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Why Do You Need A Web Site In The First Place?
It may not be too late if you're still asking this
question now. However, if you ask this again one or two years
later, chances are, you would be out already.
No matter what business you are in, online or off,
you need a web site. As simple as that.
With a web site, your business will be "open" 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The goal is not only a web presence. You
are able to sell your products or services directly at your web
site.
More and more people are shopping via the web because of its convenience and to save time.
Here're the facts:
- Online travel booking accounts for 25% of the $8 billion
in total online revenues now.
- Travelers like the convenience, speed and savings of
booking online.
- In just 5 years, online book sales will grow 2,400
percent.
- People in the US buy $18.2 billion in PC products online
every year. That accounts for 39% of the market.
- US online broker accounts represent more than $3 trillion
- about 19% of total retail investment.
- US online users will account for 75 percent of all
expected US retail spending (both online and offline)
in 2005, up from 43 percent in 1999.
Singapore is no exception.
With online
business, you have, at least, these advantages:
Wider
Potential Market
For the first
time, evryone can reach a worldwide market.
Billions of
people are surfing around everyday. And a rapidly increasing number of
people around the world use Internet to purchase items they can't find
locally or just don't care where the product is shipped from, as long as
they want it.
If you're fast
on your feet, you have the opportunity to make some of them your
customers. Think about it. The Internet provides a small business in
Peoria, Illinois, or Johor Bahru, Malaysia, the opportunity to be a global
player, with little expenditure except time given to learning.
Your existing and new customers can find you and/or your products from anywhere.
A global
opportunity awaits you! Isn't it exciting?
Lower
Costs
If you already
have products or services to sell, what's the initial cost to put up a web site to
sell it? Here's a round down:
- Domain name registration, $8-35 per year
- Web hosting, $0-35 per month
- Advertising, $0-100
And that's it.
Actually you can
get everything done for free except domain name registration. So the minimum
cost to start selling online is $8!
I mean it,
everything. And in a professional way. Web hosting (without ad banner),
affiliate program management, credit card processing, mailing list, CGI
script...
Even if you
would buy all the most professional and expensive services and software
right from beginning of your online venture, it shouldn't cost you more
than one thousand dollars.
Online business
is much cheaper to run as well. You don't have to pay for extra office
space or
equipment. You don't have to employ anyone to take care of your online
business before you make 1 million
dollars.
Once you put
everything onto autopilot, your
running cost will be nearly zero.
By-pass
Middleman
Internet was
regarded as advertising medium several years ago. It's not the case any
more. A web site is now better understood as place of doing actual
business, actual transactions.
Online direct
sales enables you to jump any distribution chain that ratchets up prices
to the end user. It means much higher profit
margin for you, lower price for your customer, or both.
In traditional
business world, distribution and retail cost can be up to 90% of the
selling price! Now you can pass part of that savings to your customer and
keep the rest in your own pocket.
In fact, a
really scary development to many manufacturers is the growing temptation
to sell directly on the Web and by-pass the complex distribution chain
they have built over many years. The manufacturer doesn't want to anger
distributors and dealers. But buyers don't care. Neither do you.
Sales
Process Automation
Nearly
everything can be put onto autopilot for an online business.
From product
presentation (the site itself), information enquires, price quotation, to
payment processing, order fulfillment, customer service, just to name a
few. Even the profit will go into your bank account automatically!
All
these can be done while you are sleeping or enjoying happy time
with your family at beach!
This is rather
impossible for off-line business.
It then
translates to more leisure time, or better, more time and opportunities to
develop your next online project. Therefore, more money ahead.
Above all,
automation itself means much higher profit margin. You don't have to spend
time or money on routine operations. You don't have to employ anyone to
run it. It runs by itself, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
By using an e-commerce storefront solution, your business is open 24 hours a day - your customers can purchase immediately - they don't have to wait until you "open".
Multiple Income Streams And Unlimited Profit
Potential
This is the
natural result of advantages discussed above.
Automation frees
up your valuable time and makes it possible for you to repeat
the success time and time again. Over time, you will be able to
build multiple web sites selling different product lines.
Even if one of
them couldn't pull in orders after some time due to saturated market, you
can rest assured that you have other income generators still making money
for you.
A worldwide
market enables you to exploit varies product ideas. Your imagination is
the only limit.
Short
Summary
I can easily
name more advantages of Internet business: test and adjust your marketing
methods fast, don't need to talk to strangers, you can start as a hobby
first while keeping your full-time job, you can work when you want to (if
you are as lazy as I am, you should know what I mean)...you have the idea.
What
more can you expect?
Just go online!
Feel free to use this article in your
publication or web site.
It's pre-licensed to you.
The only requirement is to include this resource box:
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Article by Zac Hewlett at
1stSingaporeWebHosting
Visit http://www.1stSingaporeWebHosting.com
for more
web site design and promotion articles, proven online
marketing tips and techniques.
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