• Survey
  • Book Becky to speak
  • The book: Small Town Rules
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Is ecommerce right for your small town store

By Becky McCray

[Paul Gerst of TeaDog, offered up this introduction to ecommerce for small town retailers. He has some terrific questions for you to think through. -Becky]

If you are a small town retailer, you may be thinking about adding ecommerce to your business. Before making a decision, take a few moments to consider a some questions.
Kamas Cash Store

In doing some preparation, you may learn that ecommerce is the right step. You also may discover that starting a store blog or improving a web site would be more fitting. You might find out that using sites like Etsy.com or Amazon Marketplace work better for your business.

As a retailer, you have advantages that may make ecommerce beneficial. For example, you already accept credit cards so you have a merchant account. You currently sell items so you have relationships with suppliers. Maybe most importantly, you know the type of customer that buys your products and what is important to them.

Despite the proliferation of ecommerce and an economic slowdown, opportunity still exists to sell online. The Dept of Commerce indicated US retail ecommerce sales for the second quarter of 2009 rose 2.2% to over $32 billion from the first quarter while total retail sales decreased slightly. Overall, ecommerce accounted for 3.6% of total retail sales.

Although it may not seem logical, technology should be one of the last items to consider. Other factors will have a bigger effect on the success of your ecommerce business.

To begin, determine a measurement of success. What will make your ecommerce site successful? How will you measure success? Is it revenue? How much? Is it the fun of a new challenge?

Also, carefully, consider roles and responsibilities. Since you are already busy, who will manage the site? How will you handle shipping? Who will handle marketing? Marketing the site will be your biggest challenge.

Next, consider the competition. Even though you successfully compete regionally, you now face a bigger audience. What differentiates you from Amazon, eBay and Internet-only stores? Determine your unique selling proposition and make sure to be consistent. If your store competes on service or offers unique items, then do the same online.

Then, if you decide to sell online, the first step is picking a shopping cart. Determine your goals, level of technical expertise and amount you want to spend. Most of today’s shopping carts are built for small businesses and made for people who are not programmers or developers. A little skill can build a robust ecommerce store.

Make sure to get all the fees and exactly what is included in the cost. Beware, some carts charge a percentage of monthly sales. Make sure you know about this. Take advantage of the 30-day free trial many offer to build a small site.

In doing research, review sites with similar items or ones you really enjoy using. Find out the carts used by these sites. You can look at the footer of the site, which often tells the shopping cart platform. It may say “Online Shopping by …” or some variation.

With the right preparation and answer to a few questions, you will make the right decision to enhance the value of your small business store.

A small business owner, Paul Gerst runs teadog.com, an ecommerce retailer specializing in brands of tea from around the world. He also runs a fan site for PG Tips Tea.

Photo by Becky McCray.

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
 

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Downtown is your town’s core: How to make your case - February 22, 2021
  • Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns - December 10, 2020
  • In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020

September 8, 2009 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Comments

  1. Miles Technologies' Website Design says

    September 9, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    “Who will handle marketing? Marketing the site will be your biggest challenge.” – Finding an ecommerce website provider that also offers online marketing services is your best bet for ecommerce success.

  2. RedHotFranchises says

    September 10, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    Consider using an SEO Platform such as LotusJump. It’s a very efficient automated SEO tool that delivers SEO tasks for you to complete based upon the content of your website and the keywords, greatly simplifies SEO.
    http://www.lotusjump.com/

  3. Brad Harmon says

    October 10, 2009 at 9:23 am

    Paul,

    Great post! The key to a small store having a successful store front on the internet is picking the right niche. If you can add a blog to your store front and keep it updated with original content about this niche then you can dominate internet traffic with the right SEO keywords. It looks like this is what you are doing with your fan site.

    Regards,

    Brad

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Shop Local

Buy local buttonReady to set up a shop local campaign in your small town? You'll need a guide who understands how we're different and what really works: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.

Best of Small Biz Survival

What is holding us back? Why does every project take so long in small towns?

How any business can be part of downtown events by going mobile

Concert-goers talking and enjoying the evening in downtown Webster City, Iowa.

Why do people say there’s nothing to do here then not come to our concerts?

Retailers: Fill all empty space, floor to ceiling

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2021 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in