What is e-commerce - Advantages and Drawbacks!

Electronic Commerce or e-commerce is the trade of products and services by means of the Internet or other computer networks. E-commerce follows the same basic principles as traditional commerce that is, buyers and sellers come together to swap commodities for money. But rather than conducting business in the traditional way in shopping stores or through mail order catalogs and telephone operators — in e-commerce buyers and sellers transact business over networked computers.
E-commerce offers buyers maximum convenience. They can visit the web sites of multiple vendors round the clock a day to compare prices and make purchases, without having to leave their homes or offices from around the globe. In some cases, consumers can immediately obtain a product or service, such as an electronic book, a music file, or computer software, by downloading it over the Internet.
Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.E-commerce or electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
For sellers, e-commerce offers a way to cut costs and expand their markets. They do not need to build, staff, or maintain a physical store or print and distribute mail order catalogs. Automated order tracking and billing systems cut additional labor costs, and if the product or service can be downloaded then e-commerce firms have no distribution costs involved. Because the products can be sold sell over the global Internet, sellers have the potential to market their products or services globally and are not limited by the physical location of a store. Internet technologies also permit sellers to track the interests and preferences of their customers with the customer’s permission and then use this information to build an ongoing relationship with the customer by customizing products and services to meet the customer’s needs.
E-commerce however has some drawbacks. Consumers are hesitant to buy some products online. Online furniture businesses, for example, have failed for the most part because customers want to test the comfort of an expensive item such as a sofa before they purchase it. Many people also consider shopping a social experience. For instance, they may enjoy going to a store or a shopping mall with friends or family, an experience that they cannot duplicate online. Consumers also need to be reassured that credit card transactions are secure and that their privacy is respected.In the existence of these few disadvantages e-commerce has opened new horizons to versatile the modern age. It puts away time, energies, labor and money.William King is the director of Wholesale Pages: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk , Aid and Trade: http://www.aidandtrade.com , Daily Trader: http://www.dailytrader.com and Pakistan Property Portal http://www.zameen.com/ . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Wholesaling and Dropshipping – Two Specialized Fields

Starting an online wholesale business may not be a very easy task. The difficulty lies in the range of unsolicited and unwanted information about wholesale business that clutters the web. Therefore, those who are interested in starting an online wholesale business need to go to a reliable source to gather the preliminary information about how to go about it.Most of the advice that you will find online will misinform you regarding a lot of things. It will uselessly try to make the whole process difficult. For example, one of the most common misinformation that circulates online is that one needs a tax ID or a re-selling license to start an online wholesale business. There are some companies and individual distributors that do indeed ask for a tax ID to supply the wholesaler with goods to sell. On the other hand there are also companies and distributors who have no such pre requisite. Therefore, having a license or tax ID from the Secretary of State Office is not absolutely essential. You can still conduct your wholesale business without one.Dropshipping is not very different from any other business that you may want to start. For example, when you want to set up a store in your city, you would do a market research first, find out about your competitors, etc. In case of setting up an online dropshipping business you must do the same. Not only do you have competition in terms of the billions of websites that are engaged in the same activities, but also that the online business as a concept is evolving very fast. You may find that your line of work has become obsolete soon after you have started working on it, if you have not done adequate research.The following are some of the things you must find out:• whether there is demand for your product• nature of competition you might face• whether your product will be easily sold• an up to date information about the current market scenario for that productSelling is not very difficult thanks to sites like eBay which also has an auction selling option. The problem arises in delivering and shipping the goods. Many stores lack far behind when it comes to fulfilling mail order deliveries on time. They lose precious time, clients and revenue because they do not have an efficient fulfillment system in place.Here is where the difference lies between a wholesale business and a dropshipping business. Wholesalers are those who maintain stocks of goods and try to effect sales through advertising and marketing. These online wholesale companies need a fulfillment agency to take over the job of delivering their goods. Since fulfillment of an order is a taxing job all by itself, there are some agencies involved only in this kind of job. These are the dropshipping firms. The advantages of such firms are that they do not need to worry about how to increase the sales of the products that they will be delivering. They do not have to maintain stocks either, nor worry about marketing. Therefore, these firms are free of such risks. William King is the director of Wholesale Pages UK Designer Clothing Wholesalers: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk/ukwholesalers/Clothing__Designer-117-0.html, Daily Trader: http://www.dailytrader.com/ and Aid and Trade Wholesale Dropshippers Directory: http://www.aidandtrade.com/ . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

The Necessity of having a Business Plan

The importance of having a good business plan can never be underestimated. In some sense it truly reflects your own goals and objectives as the owner of the business. It gives an impression of a very well researched and well planned business. The business plan represents the aims and ambitions that your business would seek to achieve over a stipulated period of time. Therefore, it is very important that you draw up an impressive business plan, no matter how big or how small your business may be.These are some of the things you may want to include in your business plan. Feel free to add whatever else you may wish to:• goals of the company• the time period over which these goals will be met with• the nature of the product or services that your business will offer• the segment of the population whom these products and services will benefit• any other data that you find will attract clients, customers and employeesWhile you write out your business plan, be positive in your outlook. It is important to convey to you clients and customers and even your employees that you have started your business with a positive approach. This will enable them to place confidence in your organization. Generally, business plans are roughly divided into three neat and clear cut categories. Let us look at each of them individually:• Business Concept is where you discuss about the nature of your organization and the kind of products and services that you will strive to offer,• Market Place Selection is where you talk about the target customers and talk about who will benefit from your business. You can also mention here your reasons for selecting such a product over others you had in mind.• Financial Section is where you may require hard data about income, revenue, financial ratios, etc to help strengthen your creditability.There is no ‘ideal length’ as such regarding how long your business plan must be but typically it is kept up to 20 pages. But the length may vary according to what you have to say. For people brimming with ideas, if they think they can hold the attention of readers, they may include other important things. Otherwise it is pointless to go on if you are unable to hold the attention. Write it simply.Planning the business plan is also an important job. Ask yourself:• What do you want to talk about in the plan? Outline your business goals according to time period – long term and short term.• How do you want to go about it? Talk about your advertising and marketing strategies briefly. Also mention if you plan to employ and train more people to help you achieve those goals. Talk of the infrastructural backing that you have.• What are the factors that will benefit this plan? New strategies and policies that you plan to implement.• How much will it cost? Budgetary concerns and hard financial data can be provided here. Keep these goals realistic.
William King is the director of Wholesale Pages UK Mobile Phone Wholesalers: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk/ukwholesalers/Mobile_Phones-119-0.html, Daily Trader: http://www.dailytrader.com and Aid and Trade Wholesale Dropshippers Directory: http://www.aidandtrade.com . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Online payment processors

There are two ways in which you can set up an online merchant account. In the first method, you can have a third party online merchant account that will accept the online payment on your behalf. In this case you have to pay a certain amount as fees for the service that they provide. In case you are just starting off a venture and are not sure of the success and the longevity of the business, then it is a good idea to go in for a third party online merchant account. This way you don’t have to worry about the payment aspect of the business. All you need is to check the payment at the end of the month and you can easily devote all your time in the betterment of your product.
You can also try out opening your own merchant account. To do this you will need a bank that will allow you to open a merchant account. There are a few requirements that you have to meet in order to ensure that you get to open a merchant account. The requirements that have to be met are that you should have a high rate of fixed income, you should have well rated credit worthiness and you must have a well established bank account. For new companies that do not have a very good credit history, there are ways in which they can get a merchant account. The new companies can take the help of other reputable payment processing companies; these payment processing companies have a tie up with reputable banks that provide merchant account facilities.
It is important that you check and compare fees before deciding upon anything. The fees that you should compare are as follows.
1. Transaction fees: Transaction fee is a fixed charge that is charged for every online transaction. In case you are selling products in which your margin for profit is quite substantial, then the transaction fee loses its significance.
2. Discount rates: Discount charge is a flat percentage charge that is imposed on you for each and every online sale that you make.
3. Charge back rates and rolling reserve: These rates are associated with fraudulent transactions and repudiated purchases.
In case you are in a hurry to start off your business and are not in a position to get a merchant account, then you can try out credit card payment services such as Pay Mate and Pay Pal. In this case you will not have to pay any monthly overheads, the process is entirely hassling free and you can set up your account without cost in a few minutes. The only draw back in this case is that unlike in merchant account, where the customer sees your business name in their credit card statement, they will see the name of Pay Pal or Pay Mate in case the payment is made through them. This may cause confusion in the minds of the buyer as they might not be able to identify the source from where they have shopped.


William King is the director of Wholesale Pages UK Mobile Phone Wholesalers: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk/ukwholesalers/Mobile_Phones-119-0.html, Daily Trader: http://www.dailytrader.com and Aid and Trade Wholesale Dropshippers Directory: http://www.aidandtrade.com . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Effective way to Mange your Time

The number of goals that any individual accomplishes depends solely on the way in which one chooses to utilize one’s time. The concept of how to use time differs for different people. According to their priorities, they choose to do certain things over others. That is not to say that everyone prioritizes their life’s duties in the right manner. This is why so many people find themselves unable to complete tasks that they have been striving to complete for long periods of time.
Time management requires proper planning. There are several areas that need work. There are several duties that one needs to perform on a day to day basis. To accurately prioritize these duties and then to allot them time spans requires some organization. The following are some of the things you may want to consider before drawing up a time table of a schedule:
• Aims and Objectives: It is important to determine what the activities that need to be done are and the amount of time you have. But it is more important to determine your objective and rationale for doing those things. There are several activities we continue to do out of habit, which do not bear any fruitful results, but waste a lot of time. These need to be identified and eliminated.
• Time Management Tools: A proper idea of your goals needs to be clear in your head. External tools can only help to enhance that focus. Get hold of diaries, planers and reminders to help you keep a track of the activities that you had planned. This helps you to follow the schedule better.
• Consistency: Be consistent with your work. Once you let lethargy creep into your daily schedule, it will be difficult to get rid of it. Do your day to day job on time. Don’t let jobs spill into other time slot. Clear backlog regularly.
• Energy: This aspect has a lot to do with your biological needs. Some people are inherently energetic and feel fresh with a short nap because they get a deep and peaceful sleep. Others are light sleepers so short hours of sleep do not help rejuvenate them. It is important to identify the kind of rest you need. Determine the energy patter cycle. Also find out the time of the day when your concentration is at maximum. Work around that time, and take adequate rest. Try not to feel stressed. And find out ways to relax.
• Organization: This involves both mental and physical organization. Be clear in your head about what jobs you have to finish and be mentally prepared for them. Also keep your work space and living area clutter free. Clutter and mess have adverse impact on concentration. Simple things like putting things back from where you pulled them out will save you from the trouble of clearing the mess later. It will also help you find those things again easily.


William King is the director of Wholesale Pages UK Mobile Phone Wholesalers: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk/ukwholesalers/Mobile_Phones-119-0.html, Daily Trader: http://www.dailytrader.com/ and Aid and Trade Wholesale Dropshippers Directory: http://www.aidandtrade.com/ . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.