May
23
Selling Online: How to Become a Successful E-Commerce Merchant
Posted by admin Comments (5)
Product Description
Whether your organization is large or small, Selling Online is a perfect resource for any employee or entrepreneur interested in building a successful, profitable, and sustainable online retail business. In Selling Online, Carroll and Broadhead discuss what makes an online business fail or triumph. From the nuts and bolts of how to build a site to an in depth look at merchant accounts, a systematic business plan walks you through the complex issues of doin… More >>
Selling Online: How to Become a Successful E-Commerce Merchant
Tags: online business fail, nuts and bolts, retail business, E-Commerce
Categories: Selling Online - WPRobot
I’m a firm believer that the best way to learn about doing something is to consult someone who’s done it or to just start doing it yourself. This book really doesn’t provide either of these things. The authors don’t seem to have had too much success in the e-commerce world (or else choose not to share their expertise with readers in this simple book).
Selling Online is better than a lot of the other really, really bad “online commerce” books I’ve seen out there, but not by a lot really. The overwhelming majority of the information here could be found for free on the Web, as the book does little more than give very, very vague overviews of various aspects of e-commerce and then point the reader off to a series of vendor sites (many of which no longer exist, and which in any case are not very informative and try to take advantage of would-be Internet entrepreneurs).
Do yourself a favor, really. Buy books on HTML and CGI, and then get yourself a computer and fire up Google and search for information about setting up an online business (be specific so as to avoid lots of the scam companies… if there are flashy graphics and the word MILLIONS written all over the site… then leave quickly and avoid the pop-ups that will follow you!) Once you have the technical background to build a website the other technical details of running an online store will all fall into place.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is not for home-based businesses! If you already have a retail/wholesale/manufacturing business and are looking to put up a serious business online, this is the complete reference. Lots of information on shopping cart software, hosting, promotion, merchant accounts and marketing. The most complete book for FULL-TIME online e-commerce.
EVERY PAGE HAS TIPS and links to more information.
Rating: 5 / 5
We bought this book thinking it it would help small online merchants, but the “Merchant” in the title is misleading. It is written more for large organizations that are having a complete website developed custom for them, not for the little guys trying to get going. Also, hundreds of new ecommerce programs have been developed since this book was written which this book does not cover. And the information is outdated, such as it is no longer necessary to open a merchant account directly with your bank, or process your own credit cards on your website, as we later found out. There are companies and resellers who take care of all that for you, even including security.
If you are going to start out with a big business like Amazon or Yahoo you might find the background information useful, but most businesses start out with just one or two people trying to learn everything. If you are small entrepeneurs like us, look for something more specific.
Rating: 3 / 5
Does this book need another great review ?
Just in case you are swayed by the couple of bad reviews, I just thought I’d mention that this is by far the most useful book I’ve read on setting up an Internet Store.
(and I’ve read a few !!)
It’s worth buying just for the section on selecting the right e-commerce software package.
There is lots of other useful stuff in there too.
Don’t waste your time trawling the web looking for all this stuff, unless your time is worth about 0.0000000001 cents an hour.
It’s all in here for a small price, and a lot more accessible too.
Rating: 5 / 5
As a (non-IT) executive of an established brick & mortar retailer which is about to start selling online, I wanted to get in-depth practical understanding of the many issues related to e-commerce. I bought 3 books (the other 2 written by Janice Reynolds) and this book was by far the best. Clearly the authors of this book have a lot of hands-on experience, and they are able to pass it on with a clear and easy to read style, using a lot of useful practical examples.
This book provides excellent coverage of website features, order fulfillment, and web marketing. Only the discussion of logistics operations (including processes for shipping, handling returns, etc.) could have been more complete, but I have yet to find a good e-commerce logistics book…
Rating: 5 / 5