Business Trends: Storefronts Online Provide Opportunities

Thanks to new online technologies, an integrated, turnkey managed eCommerce solution enables even those folks who don't have their own websites to sell and deliver content to a worldwide audience. One of the latest business trends on the Internet is something called Effortless Commerce, a technology that enables people to profit from their content who otherwise could not easily do so. This integrated, turnkey managed eCommerce solution enables even those folks who don't have their own websites to sell and deliver content to a worldwide audience. People can literally create a product, put it on a storefront for sale, and make profits.

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet.

Let's say you are a personal trainer who has a new DVD to sell, or a young aspired musician with the latest music that you would like to get out to the world. Spending money for a website is not possible. You have explored the route of getting a manager and sales team to sell your product into retail stores, but this cuts into the percent of profits that you could make. Where can you turn?

The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown dramatically since the wide introduction of the Internet. The Census Bureau of the US Department of Commerce estimated that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2007, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, was $33.6 billion, an increase of 6.4 percent (0.8%) from the first quarter of 2007.

Online Effortless Commerce storefront requires no technical expertise. People have the option to offer products in downloadable formats so that their customers can purchase physical disks, digital downloads, or both. Their online store will automatically display options in the local language and currency for visitors; provides automated calculation for taxes, filing, and also payment; has special pricing for content suppliers; editing, authoring and graphic design services; uses an On Demand Production Engine whereby CD/DVD products are manufactured upon purchase with zero inventory; Automated order processing is provided ... everything happens automatically and on time, from the time of purchase until shipping products; multiple shipping methods and delivery globally; provides email notifications to customers with shipping confirmations and tracking numbers; and features automatic payment.

Another trend in online business is a new phenomenon called pretailing, which Garter says, "consists of the multi-channel shopping activities consumers do before they even visit a retailer's Web site or local store. Pretailing will increase in importance as consumers get access to more retail information and services on the Internet." (Source: Gartner Group, 28 February 2007)

And if you don't think that eCommerce is important enough to the global economy, according to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2006-2010, online advertising spend predictions will reach $26 billion by the year 2010.