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Building an
Online Store
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................4
Chapter 1: Online Stores Basics..............................................6

The Parts of a Domain Name...........................................................................................6
Web Hosting........................................................................................................................7
Website Software................................................................................................................9
A Merchant Account.........................................................................................................11
The Payment Gateway.....................................................................................................12
Chapter 2: Planning Your Online Store................................13

Identifying What to Sell...................................................................................................13
Defining Your Market.......................................................................................................18
Creating Your Brand.........................................................................................................19
Choosing a Domain Name..............................................................................................20
Selecting an Online Store Provider................................................................................22
Defining Your Store Policies............................................................................................23
Chapter 3: Building Your Online Store.................................30

Designing Your Online Store...........................................................................................31
Establishing Your Category Structure...........................................................................32
Loading Your Products....................................................................................................33
Specifying Your Shipping Options..................................................................................34
Accepting Credit Cards....................................................................................................35
Offering Additional Payment Options...........................................................................36
Launching Your Online Store..........................................................................................37
Table of Contents
Chapter 4: Marketing Your Online Store.............................39
Search Engine Optimization............................................................................................39
Paid Advertisement...........................................................................................................41
E-mail Marketing...............................................................................................................41
Affiliate Program ..............................................................................................................42
Social Media/Social Commerce......................................................................................43
Blogging.............................................................................................................................44
Daily and Group Deals.....................................................................................................45
Chapter 5: 3dcart: Your Online Store Solution...................46

Why 3dcart?.......................................................................................................................46
3dcart Plans.......................................................................................................................47
Signing Up..........................................................................................................................48
Getting Started Checklist.................................................................................................48
Chapter 6: Ten Ways to Use 3dcart to Grow Your

Online Store..............................................................................50
Introduction
Running an online store may seem like a neat idea. There’s no retail space to lease,
no carpet for customers to trip on, no long set of hours you have to be stuck behind
a cash register, and no sign spinner or guy in a chicken outfit directing traffic to your
front door. (Although feel free to hire a guy to wear a chicken outfit just for the fun of
it.) But, the first thing to remember is that running an online store is still running a real
business, so you have a lot of concerns to keep in mind.
Thankfully, systems are in place to make running an online store easier than ever be-
fore. These systems provide the computer programs and “online elbow grease” to
turn your ideas into reality, and you provide the business goals and targets
to guide the process. In this book, I explore what you should consider and how this
electronic infrastructure should work.
How This Book Is Organized

The chapters in this book lead you into the elements and business concepts needed for
an online store, and then some.
Chapter 1, Online Store Basics, explains basic concepts and ter-

minologies involved in the underlying structure of an online store.
Chapter 2, Planning Your Online Store, explains how to assemble

the pieces and parts of an online store, and how to think and plan
for the overall direction your online store will take.
Chapter 4, Marketing Your Online Store, discusses ways to bring
customers to your online store once it’s launched and ready for
orders.
Chapter 5, 3dcart: Your Online Store Solution, explores one

specific solution provider for online store owners.
Chapter 6, Ten Ways to Use 3dcart to Grow Your Online Store,

highlights ten specific ways in which 3dcart can help you auto-
mate and grow your business to the next level.
All chapters are designed to stand alone. So, to find out about planning for an online
store, head straight to Chapter 2; to understand ways to bring customers running to
your store, turn to Chapter 4; or just turn this page and keep on going.
Icon Used in This Book

Points to keep in mind as you immerse yourself in the world of e-com-
! merce are highlighted with this icon. Information and suggestions to help
you make the most of your online store sit beside this icon. Take heed.
These useful alerts offer practical advice to help you avoid making
potentially costly mistakes.
Where to Go from Here

If the idea of opening and running an online store is appealing to you, or you’re at the
beginning stages, turn the page. If you’re further along in the process, or have ques-
tions about one piece of the puzzle, use the table of contents to find the topic and turn
to that page.
1 Online Stores
Basics
In This Chapter
Dissecting a domain name
Understanding web hosting
Taking a look at software
Establishing a merchant account
Getting paid
When you build a physical store, you need to consider a lot of things — a location
to rent or buy, fixtures to display your merchandise, a layout for your physical store,
a cash register and checkout station, cash for the drawer . . . the list goes on and on.
Opening an online store removes a number of these concerns but comes with some
basic considerations you want to keep in mind.
In this chapter, I cover some of the basics any online store owner needs to handle be-
fore opening their virtual doors to the public. Although this list is in no way exhaustive,
these basics are things you should consider sooner rather than later; they can make
the difference between a great idea and a profitable e-commerce enterprise. I make
the comparison often between a physical brick-and-mortar store and an online store
so that you can visualize why something matters to an online store by understanding
why it works in a physical one.
The Parts of a Domain Name

Physical stores have a golden rule for success: “Location, location, location.” Online
stores have a similar rule: “Domain name, domain name, domain name.” (Okay, to be
fair, that may only be my rule, but it’s a good rule to have!) The domain name is the
name your customers type in their web browser to find your online store. Even the best
online stores in the world cannot survive with a bad or confusing domain name
Physical stores have a golden rule for success: “Location, location, location.” Online
stores have a similar rule: “Domain name, domain name, domain name.” (Okay, to be
fair, that may only be my rule, but it’s a good rule to have!) The domain name is the
name your customers type in their web browser to find your online store. Even the
best online stores in the world cannot survive with a bad or confusing domain name s
the name your customers type in their web browser to find your online store. Even the
best online stores in the world cannot survive with a bad or confusing domain name
because customers will never find their website. But what is a domain name? Here,
I deconstruct a typical web address, like www.domain.com.
www is the server name. The three w’s stand for World Wide Web, which is the
most commonly used server name, but you can customize this with your web host-
ing provider so that you have multiple URL’s, such as www.unitedstates.domain.
com or www.young.domain.com.
domain is the domain name. You register this with a Domain Name
Registrar, which I explain in Chapter 2.
.com is a top-level domain extension. his gets registered along with the
domain name, since www.domain.com is a different address than www.domain.
net, for example.
For more about choosing the right domain name for your online store, flip over
to Chapter 2.
Web Hosting
When you buy a house, you get an address for the house, which is where the physical
structure is located. If you start your own store, you generally rent some retail space
to hold your inventory so that people can walk around and shop. When you start an
online store, you still need space, but this time you need virtual space on a computer
that’s always connected to the Internet. That space holds all the text, pictures, and
sales data needed for your inventory, as well as the electronic software that allows
people to use their computers to “surf” your store and buy merchandise.
This virtual space is organized into a web hosting account, mainly because these com-
panies (that own the servers that are always connected to the Internet) are offering to
“host” your files, which are available via the web. Although these accounts come with
different features, here are the most common parts of any hosting account, which you
need to know when shopping around:
Disk space: This is the amount of megabytes of storage space you can use to put
your inventory, pictures, sales data, and any other information needed as part of
your online store. Unless you are hosting a lot of video clips, audio clips, or super
high-quality pictures, online store owners typically never use up the disk space
from a low- tier hosting account.
Bandwidth: This is the amount of data your web hosting account can send or
receive at any moment of operation. Think of the width of the street that con-
nects your house or store to the outside world. The more visitors you have trying
to visit at the same time, the harder it’ll be for them to get there. But, if you pay
for a high-bandwidth account and you only experience a small-but-steady flow of
traffic, you’re in essence paying for an eight-lane free- way when a two-lane road
will do.
Data transfers: While bandwidth is concerned with the amount of information

going back and forth at any one moment, data transfer has to do with the sheer
quantity of information your web hosting account sends to all your visitors for a
given day or month, for example. When a customer enters your store name, the
web hosting provider transfers a copy of your store’s home page to the custom-
er’s computer. That customer clicks on a product picture, and your Internet provid-
er sends the information for that product to the customer’s computer. To get your
data transfer quantity, the web hosting provider adds up all that traffic. In a way,
think of how many typical cellphone plans give you a pool of available minutes.
You’re allowed a certain amount of “traffic” (online store visitors or cellphone calls,
incoming or outgoing) and are charged extra if you go over your allotted amount.
Allowable languages: Online store software is written in a lot of different com-
puter programming languages. Your web hosting provider needs to offer an ac-
count that knows how to interpret the language and run that software, so the
provider will state which languages are “allowable” for their different accounts. If
you’re using software that runs on Java, you need an account that works for Java.
You wouldn’t plug a 220-volt appli- ance into a 110-volt electrical plug, so you need
to make sure that your software is compatible with your hosting account — which
is why many people choose a hosting account that comes with its own software.
You can find many different web hosting providers, big and small, but
! choosing a provider really comes down to two things:
Is the web hosting provider a reputable business? You can research

this like any other business you would work with, by looking at customer
reviews, Better Business Bureau (BBB) records, and various other Internet
searches.
Does the web hosting provider provide an account with the right
software options for your online store? You can see what
options they offer and whether it’s enough for what you need, which I discuss
in the next section.
Website Software
Imagine that you’ve secured the right space for your physical store, but now you need
to add the fixtures and equipment inside the store to make it viable. For an online
store, you need specific software options that will help manage and run your store
operations, which I’ve broken down into two specific categories.
Content management system

Think of everything your online store is going to have, in terms of information to the
customer, besides the actual sales data. The content of your website — whether it’s a
series of articles, reviews, guides, customer testimonials, store policies, store history,
announcements, press releases, or marketing pieces — needs to be managed easily,
whether you or one of your employees is doing it. Therefore, web hosting providers typi-
cally have accounts that come with something called a content management system
or CMS. These systems allow you to update the information on your web page without
having to physically alter specific web pages or know deep technical information.
Shopping cart
Having disk space to host all the files for your website is only the first step. When you
want to run an online store, you need something extra, generally termed e-commerce
(or electronic commerce) or shopping cart software, that allows for customers to click
on inventory items, add the items to a virtual “shopping cart,” “check out,” give you
their shipping information, and pay you so that you can send the customer their order.
Since many web hosting account owners end up wanting to run an online store, many
providers offer e-commerce accounts with shopping cart software geared to the spe-
cific setup of their accounts already taken care of for the store owner. That’s a big plus
and an almost necessity for the new online store owner nowadays. It’s true that e-com-
merce accounts cost more on average, but you’re getting more features that you abso-
lutely need. Besides, trying to add your own features, like shopping cart software, is
typically more expensive if you try to do it yourself — not to mention a huge headache!
Some numbers to watch when evaluating different shopping cart software include
(but are not limited to) the number of:
Products that can be in your catalog
Products that can be in a customer’s shopping cart
Categories that can be in your inventory
Pictures you can associate with each inventory item
Different shipping method options you can present to the customer
Different payment methods supported by the software

A Merchant Account
Once your online store receives an order, the important process begins: collecting
your payment from the customer. In a brick-and-mortar store, you have a cash regis-
ter, credit card “swipe” machine, and perhaps a device that scans your customers’
hand-written checks. In an online store, you need an account that collects the funds
from your customer’s credit card company (or alternate payment method) and makes
it available to your business bank account, which is called a merchant account.
You have a few options when securing a merchant account:
Your bank: Many banks and credit unions offer a business checking account
with a merchant account, where you can put the money from your merchant
account into your bank account. Typically, banks outsource the merchant
account so you end up paying a marked-up price. They also may charge you
an application fee so they can have their third-party service check your cred-
it to see whether you’re approved to have a merchant account. In the end,
their approval process isn’t automatic since credit card companies see online
stores as a higher risk for fraud.
Direct merchant account providers: Some financial institutions offer just

a direct merchant account, which may have competitive rates compared to
the banks and large institutions. Be aware that direct providers may charge
more for certain aspects, like the application fee, and may have higher mini-
mum requirements (for example, if you want a low rate for processing credit
card payments, you have to promise $X of charges per month).
Third-party providers: Some brokers will talk to different direct merchant

account providers and try to find you the best rates. Also, membership clubs
like Costco or Sam’s Club may offer a special rate for their chosen merchant
account provider. Do some research and see what you can find.
The Payment Gateway
The last piece of the puzzle involves your merchant account being able to communi-
cate with credit card companies so that payment is safely transferred from the custom-
er’s account to your merchant account. Online store owners typically use a payment
gateway, which is a software application service that links your website to the credit
card companies, and eventu- ally to your merchant account. Today, many merchant
account providers (and shopping cart software providers) have existing links or part-
nerships with a preferred payment gateway provider.
Just make sure that your provider:
Is diverse. What credit cards do they accept (Visa, MasterCard, American

Express, and so on)?
Works with your shopping cart software.
Is quick to process your payments.
Provides support if something goes wrong.
Offers reporting, management, and other tools.

2 Planning Your
Online Store
In This Chapter
Zeroing in on what to sell
Knowing your ideal market
Building your brand
Making a name for yourself
Choosing a provider
Establishing store policies
In Chapter 1, I talk about the basics of an online store. In this chapter, I start pulling
together the plans to success- fully build your online store and cover some of the es-
sential (and “big picture”) steps you should take before opening your online store to
the public. Some of these concepts will be an ongoing effort; others are a one-time-on-
ly step you need in order to get started. The common factor is that every online store
should go through these business areas first before starting to sell.
Identifying What to Sell

Without quoting Webster’s dictionary or getting too obvious, if you’re planning to set
up an online store, you are most likely planning to sell a specific product, group of
products, or range of products. While some stores sell “virtual” or electronic goods
(such as e-books, prizes for online games, or specific ringtones), I’m going to assume
that most of you are opening an online store to sell some type of physical, real-
world product. You know that you want to open an online store so the next question
is “What are you going to sell?” For some of you, the products you plan to sell are an
obvious choice. Perhaps you’re an artist or a local manufacturer who wants to sell your
product lines.
You may run a physical brick-and-mortar store and want to offer the same products
that are on your shelves to customers around the world. You may be friends with the
right company or have connections to the latest and greatest electronic gadgets that
everyone wants to buy.
For others, this is a serious consideration. Perhaps you know that you want to open a
store to make extra money, clean out your garage, or quit your full-time job to become
an entre- preneur. However, that’s all you know, and you’re trying to decide what to
sell from all the options out there. If that’s the case, here are some things to consider:
What products do you know well? Do you have any specialties or deep
knowledge of a product range? If so, you’ll know how to approach customers
with an online store.
What do you like? Dealing in products you enjoy (like a hobby) will help inspire
you to spend the time to build and run an online store for those products.
Do you have access to a product that’s not as accessible in other parts of the
world? Say that you live in Seattle and you can get access to quality smoked
salmon, but people throughout the world don’t have ready access to salmon
like you do. You can approach local sources and resell their product on a
national or worldwide basis.
Selling your own products

If you want to sell your own products, you still need to consider a few things before
moving forward and opening an online store:
How are you going to ship your products to customers? Your interaction with cus-
tomers is virtual, so you’ll have to ship your products to them. You’ll need to have a
packing and shipping station, or outsource this to a fulfillment specialist. If you do
the packing and shipping yourself, be sure that you can easily locate packing sup-
plies and set up a system that identifies what you’ll need for each order in terms of
packing materials, boxes, tape, and so on.
Can you legally mail your products to customers? Not everything can be
bubble-wrapped, put in a box, and sent on its way. Some products have different
shipping rules and guidelines (for example, selling wine to different U.S. states).
Make sure that there are no legal barriers to shipping your product or any special
considerations for items that might be liquid, flammable, perishable, or dangerous.
Will your manufacturer allow you to sell these goods online? Some of the major
(and even mid-range) brands of consumer products worry about the effects of sell-
ing their products online. In some cases, they actually restrict their distributors and
retailers from offering their products in an online store either at all or at certain
price levels and quantities. Check with your suppliers to make sure that you can sell
their goods in your online store.
Is this a product that you can easily and cost-effectively mail to your customers?
The costs of mailing a 50-pound bag of dog or cat food have contributed to the
closure of many online pet supply stores. If your product really needs to be seen
before purchased, is extremely heavy or complex to pack and ship, or is so time-sen-
sitive or fragile that it’s not practical to ship, it’s probably not the right product line
for your online store.
Some stores have figured out how to build great businesses for products like
clothes, cars, flowers, and other goods that these rules apply to so they’re not out of
the question. Just do your planning, find out how your competitors do it, and figure
out whether the advantages you could offer outweigh the cost and considerations.
On a larger scale, you do need to ask yourself what your online store is going to offer
your customers to encourage sales of these products. The days of “if you build it, they
will come” are not really here anymore. You’re entering an existing market of online
stores, and you’ll need to figure out what you’re competing against and decide what
your online store needs to accomplish in order to survive. I talk more about this later
on when you define your market and create your brand.
Finding a distributor or drop shipper
Okay, you know what you want to sell, but you currently
don’t have or make the products. You’re wondering how to proceed. If that’s the case,
you need to locate the source of the products and decide what kind of partner you
want — and what duties will be handled by you versus your partner.
Here’s a quick review of something called the supply chain (how a product makes it
from start to finish):
1. Manufacturer: The company that makes the prod-
2. Distributor: The manufacturer sells large quantities of their product to

the distributor, whose job it is to find retailers to carry the products.
3. Retailer: Retailers order products from distributors (and in some cases,

directly from the manufacturer) to put on their shelves.
4. Customer: Customers go to a retailer and buy the product.
As a retailer, you need to find the person who distributes those goods, or if possible,
set up an account with the manufacturer directly so that you can stock and sell the
goods to your customers. Therefore, you need to do some research to find the right
source:
Take a look at the product itself. Read the box or the documentation.
Do Internet research. Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, are a click
away. Go to websites that discuss the products. Look for ways to create a
retailer account.
Attend trade shows. There are trade shows specifically designed for retailers
to find available manufacturers, see what products are available, and order
directly from those manufacturers. Try websites like Trade Show News Net-
work (www.tsnn.com) or ASD (www. asdonline.com).
Talk to friends and family. You’ll be surprised who you may know in your per-
sonal network that works for a key manufacturer or distributor and can help
you get products for your business. Use sites like LinkedIn to see who you
know that works for a company you need to reach.
A special kind of distributor, known as a drop shipper, is unique to the typical supply
chain. Drop shippers use retailers to find customers for their products and then send
individual orders directly to the customer on behalf of the retailer. Using a drop shipper
has several advantages:
Little to no upfront investment in the inventory. You only buy an item when
the customer buys it from you.
Wide variety of merchandise to offer. You can sell anything the drop shipper
has available without buying and storing it first.
Product information and pictures are provided. You may get official product
pictures and descriptions to use in your online store. Some drop shippers, like
Doba (www.doba.com), allow you to click a button or two and add products
to your online store.
No packing and shipping on your end. You focus on taking orders and pass
this off to the drop shipper.
Using a drop shipper also comes with some potential downsides:
It’s your brand on the line. You made the sale, and you’re the one responsible
for the sale going smoothly. Any drop shipper’s missteps make you look bad,
and you have to fix the problem.
Drop shippers can take the money and run. You pay them to ship out the
item, but they take the money and never do it. Look for a company with an
extensive history and a reputable business. A misstep could be as innocent
as they were out of the product or as troublesome as fraud.
You can’t control the experience. You can’t know how customers are receiv-
ing their orders or handle most special requests. Even if you give the drop
shipper custom boxes or literature to include, you are relying on another
company for the future of your online store.
Approach the manufacturer to see whether they have a list of recommended

! drop shippers (or whether they offer drop- shipping services themselves) and
always check with organi- zations like the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.
org) to see whether anyone has had problems or reported your potential
drop-shipping partner.
Defining Your Market

Ask yourself, who are you hoping to reach with your online store? Are you trying to be
a general merchandise provider, like Walmart, Target, or any other department store?
Are you trying to specialize in one specific product line, such as surfboards, pool tables,
or comic books? Or are you trying to reach a certain demographic, perhaps to become
the one-stop destination for teenage girls, seniors, or accountants?
When figuring out what market you want to go after with your online store, ask your-
self these questions:
Who is your ideal customer? Are you trying to approach 10- to14- year-old girls
who live in households that make $50,000 or more a year and live in the suburbs?
Find out the biggest target-market shoppers for the products you’ve chosen to
sell, or a target market that you feel is being underserved by the current stores
selling your type of products.
What can you do differently from existing online stores? Knowing your market
and your competition will help you determine how to reach these customers and
avoid (or limit) spending money on reaching other market groups.
Why should someone buy from you instead of someone else? Do you offer lower
prices, better selection, better service, a unique twist on the products (like signed
or authenticated versions of the product), or something else entirely?
Once you open and operate your online store, you may find that your initial
! plans or target market isn’t the best choice for you. Be flexible and watch for
trends in your market, because new opportunities may present themselves at
any moment. Just don’t hop from trend to trend and provide an inconsistent
experience for your customers.
Creating Your Brand

When people hear about a company’s brand, many of them quickly think of a compa-
ny’s logo or trademark image. After all, the distinctive way that Coca-Cola is written,
the golden arches of McDonalds, and the Nike swoosh are images that are “branded”
in our minds as representing those companies.
However, a company’s brand is much more than its logo. In essence, a company’s
brand is the total image it presents to the world in terms of what the company rep-
resents and offers. This includes the expectation that a customer has about interacting
with that brand (the trust, customer service, and quality of service and products) and
the company’s mis- sion or purpose.
When it comes to creating a brand for your own company, you need to ask yourself,
“When a new or existing customer thinks of my online store, what do I want that
person to think or feel?” I’m not just talking about the focus of your store (extensive
selection; lowest prices; high level of customer service; unique, hard-to-find, and/or
customizable items; a combination of these items; or something completely different)
— although that will affect your brand. I’m talking about how people perceive your
company. Stable? Fun? Home-grown? Cutting edge? Reliable? Flexible? Insert your
own adjective here.
Once you set that brand expectation, then everything you do should reflect that brand.
When you design a logo and you want to be the fun, young store, for example, you
want to use colors and images that reflect that. Your e-mails, website language, and
policies need to reflect that, even your inventory selection, product photos, and in-
voices/receipts need to reflect your brand image in some way. That brand image needs
to be in your mind when you engage in any communication, marketing, or interac-
tions with customers, employees, visitors, partners . . . basically everyone. If you don’t
represent your brand image accurately, then who will?
After a while, if you’re consistent in how you project your brand, your customers (and
everyone else) will begin to associate those qualities with your business, whether
they order something or not. Make sure that whatever you do represents you and your
brand accurately.
After a while, if you’re consistent in how you project your brand, your customers (and
everyone else) will begin to associate those qualities with your business, whether they
order something or not. Make sure that whatever you do represents you and your
brand accurately.
Choosing a Domain Name

In Chapter 1, I discuss the concept of your store’s domain name. So how do you find
the right domain name for your online store?
Is your name available? You can go to websites like www.whois.com or www.

godaddy.com to see whether anyone else has already registered your domain
name. Only one person can “rent” a domain name at any given time. If no one is
currently renting your intended name, then you can!
Should I buy the rights to a domain name from its current owner? You’ve picked
the store name “Vintage Horror Books,” but the domain name vintagehorror
books.com is being rented by someone else. Approach that domain name renter
and make an offer to “buy” the rights for that domain. Check out domain auction
sites like www.afternic.com, www.namejet.com, or www.auctions.godaddy.com.
Sometimes, the original owner will forget to renew their rental, and you can buy
their “expired” domain name rights.
Do I need a .com extension? When it comes to online stores, .com is the gold stan-
dard (.com was always meant for commercial websites). Although any extension
available will work (for example, .net, .org, .ly, .co), when your potential customers
go to type your domain name, they’ll instinctively use .com and may not try other
options to get to your online store.
When you get a .com name for your online store, it’s not a bad idea to then re-
serve the .net, .org, .co, and even the .info and .biz extensions as well. That way,
regardless of what extension your customers end up using, they will all point to
your online store.
My first choice is taken. Now what? You wanted widgets. com, but it’s taken.
Think about the name you want to give your online store, the type of products you
plan to sell, and try some of these options:
• Focus on the keywords, not the name. Don’t look for a name like beachgear.
com to sell surfboards. Pick a domain name that focuses on your product line, like
topsurfboards.com. Note: The only exception to this is if you really want to build
your store around a brand name that you create. Imagine how uninspiring Ama-
zon would be if they had gone with bigbookstore.com?
• Try to pick a name that’s obvious as to what you sell. This seems like an obvious
point, but I need to raise it. You wouldn’t think of “an online store for jeans” when
you see pets.com. Sure, you want something short, memorable, and easy to type,
but your domain name needs to give people a reasonable expectation of what
they’ll find when they get there.
• Try adding words like “the,” “thereal,” or “my” in front of your name.
For example, thewidgets. com, or add a hyphen (-) between the keywords of your
store name (widget-store.com), or pick a specialty like location, price, or condition
to add to your store name (texaswidgets.com, cheapestwidgets.com, brandnew-
widgets.com, for example).
• Use a domain selection tool. For example, thewidgets. com, or add a hyphen (-)
between the keywords of your store name (widget-store.com), or pick a specialty
like location, price, or condition to add to your store name (texaswidgets.com,
cheapestwidgets.com, brandnewwidgets.com, for example).
Finally, here are some tips to consider about what NOT to do:
Don’t go for the long name, such as: thebestwidgetstoreintheworld.com.
Don’t go for any copyrighted names, such as: www.nike.com.
Don’t go for misspelled or bizarrely spelled names, such as: widgetz.com.
Don’t add too many hyphens or underscore characters, such as: the_best_
widget_store.com.
Selecting an Online Store Provider

Once you find a domain name, or even before you start looking for the right name,
you need to decide who to use as your online store provider. The online store provider
is a company (such as 3dcart) that provides e-commerce accounts for hosting your
online store and may help you with additional features such as payment processing,
promotion and marketing, and sales analysis.
When choosing an online store provider, here are some questions to keep in mind:
What kind of support do they offer? Can you e-mail them, call them, IM
them, visit them, all of the above, none of the above? You need to know
that someone is available to help because a broken website means zero
sales for the duration of the problem.
Do they provide enough options to match your company needs? Make

sure that the provider you pick offers an account level that has the right
elements to help you build and run your online store effectively.
What kind of contract do you need to sign? Many providers today no

longer ask for long-term contracts, but if your selected provider does ask
you to sign for a longer term, be prepared to invest in your business for
that length of time — or find another provider who’s more flexible.
Can they grow with your needs? Technically speaking, do they offer plans
that are “scalable” (for example, if you need a bigger account to handle
higher levels of visitors, sales, and bandwidth, can they expand your ac-
count to keep up with that demand)? Although some low-cost providers
may seem good today, if you’re hoping for long-term success, it doesn’t
hurt to plan for the future now and pick a provider that can grow with
you easily.
Just like any other partner you may use in your business — such as a distributor, drop
shipper, or manufacturer — do some research to make sure that the online store
provider is a reputable company. See if they have testimonials or examples of current
customers’ online stores. Check the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) to see if
there are any open complaints. Do some online research on sites like Yelp (www. yelp.
com) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) to see if their customers are talking positively
or negatively about them.
Defining Your Store Policies

The basic flow of an online store is obvious to most customers nowadays: They come
to your online store, buy one or more products, and check out with a payment method
and shipping address. You receive a copy of the order, which you then pack up and ship
out to the customer. Customers want to know, though, what rules are governing your
business and how you plan to handle various situations. You address this by
establishing official store policies.
The three most common policies that every online store should write before opening
for business are: the return policy, the shipping policy, and the privacy policy. In fact,
it’s a law that any online store has to have a visible privacy policy for their customers’
information. In the following sections, I outline the basics you need to consider when
writing each of these policies.
Return policy
Ideally, every customer who receives an order will be abso- lutely thrilled with the prod-
ucts they order, have no issues whatsoever, and only come back to you to buy addition-
al products. But what if that isn’t the case? Because customers are ordering products
based on pictures and descriptions, and those items are then mailed to them, there
will be times when a customer wants to return a purchase. Therefore, it’s important to
establish your return policy upfront before ever taking an order so that your customers
know what their options are before they place an order. Creating a return policy after
the first problem has occurred is not the best way to run an online store.
So, what does your return policy need to cover?
Do you offer returns? Seems like a simple answer, but you can be very spe-
cific. Yes or no on all returns, no returns on perishable, second-hand, or deeply
dis- counted merchandise, or no returns on specific brand names, product lines, or
groups of products. Will you only offer returns on items that are damaged or not
working correctly, or will you take returns for any reason (for example, the buyer
changed their mind)?
What is the return window? Basically, how long does the customer have to
start the return process? Many online stores have varying levels of a return win-
dow, from 7 to 14 to 30 days and more. Costco, for example, became famous for
previously offering an open-ended window of time for returns on all items. Even if
you bought an item years ago from Costco, you could return it no matter how long
it had been. Note: Costco revised their policy in 2007 and 2010 to allow returns
within 90 days on electronics and other related categories only. State clearly
when your return window begins (for example, from the moment they ordered it or
the day they received it).
Who pays for return shipping? You may stipulate in this part of your policy
that it depends on why the item is being returned. If you made a mistake with the
order, you pay. If the buyer changed their mind, they pay. Set this expectation
upfront, because many buyers assume that an online store will take care of every-
thing, thanks to some generous return policies among big online stores.
Is there a restocking fee? Some stores, like Best Buy for example, keep a per-
centage of the sales price of a sensi- tive item (such as consumer electronics) if
you open the product’s packaging and return it opened. This “restocking fee” is
intended to cover the cost of repacking the item to be sold, or the loss you’ll incur
trying to sell an opened product as opposed to a sealed, brand-new product. In
some cases (for example, if a product loses value over time), you may charge a
restocking fee because it’s less valuable when you get it back, even if it’s still
sealed in the box.
How does the buyer send back the item? Some sellers will provide return
shipping labels and then have the shipper pick up the package from the buyer’s
house. Other online stores cover the costs but tell the buyer to pack it up and take
it to the shipper to send back to the seller.
If all else fails, look at return policies from competitors’ stores in your product area
and get a sense of what is normal for your product lines. Perhaps a great return policy
is something you’ve decided to offer as part of your brand and if that’s the case, plan
accordingly by knowing your competitors’ return policies.
Shipping policy
When it comes to your shipping policy, the U.S. Federal gov- ernment, specifically the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), actually has guidelines you need to conform to when
offering sales online. The guidelines are in Part 435 of the Mail or Telephone Order
Merchandise Rule (MTOR), and in essence state that you must do the following:
Ship an order within the expected timeframe you told the customer when
they placed the order. For example, if you promise to ship all orders with-
in 7 days, you need to ship all orders in 7 days or less. You can set this
expectation in your shipping policy or in your advertising.
When you don’t provide an expectation on the timeframe, you must ship
the product within 30 days or less from the date the order was placed.
At times, you can extend that timeframe. For example, you have 50 days
if the customer is placing an order along with an application for credit.
If you determine that you cannot meet either the expected timeframe or
the 30-day window, you are required to get the consent of the customer
to ship it later, or provide a prompt refund. When you ask for
a consent to delay shipment, you must first provide a revised shipping
date. If the customer agrees, you must ship the item in the new agreed-up-
on timeframe. If the customer doesn’t agree, then you must provide a
refund based on the payment method used to place the order. In other
words, the guidelines from the FTC basically boil down to this: Set the
expectation with the buyer, and then meet or exceed that expectation.
When you write your shipping policy for your online store, definitely include the
following:
How much are you charging for shipping? Many online stores, the leading
example being Amazon.com, offer free shipping to their customers based
on a minimum order level. You can offer different shipping rates based on
the speed of delivery, the number of items in your order, and/or the size/
weight/quantity of the items in the customer order. Some stores offer a
table or chart describ- ing shipping costs, while other stores link to ship-
ping calculators that allow the buyer to compute shipping based on the
order size and destination address.
When you set up your shipping prices, don’t forget to add the cost of
handling, meaning the supplies used in packing your order (boxes, tape,
Styrofoam, packing peanuts, and so on) and the time required to pack
and ship the order.
How quickly will each order be packed and shipped? In other words, what
is the handling time from when you receive a customer’s order to when
you hand the package to the shipping carrier? Some online stores are
very specific, “All orders paid for by 12 p.m. PST will be shipped out the
same day,” while other stores give a range, such as 1 to 2 days, 7 days
or less, or certain shipping dates per month (“Orders ship on the 1st and
15th of every month”).
What shipping carriers do you offer? Is every order shipped with only one
carrier, such as the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS),
or FedEx? Or will customers have a choice in what shipping carrier is used
to transport their orders? Regardless of the carrier, will you allow dif-
ferent shipping options based on delivery time (for example, Media Mail,
Priority Mail, and Express Mail with the USPS)? Of course, you can charge
more for faster service, but you want to make sure that customers can
easily find what their shipping options are.
Will you provide a tracking or delivery confirmation number, and if so,

how? Many online stores have seen that their Number One question from
customers is, “Where is my order?” Therefore, you need to give your
customers a tracking or delivery confirmation number when their orders
are shipped. When providing this number, you need to let your custom-
ers know whether it will be e-mailed to them or they’ll have to log in to
a customer account to get the number — the two most commonly used
methods.
Are there any restrictions in the shipping process? If you exclusively use
UPS and/or FedEx, for example, as your shipping carriers, you need to
advise your buyers that you cannot accept any orders where the shipping
address is a P.O. box because UPS and FedEx don’t deliver to post office
boxes. In addition, you’d probably restrict addresses of APO military bas-
es overseas. If you are selling heavy or large volume items, you may not
want to offer shipping to Alaska or Hawaii since both states require air
mail in all circumstances and the cost becomes unreasonable.
The more information you provide upfront, the fewer questions you’ll have down the
road, and the fewer questions your buyers will have when deciding whether to order.
I discuss several ways to approach shipping policies here; it’s your job to reduce any
barriers to get your buyer to click Buy and place that order.
Privacy policy
Almost every online store provides a privacy policy via a link on their home page, let-
ting customers know the basics of their information-gathering efforts. Although the
FTC doesn’t have a federally mandated rule about privacy policies, there are principles
and guidelines that online stores should follow when writing and publishing their pri-
vacy policies.
Specifically, the three elements you need to address in your privacy policy are:
What information are you collecting? Are you just collecting personal data,
like name, address, phone number, e-mail address, or so on? Are you collecting
demographic data like age, gender, occupation, and so on? Are you keeping their
financial information like credit card numbers or bank account information? Are
you gathering and storing more information than that?
How are you storing and protecting that data? You need to let people
know that you are securely storing and protecting their data so that it’s not only
accurate but also secure from unauthorized use.
Who else can see the customer information? Are you sharing the data
with any of your partners or third-party providers? Are you and your
employees the only ones who see this information? Do you sell this
information to any clearing houses or other companies?
When it comes to sharing information, you must give the consumer the right to block
their information (or opt out) from being shared with anyone other than your online
store. You must provide clear instructions on how a consumer can accomplish this
(a link to a web form they fill out, a page within their customer account website, an
address they can mail a letter to, and so on) within your privacy policy. —
You also must make sure that those steps are always available to your customers at
any point in the ordering or shopping process.
!
Trust Guard provides a Free Privacy Policy Generator on a website that can
help you write a perfectly legitimate privacy policy for your online store.
You simply fill in the form (as shown in Figure 2-1). Find out more at
www.freeprivacypolicy.com.
Figure 2-1: Write your privacy policy at freeprivacypolicy.com.

3 Building Your
Online Store
In This Chapter
Selecting a theme or template for your online store
Grouping your products into categories
Inputting your product catalog into the online store system
Establishing your customer shipping options
Enabling the ability for customers to pay you with a credit card
Syncing Payment Methods with your online store account
When brick-and-mortar retailers start building their stores, they typically worry about
racks and fixtures to hold their products, floor plans, the visible signs in their front win-
dows, and many other concerns unique to a physical store. Online store owners worry
about similar but entirely different issues, ranging from templates, themes, and color
palettes to payment, shipping, and tax options that apply to any necessary situation.
In the end, owners of all types of stores want one thing: a clean, intuitive, functional
store that makes it simple and pleasing for customers to shop while appearing
professional and safe.
In this chapter, I talk about building the foundation for any online store owner. I start
with the design process in which you pick the overall appearance of your store. I then
move into the inventory phase where you map out your category structure and fill
those categories with individual product details. Finally, you worry about the post-or-
der needs of how to collect and process a customer’s payment method, record their
intended shipping method, and collect the required amount of sales tax for their order.
Once that’s all done, you can fling open the virtual doors by letting your hosting pro-
vider know that you’re open for business.
Designing Your Online Store
A common mistake many online store owners make is either rushing through the
design process without considering how to really lay out the elements of their store, or
trying to make those design decisions on the fly while worrying about the other
building steps. Take a little bit of time, if you can, and follow these steps:
1. Take out a piece of paper (or open your favorite word processor) and make a list of
all the pages you think your store should have. Don’t forget about pages like category
home pages, policy pages, contact information, FAQs, and a Site Map, which will list
all of your pages.
2. Study your competition by going to similar online stores and seeing what they have
and what you like about their stores that should be in your store. Add or subtract ele-
ments from the list you started in Step 1.
3. Using your list, pretend that you’re a customer and note the order and the number
of pages you would see for various scenarios. For example, if I’m ordering product X,
first I’d see the home page, then the category page, then product X’s page, then Check
Out, and so on.
!
If you go through enough scenarios, you should visit every page on your list at
least once. If you can’t come up with a scenario in which a page is not visited,
ask yourself why you’re building that page. This step will also help you realize
how to link together all the pages in your store.
Once you’ve done that, log in to your hosting provider and see what themes or tem-
plates are available for you to use. Select the theme that best matches either your
brand or product selection. For example, if you’re selling children’s products, a bright,
colorful, fun template is more suited for your store than a dark, blood-dripped, hor-
ror-image-filled template. Save that for your Halloween costume store.
By studying the competition, you’ll see different trends that online stores are using, so
pick a template that looks modern and current. You don’t want to be the one store
using a three- year-old store design while everyone else has moved on to the newest
designs.
Establishing Your Category Structure

When you walk through the grocery store, you see “category” names at every aisle,
from canned fruit to frozen food. When your customers browse your online store, they
need to see category names as well to know how to navigate your online aisles. It
wouldn’t hurt to sit down and make your category list first before uploading category
names to your hosting provider.
Here are some tips to help you in that process:
Use the language of your products and customers. Pick terms and group-
ings that your customers will expect to see, not necessarily the actual name of the
product.
Make your category names independent of any promotions. You don’t

want to change your category structure often so don’t create “temporary” cate-
gories.
Don’t have too many layers of sub-categories. Any individual product

should be available within three clicks from the home page, or you risk losing your
customer.
Try to cross-categorize your items. Several shopping carts allow you to as-
sign multiple categories to one item; so for example, a Star Wars board game can
go in the Star Wars category and the board game category.
If you end up with a lot of categories, you’ll probably have to specify which categories
are always visible from your naviga- tion bar or menu. Here, pick the most popular cat-
egories to make them easier to find for your customers.
Loading Your Products
In a grocery store, they put up the shelves first, assign categories to them, and then
fill them with bottles, cans, and boxes. In the online store, once you’ve created a cate-
gory structure, you then can add products to fill the categories. You can have several
methods for bringing products to your store:
An Add Product form in which you fill in the details for each product, in-
cluding some form of unique identifier like a SKU or Product Number, plus
the Title, Description, Photo, Price, Category, Quantity, and in some cases,
Weight, Dimensions, Cost, Manufacturer, Attributes, and Keyword(s).
An Upload Inventory option where you send up a Comma Separated Val-

ue (CSV) text list of your entire inventory, which you can create in a pro-
gram such as Microsoft Excel by creating columns for each detail and a
row for each product item.
An Import feature where you can pull products from an existing database
or drop-shipper inventory to put into your inventory database.
When you import or upload your data, always make sure to go back and review your
store’s inventory list so that you know the data didn’t get mixed up. Sometimes, an up-
load sends up part of your list but not all of it, if there was an error during the process.
Finally, review your product descriptions because you want to make sure that the right
keywords are included so they’re picked up by the search engines. (I talk about search
engine optimization in Chapter 4.)
!
Don’t try to put too many keywords into one description because the practice
of keyword stuffing actually hurts your search engine rankings.
Specifying Your Shipping Options
I suspect you already know how to pack and send your products, but now you need
to decide which shipping options you want to offer your customers. So, think about the
following:
Which shipping carrier(s) do I want to use? In the U.S., you have three main
options: the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Federal Express (FedEx), and United
Parcel Service (UPS). All three carriers allow you to create your shipping labels
online. USPS offers an entire range of options from affordable to expensive,
while UPS and FedEx focus more on services and guaranteed delivery times.
Check out their websites (www.usps.com, www. fedex.com, www.ups.com) for
more information.
How many shipping options should I offer? The less options you offer, the
easier your packing and shipping will be because you’ll only have to stock
one kind of shipping box/envelope and make one kind of label. The more
options you offer however, the happier your customers may be, especially the
ones who are willing to pay more for express delivery (for gifts, for example).
Find a mix of options that you know you can fulfill, first and foremost. As your
business grows, you can always add more shipping options.
How do I calculate my shipping cost to the customer? Some stores offer a flat
shipping rate per order, while many others base their shipping cost on the
weight of the items in the orders. Be sure to add a handling cost
if you need it to cover the cost of your packing supplies and/or the time for
someone to do the actual packing and shipping.
Some online store providers, like 3dcart, include a series of checkboxes so that
! you can offer options such as UPS Ground, FedEx 2nd day, and USPS Media
Mail to ship your orders. The rates are calculated based on the weight of the
items, the service your customer selects, and the rates of those services as
provided by the shipping carrier.
Accepting Credit Cards
According to the 2010 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC) report from the
Federal Reserve, the United States alone has more than 175 million credit card holders,
and each card holder has an average of 3.5 accounts. That’s a lot of potential buyers
for your online store. Credit cards continue to be the top payment for online stores, so
it’s important that you accept credit cards if you want to operate a successful store.
There are other options however, which I discuss later in the section “Offering Addi-
tional Payment Options.”
Therefore, you need to be sure that you cover all the steps when a customer submits
an order and makes a payment:
1. The customer provides their credit card number. This requires that your
shopping cart program offers the customer a secure form in which to input their infor-
mation, along with their address, shipping details, and credit card expiration date.
2. Your shopping cart software securely sends that credit card info to a
payment gateway. This is the virtual machine that connects you with the financial
institutions that process the credit card and release the funds. Usually, having a mer-
chant account comes with a recommended payment gateway (refer to Chapter 1) that
you input during the store setup phase.
3. The payment gateway securely sends that information to the payment
processor. The payment processor “talks” to the bank or financial institution that
issued the buyer’s credit card and said, “Okay, John Doe wants to buy something for
$60. Will you release the funds for this purchase?”
4. The processor sends back the results to the payment gateway. This in-
formation indicates whether the charge was approved or declined. If it was declined,
usually a specific reason (represented by a Decision Code or Error Code) is provided so
that you have an idea why the charge was not accepted.
5. The payment gateway notifies your shopping cart software of the de-
cision so that the purchase can be finalized. Once your shopping cart software
gets the results, it either displays an Order Confirmation screen with an order number,
receipt, and shipping details, or it displays an error message along with the Decision
Code and text so that the buyer knows why the order didn’t go through.
6. If the payment was approved, the payment processor sends the money
to your merchant account. These steps usually take a matter of seconds, so hope-
fully your buyer isn’t waiting too long for the decision.
Your main job in setting up your store is to make sure that your software, payment
gateway, and merchant account are all talking to each other smoothly so that your
customer orders are processed one by one without any errors.
Offering Additional Payment Options

According to a 2010 survey from Creditcards.com, 29 percent of the respondents said
that they do not have a credit card. Therefore, it’s important to consider additional
payment methods beyond the typical credit card.
Some of your choices include:
PayPal. In the U.S., you have three main options: the U.S. Postal Service (USPS),
Federal Express (FedEx), and United Parcel Service (UPS). All three carriers
allow you to create your shipping labels online. USPS offers an entire range
of options from affordable to expensive, while UPS and FedEx focus more on
services and guaranteed delivery times. Check out their websites (www.usps.
com, www. fedex.com, www.ups.com) for more information.
Google Checkout. The world’s leading search engine has a payment method
that allows their users to avoid sharing their credit card numbers and makes
payments quicker and easier. They offer a Payment Guarantee that can pro-
tect you, the merchant, in the case of a chargeback.
Checkout by Amazon. The “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore” also has a legion of
customers who have stored their payment information with them and trust
their easy-to-use payment method, so offering this payment option would
allow those customers to pay for your store orders as quickly as they buy a
new book.
Checks and money orders. These sound outdated, but people still write checks
and get money orders for all sorts of purchases. Normally, when you offer this
option, the online store software displays your mailing address when the buy-
er checks out. The buyer then prints a copy of the order and mails that to you
with their check or money order.
**Make sure that you deposit the check or money order and do not ship the order until after
the item clears your bank. There are still check and money order scams out there.**
Store providers, such as 3dcart, offer merchants more than 100 payment options. For
more information on 3dcart’s payment options, go to www.3dcart.com/ecommerce-
payment-gateways.html.
Launching Your Online Store

Usually, your online store hosting provider has a checklist or a wizard that guides you
through all the necessary steps before your online store becomes “open to the public.”
In some cases, the changes or data that you enter into your online store account aren’t
seen until you publish or upload that data to your public website. This is designed to
prevent people from seeing a half-built, semi-operational website and not being able
to place their first order when all the rules, policies, and inventory aren’t yet input.
When you’re ready to launch your online store, be sure to do the following before you
go live:
Make sure that your inventory listings are complete.Does every product have
an accurate description, visible picture, correct price, and accurate inventory
count? Does every category have at least one product listed? Are all the items
you’re ready to sell included in your inventory yet? Note: It’s easier to add
items now than when you’re trying to fill orders.
Make sure that your web pages are all complete. If you’re linking to other
web pages within your store, make sure that all those links are correct and
not “broken,” which means that they go to another working web page and
don’t reference a page that perhaps doesn’t exist anymore. Also, make sure
that every page has some content. It’s very easy to create a blank page with
the inten- tion of filling it with content, and then not getting around to it. If
you don’t have time to add the content, I strongly encourage you to delete
the blank page before launch.
Make sure that your contact information is current and up to date. Perhaps
something has changed since you first created your online store account. Up-
dated contact information is extremely important for your customers to see.
Make a backup copy of your entire store file. The last thing you want is to
create your perfect online store only to have it get lost the next day. Make a
backup copy on one of your computers.
4 Marketing Your
Online Store
In This Chapter
Getting online search engines to recognize you
E-mailing potential and current customers about your store
Using social media to make sales
Blogging your way to a customer base
Some store owners think the majority of their work is over when their store is launched
and in business. Unfortunately, their job has only begun, as the workload now shifts
over to marketing and getting the word out so that people will come and continue to
shop. The good news is that a lot of this effort can be done with a computer, a will, and
a way. (Although a marketing budget won’t hurt either.)
In this chapter, I review the more popular ways in which you can market your online
store, such as: you can use search engine optimization or paid ads to get your store on
the search results page; you can reach out to customers via e-mail newsletters and/or
by blogging; and you can get others to
sell or talk about your products through affiliate sales, social media marketing, and
special deal offers.
Search Engine Optimization

When you search for something on Google or Yahoo!, for example, ever wonder why
they pick those ten sites that show up on the first page of their search results? They use
special formulas to make that happen, but the study of how to best perform in Internet
searches and get a high ranking is called search engine optimization (SEO). The main
thing to know is that search engine rankings are largely measured by three factors,
some of which you can control.
Content. If all else is equal, a website with 100 pages outranks one with 5
pages so augment your online store with articles about your products or in-
dustry. Add a blog or product reviews. Make sure each category has its own
landing page.
The Site Map, listing every page on your website, is par- tially designed for
search engine programs to find every page, so be sure to have a Site Map
that’s linked on your home page.
Incoming links. The more people who link from their website to yours, the
more search engines see that as a vote of confidence. For example, if 100
sites link to “Joel’s Comics,” it must be a good site. Try to get recommenda-
tions from trusted sites and engage in online conversa- tions or write articles
in which you reference your store at the bottom of those posts.
Keywords. Using the same keyword too many times on a page is considered
bad. Too few, and there’s no sense of what’s important on the page. Make
sure that the important keywords for your products are on the page and
make sure that you fill in the <TITLE>, <META>, and <ALT> tags, as well as
name your web pages and subdirectories after your products.
Paid Advertisement
If you don’t naturally show up in the first few pages of the main search results (perhaps
there’s just too much competition out there), you can pay to show up along the edge
of the screen. Paid advertisements are widely used by small businesses. Sites such as
Google offer AdWords search engine ads that get you instant visibility and potential
sales at a budget set by you.
See if your online store provider has free credit offers. For example, 3dcart has a deal
for up to $100 in free Google AdWords credit.
Sign up with an online ad system like Google AdWords and follow their instructions to
have your ad show up when a keyword (or phrase) is entered by that search engine’s
users. Set a daily or weekly budget so that you don’t spend too much without seeing
any results. If you can, run two similar ads and then see whether one generates more
sales than the other.
Paid online ads are designed to raise sales, not just bring “eye- balls” to your
! store. Visibility is great, but online ads are best used to encourage sales of
specific products, so advertise items with healthy profit margins. If you’re
spending money with no added sales, stop running ads and re-examine your
business model.
E-mail Marketing
We live in a world of e-mail. It’s cheaper than postage stamps, phone calls, and post-
cards, and everyone reads their e-mail almost every day. E-mail marketing is a cheap
and reliable way of keeping in touch with existing customers and trying
to sway new customers into shopping at your store — when used effectively. The main
concept to remember in any e-mail marketing is that the e-mail should provide some
value to customers so they’ll open, read, and pay attention to it. Only sending out sales
announcements, or sending out unsolicited advertisements continuously, is not the
way to go. Mix in product sales with useful information so that recipients want to keep
your e-mail and not send it to the spam folder.
Autoresponder e-mail
An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically e-mails someone based
on what you set up. For example, if someone joins your website, you can automatically
send out a multi-step chain of e-mails over the next week or month, welcoming them
to the site and introducing them to your site’s functionality and offerings. The best part
is that you set it up once, and from there, it works for all newcomers without constant
intervention on your part.
Newsletters
One of the best ways to keep up constant communication with your customers is to
create and send store newsletters. The best ones are combinations of articles and
store information, with some promotion and marketing mixed in. When you want to
create a store newsletter:
Create an “opt-in” list of people who agree to receive your newsletter,

monthly, weekly, or so on.
Write an article or republish one from sites such as goarticles.com to give

your newsletter fresh content.
Consider having newsletter-only sales or promotions to give your newsletter

a more unique value.
Mix in customer testimonials or reviews to give your newsletter a personal

touch.
Affiliate Program
What if there was a way to enlist other people to help you sell your products? You
could hire a sales staff, but what if you could “hire” someone and only give them a
percentage of any sales they made? In the online world, this happens every day in the
form of affiliate sales. Affiliate sales are simply sales in which someone else brings you
a customer, and in exchange for bringing that customer to your store, the “affiliate”
gets a percentage of that customer’s order. You can automate and track all of this,
and several shopping cart systems already have the power to create and administer
affiliate sales without too much extra work by you. So spend some time thinking
about the following:
Set up rules for what your affiliates can and cannot do. Your affiliates are
an extension of your business. Make sure they agree to uphold any laws or
agreements you have in place with your partners, and not to embarrass or
defame you in front of customers.
Create a fair commission plan. Pick too low of a percentage, and no one will
work hard for you. Too high, and it’s not profitable. Come up with a fair split
(look at the competition) and create rewards for high sales.
Support your affiliates with marketing materials. Make sure they have a good
mix of images, product information, even sales and marketing material, so
they can create their affiliate links, websites, and material to attract
customers.
!
You can list your store products on any number of affiliate networks, a few
of which are www.shareasale.com, www. cj.com (Commission Junction), and
www.linkshare.com.
Social Media/Social Commerce

There’s a slogan, “Be where your customers are.” Today, that’s online social media. As
of this writing, Facebook has more than 850 million members around the world, while
Twitter has more than 100 million members in the U.S. alone. Social media sites are
where people of all ages are hanging out, talking about their likes (and dislikes), and
inherently making decisions that could affect their purchase habits. Companies of all
sizes have figured out ways to create a pres- ence that’s not too invasive but allows
them to be “part of the conversation.” So can you.
A Facebook Store allows you to operate a new sales channel by offering a select per-
centage of your store goods on Facebook. You can mix product offerings into your
Facebook posts, and when a potential customer clicks to add that product to their
cart, they’re taken back to your store for a quick checkout.
Don’t overload your Facebook feed by constantly pushing or promoting all your store
products. Try to pick either your best sellers or products that are relevant to what you
or your customers are discussing on Facebook. Too much sales promotion without a
conversation is not effective here.
Blogging
Today, there are hundreds of millions of web logs, or “blogs” for short, discussing every
topic imaginable in a journal-style format online. Some search engines, such as
technorati.com, only search blog posts for information, and entire confer- ences and
websites are dedicated to supporting the people and companies who blog, better
known as bloggers. So why should an online store owner create a blog? Here’s why:
You build a rapport with your customers. You can go into the details of how
you run your online store, or the events involved in the making of your prod-
ucts. You can give people tips and tricks on how to use your products. Read-
ers can get a feel for your expertise, learn about what they’re buying, and
gain trust and develop empathy for you as the store owner.
It’s great for the search engines. Search engines raise the ranking of websites
with new, fresh content; blogs are definitely favored. You’ll make progress
if you create an average of three to five blog posts per week and use good
product keywords (without being too obvious).
You keep your website current. Your blog posts, as part of your store, provide
an easy way to make updates, send out news and specials, and answer
customer questions for all to see. Your customers can choose to follow your
blog automatically, and you don’t have to constantly add this information to
your store pages.
Daily and Group Deals
One of the hottest categories of shopping websites to hit the Internet recently is the
“group” or “daily deal” website, such as Groupon, Living Social, Google Offers, Face-
book Deals, and Amazon Deals. These sites promise deep discount savings on select
items by getting large quantities from a manufacturer or distributor and offering a few
unique deals per day to their large audience. Customers get a big savings, and compa-
nies can move a large quantity of product quickly. These daily deal sites get traction
and buying power to offer more deals and receive a cut of sales. Some things to keep
in mind:
Pick slow-moving merchandise with a high profit margin.
Be ready to ship these new orders immediately.
Include literature about your other items for sale.
Offer a special promotion if they return for a second order.

5 3dcart: Your Online
Store Solution
In This Chapter
Understanding the benefits of using 3dcart
Looking at the different online store plans
Starting your 3dcart store account
Launching your store
When it comes to online store hosting providers, you should always be on the look-
out for a company that offers a wealth of options, stays ahead of the curve whenever
possible, and provides a stable, robust, and hassle-free way to get started and stay
profitable. 3dcart is one such company. In this chapter, I look at some of the benefits
of using 3dcart as your online store hosting provider.
Why 3dcart?
3dcart is a company built by professionals who used to build e-commerce solutions for
medium to large companies. Using the list of overall features and functions that these
companies wanted, the folks at 3dcart created a scalable solution for anyone to buy
and implement at their own pace and needs.
After more than ten years and 15,000 clients, 3dcart continues to provide a fully fea-
tured, easy-to-use, all-encompassing solution designed to let online store owners
think less about the technology needed to power the online store, so that they can
think more about finding products and serving their customers. Some of the things
that set 3dcart apart include the following:
They think about all the things you might need. Many store providers focus only
on the basics and provide shopping cart software, templates, disk space,
bandwidth, and maybe a quick wizard to help you get started. 3dcart gives you
dynamic editing options, built-in marketing and social media options, search en-
gine optimization (SEO) tools, and much more. There are no “stripped down, bare
bones” packages.
They understand your business. Whether you want to sell t-shirts, handmade jew-
elry, flowers, or wine online, 3dcart powers online stores in these fields and more.
More than 15,000 online stores currently rely on 3dcart’s systems to sell their
products.
You pay as you go. No set-up fee, no transaction fees, and no long-term
contracts. You pay only your flat monthly plan fee and any optional marketing
services you may use.
You can expand your options. 3dcart allows you to install “apps” to add extra
functionality to your store. One example is the Facebook Connect app, which
allows potential customers to log in to your online store by using their Facebook
account information. This makes it quicker and easier for customers to shop, and
they become advertisers for you on their Facebook Wall!
3dcart Plans
3dcart offers three basic account types to handle the small, medium, or large online
store. Every account option offers unlimited products, orders, bandwidth and storage;
and includes a strong core of basic functions and a great foundation for your online
store. In addition to these 3dcart offers an Enterprise plan for larger business selling
over $400k/year.
For the latest information and pricing on 3dcart plans, visit:

https://www.3dcart.com/pricing.htm
Signing Up
If you’re interested in signing up for a 3dcart plan, simply go to www.3dcart.com and
pick the plan that’s right for you. You’ll see a big green button that says Sign Up be-
neath every plan. Click that button and follow the steps from there. Once you’ve sub-
mitted your order, you’ll get an e-mail with all the essential information on how to get
started. Hold on to that e-mail because it’s going to contain your personalized account
information, including:
Your account domain name
The URL link to your Store Manager software
Your login and password
Your FTP account login information
Your e-mail account login information
Getting Started Checklist

When you log in to the 3dcart Store Manager, you are greeted by a friendly wizard that
walks you through the steps for getting started:
1. Welcome. Use this wizard to handle the basic aspects of building your store.
2. Company. Set up your remaining company information (such as phone and fax
number, URL, e-mail address, and currency symbol) and time zone.
3. Template. Pick from dozens of themes in their database to set the look and feel
for your store. You can preview any theme in its own window to see how everything
will be presented.
4. Categories. Fill in the list of fields with the category names you want to use to
organize your products.
5. Products. Complete a simple form for each product you want to add to your prod-
uct catalog, providing the following pieces of information: a unique Product Code (like
a UPC code), Product Name, Price, Weight, Image, Description, and the Store Category
for that product.
6. Shipping. From a list of the main shipping carriers, you can select which carriers
and specific shipping options you want to offer (for example, UPS Ground, USPS Pri-
ority Mail, and so on). You can also set shipping prices based on destination, product
weight, or other factors.
7. Tax. You can set up your store to charge sales tax in the U.S. state in which you’re
based, or you can choose to set up detailed sales tax tables, if necessary.
8. Payments. You can quickly provide your payment ID from such services as PayPal
Express, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, or USA ePay, or set up your payment account
information from one of 100 services, such as Checkout by Amazon.
9. You’re all set! The process is complete. You can always go to the 3dcart Store
Manager to further customize your store or take advantage of 3dcart’s marketing or
analytics offerings as well.
6
Ten Ways to Use 3dcart
to Grow your Online Store
In This Chapter
Working with 3dcart to grow your online business
As you run your online store, here are ten things you should think about, or spend
some time looking at, while using 3dcart in order to take your business to the next
level.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Go beyond the simple task of

e-mailing your customers and use CRM to coordinate regular communica-
tion where you understand individual customer patterns and needs and can
speak to them directly. 3dcart has a CRM system built into their software,
under Customers > CRM.
Order fulfillment. One of the first jobs that online stores like to outsource is the
actual picking, packing, and shipping of their orders. Thankfully, more services
are available than ever before, from Amazon’s “Fulfillment by Amazon” to
dedicated facilities like eFulfillment Service, Inc. Go to Plugins > Fulfillment from
the 3dcart menu to see the services already integrated with this system.
Printing shipping labels. The days of hand-writing customer addresses and
standing in line at the post office are thankfully over. Print your shipping la-
bels from home and arrange for home pickup, whether you use USPS, FedEx,
or UPS. Go to Orders > New from the 3dcart menu to get started, and then
click Print to print your labels for each new order.
Inventory control. Many online stores fail because too much money is tied up
in their inventory, waiting for a buyer. Use your existing sales and statistics to
figure out how much inventory you need to have on hand, so that you’re not
overstocking your warehouse. Go to Reports > Inventory from the 3dcart menu
to get started.
Mobile commerce. More and more people are using their mobile devices to
shop, so your online store needs to be optimized for this target audience. Go
to Settings > General > Store Modules from the 3dcart menu to get set up.
Product reviews. Recommendations from friends and family are a top reason
people buy certain products, and online product reviews serve as that recom-
mendation nowadays. Make sure that you, your customers, and your employ-
ees are posting reviews of your products for sale. Go to Products > Reviews for
more information.
Analyzing abandoned carts. “Abandoning your shopping cart” is the term

used when customers add product to their shopping cart but don’t finish the
process. Thanks to site cookies that 3dcart stores when people order, plus
e-mail reminders, you can encourage potential customers to complete their
orders by enabling Not Completed Order e-mails. When you go to Orders
and see multiple orders stop at the same step of the checkout process, see if
you can find something in that step that is discouraging orders. Finally, you
can take a real-time look at marketing campaign results, customer activity,
payment and shipping types selected, actual sales numbers, and other sta-
tistics to get a complete picture of your sales process. Go to Orders > Not
Completed for more information.
Website analytics. 3dcart works directly with Google Ana- lytics to give you a
better idea of how your customers are interacting with your online store. To find
out more about individual customer visits, referrals, their location data, and so
on, go to Plugins > Statistics > Google Analytics.
Sales statistics. Always look at your top and bottom sellers, so that you
know what to order more of, and what to discount or slash your order on,
when it’s time for a reor- der. Go to Reports➪Sales from the 3dcart menu for
more information.
Reports. You can’t understand the day-to-day perfor- mance of your business
without reviewing all the different activity, which you can do with Reports. Go
to Reports from the 3dcart menu for more information.
The best SEO ecommerce platform for your online store,
with Hundreds of features to help your website rank higher,
engage visitors and convert sales.
TRY 3dcart FREE FOR 15 DAYS

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Building an

Chapter 1: Online Stores Basics..............................................6

Chapter 2: Planning Your Online Store................................13

Chapter 3: Building Your Online Store.................................30

Chapter 5: 3dcart: Your Online Store Solution...................46

Chapter 6: Ten Ways to Use 3dcart to Grow Your

How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1, Online Store Basics, explains basic concepts and ter-

Chapter 2, Planning Your Online Store, explains how to assemble

Chapter 5, 3dcart: Your Online Store Solution, explores one

Chapter 6, Ten Ways to Use 3dcart to Grow Your Online Store,

Icon Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

The Parts of a Domain Name

Data transfers: While bandwidth is concerned with the amount of information

Is the web hosting provider a reputable business? You can research

Content management system

Products that can be in your catalog

Products that can be in a customer’s shopping cart

Categories that can be in your inventory

Pictures you can associate with each inventory item

Different shipping method options you can present to the customer

Different payment methods supported by the software

You have a few options when securing a merchant account:

Direct merchant account providers: Some financial institutions offer just

Third-party providers: Some brokers will talk to different direct merchant

Just make sure that your provider:

Is diverse. What credit cards do they accept (Visa, MasterCard, American

Works with your shopping cart software.

Is quick to process your payments.

Provides support if something goes wrong.

Offers reporting, management, and other tools.

Identifying What to Sell

Selling your own products

1. Manufacturer: The company that makes the prod-

2. Distributor: The manufacturer sells large quantities of their product to

3. Retailer: Retailers order products from distributors (and in some cases,

4. Customer: Customers go to a retailer and buy the product.

Using a drop shipper also comes with some potential downsides:

Approach the manufacturer to see whether they have a list of recommended

Defining Your Market

Creating Your Brand

Choosing a Domain Name

Is your name available? You can go to websites like www.whois.com or www.

Don’t go for the long name, such as: thebestwidgetstoreintheworld.com.

Don’t go for any copyrighted names, such as: www.nike.com.

Don’t go for misspelled or bizarrely spelled names, such as: widgetz.com.

Selecting an Online Store Provider

Do they provide enough options to match your company needs? Make

What kind of contract do you need to sign? Many providers today no

Defining Your Store Policies

So, what does your return policy need to cover?

Will you provide a tracking or delivery confirmation number, and if so,

Figure 2-1: Write your privacy policy at freeprivacypolicy.com.

Establishing Your Category Structure

Here are some tips to help you in that process:

Make your category names independent of any promotions. You don’t

Don’t have too many layers of sub-categories. Any individual product

An Upload Inventory option where you send up a Comma Separated Val-

Offering Additional Payment Options

Some of your choices include:

Launching Your Online Store

Search Engine Optimization