go, but shopping on your mobile phone. When is all this going to happen? It's already happening.

Mobile or m-commerce is a technology about ready to take off the way e-commerce has done over the last decade. The keys to making it happen are Internet-enabled cell phones and special mobile web sites designed for those smaller screens. Other enhancements are barcode reading software and Internet enabled vending machines.

Why the big move to shopping on your cell phone? Retailers believe that it's something people will go for in a big way once they have the opportunity. Where do they get that idea? While you're stopped at a light sometime, take a peek at what the other drives are doing. I'll bet you find that anywhere from a quarter to a half of them are on the phone. People love being on their cell phones.

In addition to socializing, cell phones are useful for coordinating schedules, cross-checking shopping lists, updating appointment and similar chores while on the go. Nobody goes home to get on the phone anymore. They pull out their cellphone and they're connected.

So, one reason that m-commerce is likely to be the next big thing is that people are on the go more than ever and they always have their cellphones with them. This situation feeds into the notion that we should be able to get what we want when we want it. Wait for a catalog to come in the mail and then send order form? That's so 19th century. Drive to the store and spend all day browsing the various departments? That's so 20th century.

The e-commerce movement has conditioned us to use the personal computer as catalog and order form. The goods still come in the mail but the turnaround time is fast. Just about anybody selling anything has a website and those who don't can likely be found on eBay. But now that we're comfortable shopping online, there's one remaining problem. You still have to go home to get at your computer.

Some people take their computers with them. You can see them in the coffee shops logged-in to the free WiFi Internet service. But most people don't want to be weighed down by a few pounds of computer, although they don't mind always carrying a few ounces of cellphone.

So there it is. Combine the ease of e-commerce that people have grown accustomed to with the mobility of cell phones that have become almost a human appendage, and you have an impulse shopping dream machine. Got a few minutes? Pay some bills. Order a few new shirts. Arrange to have a pizza delivered as soon as you get home.

It's ordering those shirts that Ralph Lauren is concentrating on. Their mobile site at m.ralphlauren.com is already online. Yes, you can view it on your regular computer browser. Just narrow the window so it looks something like a cellphone screen and you can even shop there. After all, a mobile website is still a website.

What's more exciting is the plans that Ralph Lauren has for enhancing the technology. They're moving into the use of two dimensional barcodes, called QR (Quick Response) codes, that you scan using your cell phone. Scan? Yes, with the proper software your cellphone camera becomes a barcode reader. It will translate the odd pattern of black and white squares into an Internet link that will take you to a specific offer on the Ralph Lauren site. You can download a reader at the site now. See a billboard, banner or print ad with a RL QR code? Point your phone at it and snap a pix. It makes clipping coupons seem positively ancient.

And those ads in the Sunday paper? How long will it be until you need a cellphone to shop the ads? Well, by that time you'll be getting your paper on the cellphone. Shopping will be easy and spontaneous. Finding something else to put in the bottom of the bird cage is what is going to take time.