Creating Stores on the Web: Insider's Guide to Setting up a Profitable Cybershop (On the Web Series)

Who better to give advice on creating and running an online store than a successful online store owner? Let an experienced expert save you time and grief by explaining exactly what you need to survive and profit on the Web. From technical, legal, and software issues to marketing, shipping, distribution, ad banners, customer service, and common-sense philosophy, this book covers everything you need to know to succeed in Web retail.

various communities of people who want to set up online stores:

1. All The Basic and Inside Business Information About Setting Up a Mail Order Store
2. A Fundamental How-To About Doing Retailing on The Web
3. Basic Planning and Strategy Information For Existing Online Retailers

Examples will be given throughout the book which will be drawn mostly from the story of how Joe Cataudella built Tronix Multimedia into a successful business on the Web. Examples include Usenet ad posts that don't work, banner ads that do, and expertise on how to organize Email programs and design store Web pages. Everything is covered, from shipping tricks to legal issues to customer service do's and don'ts. Most Web commerce is not going to be fancy merchant server setups that cost thousands of dollars. It's not going to be large stores that sell 1thousands or millions of items. It's going to be small unique outlets run by sole proprietors that set up Web stores as extensions to their existing stores. In addition, many new Web stores will be started by people who've never started a store before-- real or virtual. Both of these groups will want to keep their costs low and will need a lot of basic help getting things up and running and doing it cheap. This is their book.