How to Sell Your Small Business Products Online

If you own a small business, selling your products online is quite cost-effective compared with operating a brick-and-mortar store. Furthermore, an online store offers your products 24 hours a day and seven days a week, gives worldwide customers access to your products and does not require hiring sales staff. Here are five steps to selling your small business products online:

1. Purchase a domain name. Most free domain sites include their own name in the domain name that you create for your small business. This detracts from your business having a professional look. Having another business's name in your own domain name also makes it difficult for customers to remember your business's exact web address. Instead of relying on a free domain name, go to a web hosting service provider and purchase your own unique domain name. You will also need to purchase a hosting service for your domain from the web hosting service provider.
2. Create an e-mail address. Once you have obtained a domain name, the host site will allow you to generate at least one professional e-mail address. In most cases, your e-mail address will contain your domain name. For example, if you choose www.gelatomachines.com for your small business domain name, your e-mail will most likely default to admin@gelatomachines.com. Having a business e-mail is not only important for contacting customers and receiving their queries (or complaints), but it also allows you to send newsletters or promotions.
3. Create a web site or sales page. To describe the features of your products and provide pictures, prices, and other information about them, you will need to create a web site or sales page. The web site/sales page will be what your customers see when they type in your business's URL/domain name.
4. Select an autoresponder. Because you will not be able to respond to every product/service inquiry that is generated via your web site, you will need to set up an autoresponder. The autoresponder automatically responds to requests for product information regardless of the time of day. The autoresponder can also be equipped to thank a customer for ordering, or to even to send a survey or an e-book.
5. Purchase a merchant account. Once you have customers visiting your web site and looking at your products, you will need to accept online payments through a merchant account. Many third party payment gateways offer small businesses the ability to accept online payments by posting a merchant account link to the small business's web site or sales page. When customers click on the link, they are taken to a separate page that accepts their bank account or credit card information. There is a small monthly or yearly fee charged for this convenience. You may also go through a bank and install a credit card processor directly to your site, allowing customers to stay on your site while paying for their purchases. Such a service is typically more expensive than that provided by a third party payment gateway.