Joomla e-commerce websites
e-commerce Websites
We build customised easy to use ecommerce websites to enable you to sell
products/services over the Internet. The Internet offers you the opportunity to reach out to new customers and grow your business at a lower cost.
What is e-commerce?
In basic terms, e-commerce is simply the business of selling products or services via a website over the Internet. E-commerce is also referred to as e-shopping and eCommerce. Many businesses now operate both in the traditional ‘shop-front’ way and on-line.
Popularity of e-commerce
As the Internet has grown in popularity over the last few years, the amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily along side the widespread use of the Internet. E-commerce also has other advantages, such as a lower overhead for business owners including;
- Fewer staff, normally the largest business overhead cost. Most transactions are handled by the software inside the website, which means you do not require sales staff. You just need staff to pack and ship the sold goods after receiving the paid order.
- Reduced leasehold/rental costs of their storefront operation. Compare the cost to operate the traditional storefront operation with say a warehouse or even a home-based operation.
- Low costs to set up a business. Compared to the traditional retail business, you can set up a small e-commerce operation with little Capital outlay. The costs to ‘host’ your website can be as low as $8 per month and the cost to set up an e-commerce site, subject to who you contract to do the work, can be as little as $1500.
As a result of the above advantages, many real world traditional businesses are finding it difficult to compete with their e-commerce counterparts who can provide lower cost goods and services which in turn translate into real savings to their customer.
Mixing the traditional retail business with e-commerce
If you are already a traditional retail business with a proven track record then you may be looking at e-commerce as away to extend your customer base, increase sales and make it easier for customers to buy products from you. Most of Randall Associates customers who have e-commerce websites operate in this mixed mode.
Do Your Homework before Leaping into e-commerce
Just like many traditional retail businesses, many e-commerce businesses struggle on start up. It is important that you understand the market you wish to sell into. Do not expect the orders to just roll in simply because you have an e-commerce site. If you have the right products and have done the marketing correctly, you will probably succeed. If you do not get the results you were hopping for, at least your outlay for the venture was reasonably low compared to the traditional retail business.
View a couple of our e-commerce Websites
Both of these websites are maintained by the website owners. Products can easily be maintained after a little training from our Video Series.