Pop quiz time! (Just want to see how on the ball you are when it comes to e-commerce.)
What are the significance of the following dates: July 5, 1994 and September 3, 1995?
(OK….times up!)
Those dates, 14 months apart in time, signify the dawn of the “twin towers” of e-commerce, Amazon and Ebay, respectively. As the “world wide web” was emerging as a potential force in our society, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Pierre Omidyar (Ebay) had visions of how this revolutionary technology can be used to create a virtual store, encompassing everything from providing the virtual catalog to managing the payment and compensation structure, to establishing a distribution system to policing the process to ensure that both vendor and customer are satisfied.
Though nobody knew it at the time, those two business models were the basis and impetus for millions of online-based businesses, yours truly included, that have come down the pike since. Billions upon billions of dollars have changed hands online in the almost twenty years since these two businesses opened their virtual doors.
Not bad for a couple of lines of code.
Fact is, e-commerce has been an extreme game changer when it comes to the success of a business. No longer is a retail-based business bound by the limitations that a “brick and mortar” storefront can provide, whether it comes to location, hours of operation, manpower, inventory, and operation. E-commerce has leveled the playing field in a big way, enabling a “single shingle” establishment to have the same online pull as a “big box” store, such as Walmart, Best Buy, or Home Depot. Companies have the power to reach customers all over the world at any time of day (yes, achieving the ideal of “making money while you sleep”!).
All well and good in the big picture, you may be thinking, but “What’s in it for me?” How can you start YOUR own e-commerce business?
Well, the easiest and fastest way to get it started, would definitely to on Facebook to create your Facebook Page. I personally have enrolled into FB Influence workshop (Click Here! )that gave me a step-by-step training to help me create a results-focused Facebook Marketing Plan on day 1 when I first started my first business, and that helped me ultimately make more money online then at retail. No wonder it is by far the most popular Facebook program in the market for any entrepreneur, online marketer, coach, consultant or service provider with a product or service to sell.
Well, whether you are looking to expand the reach of your brick and mortar store or simply starting anew from jump street, there really is no bad time to start an e-commerce business. The opportunities are practically limitless.
Click Here! Check it out!
Looking for more tips and tools to grow your business? Get a copy of our magazine with contributions from leaders in the market!