Testimonials
I researched numerous web designers. I was absolutely right to go with Khanik. Their attention to detail and willingness to help/direct the evolution of the site was second to none. The work involved in setting up a website can be daunting. Khanik took away some of that pain and delivered on their promises. I am extremely happy.
Ecommerce and E-stores
Over the last several years, ecommerce has steadily grown to immense proportions. Many of the top sites on the entire Internet are devoted to the sole purpose of selling things. From books and music, to antiques, online sales are huge. If you want to take part in this phenomenon, you’ll require an online store of your own.
Ecommerce, or the sale of items online, is one of the most popular methods of making sales for small businesses. It’s very useful, especially as it takes away some of the risk factors of running a retail business for the first time. Many people who would like to have brick-and-mortar store are unable to, because they are hampered by the prohibitive cost of renting or purchasing a location. The places that are cheap enough to obtain are usually in poor locations, far from where the customers are, or require contracts that might get them stuck with a white elephant that brings them only losses. Ideally, a store should have both a physical location and an online one (referred to as a ‘bricks and clicks’ business), but for people who can’t afford to purchase a place of their own, ecommerce is an excellent alternative.
There are ways of selling items online that don’t require an actual online store, but none of them are that wonderful. The two main methods of doing so are listing sites, either as classified ads or through online auctions, or by taking orders via email. Listing your items for sale in places like Craigslist or eBay can be useful, but are also time consuming and inefficient. For every individual item you list, you have to fill in a separate description, and on auction sites you have to pay a percentage of what ever you sell, plus listing fees that vary depending on the starting price of your item. This works if you want to sell a few special items, like antiques or collectables, but is really no way to sell if you’re trying to run a business. Email sales basically amounts to keeping an online catalogue of items, and having people write to you with their payment information and a list of items they want to buy. This is time-consuming and unprofessional, not to mention insecure. You’ll probably even lose sales from those unwilling to send their credit card numbers through email. These reasons and more, are why, if you’re planning to sell any large number of items online, you should have a proper web store.
Web stores are specially designed to do their jobs with the greatest effectiveness, and to save time and money. They keep your items and clients organized, and let you easily keep information up-to-date. If you want to add a new item to your inventory, you’ll only have to write one description, even if you’re going to be selling dozens of that item. The system can keep track of which customers purchased which items, saving you the time and stress of trying to organize this information yourself. Estores are also secure, and your customers will feel much safer and confident when ordering through them. You can also reach many more customers through ecommerce than you could ever hope for with a single store location. Whereas in a physical store, your customers are limited to the people in your immediate area, or those willing to travel long distances to reach you, with an Internet store anyone in the world can view your wares with just a few clicks of the mouse. Another aspect that some people don’t consider is that you’ll also be able to sell from your business twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, without having to forgo rest or be have to hire people to run the store all night. Ecommerce can save you time, money, and stress, and all-around help you and your customers to rest easy.
