“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
~Scott Belsky, Behance Co-Founder
No matter what we think or want to believe, the global economy is changing and will continue to change as technology develops, as the world gets smaller and political instability increases.
These facts hit me hard this past year when I was hired by a major global corporation to develop an e-business course for their employee base. The research to create a dynamic new e-business course to cover a global economy was fascinating and placed me into a journey I would never have expected to take.
I began to think.
How does e-commerce affect women in the world’s economy?
How can women benefit from the growing e-commerce economy?
Selling items online is not a new concept. It’s been around for a long time. Have you heard of Amazon, eBay, and Etsy?
However, technology today is making it easier and more cost-effective for women to create a business in an hour, sell merchandise around the world, use their creativity, and make money. One of my favorite small business success stories includes Closet Candy Boutique.
How do you start the process?
With any type of business, there are factors that need to be considered on an on-going basis. In the e-commerce environment, I found that tracking stability, growth of the e-commerce business, competition, best items to sell, and technology will be the best advice for beginners.
Experts in the industry can be found with the simple process of Googling the topic. Once found, sign-up for email updates, join their groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and if available, their private on-line group.
Some of my favorite sites that help me are Shopify blog, A Better Lemonade Stand, GetElastic.com (Linda Bustos), MyWifeQuitHerJob.com (Steve Chou), Moz Blog, and Practical Ecommerce.
Other resources to consider are Google Words and Key Word Explorer to determine keywords, rank tracking, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and to access other tools to help navigate in the industry.
Not everything in e-business is fun or easy. Competition is growing with big retailers getting involved with drop shippers such as Home Depot. It’s important to remember most items you will sell are being sold by someone else unless it’s your new a creative service or idea.
My journey has taught me a lot of pros and cons about the e-commerce business model. Listed below are some of my favorites in both categories.
