Why a Yahoo Store?

Why a Yahoo! Store?

The Internet is still an open marketplace for small startups, home businesses, and one-person operations that can and do build profitable online businesses. There's nothing really mysterious about eCommerce. If you ever bought an item from a catalog or from an advertisement in a magazine, the purchase process is pretty much the same. The only difference is that instead of purchasing from a person over the telephone or sending a check through the mail, you're conducting the transaction with a mouse through your PC and the Internet. For the business, the fulfillment process that takes place is no different from taking and fulfilling an order over the phone. For the buyer, the transaction is completed electronically and without human intervention. Notejust about all big catalog houses have moved their offerings to the Internet.

eCommerce offers advantages to both the buyer and seller.

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Advantages to the Online Buyer and Seller

The advantages to the online buyer include the ability to find hard-to-get items from the comfort of his or her chair, bargain pricing, and automated cost-comparison. In addition, the buyer can shop from the comfort of his or her home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and never worry about finding a parking place. And with a click of the mouse, a buyer can search for the best prices on items using shopping comparison sites such as mySimon, Dealtime, and Froogle. The advantages for the seller include access to worldwide markets (the first W in World Wide Web is "world"), minimal sales costs, and the ability to track purchases and user data to recommend other items to the customer. Amazon is good example of "If you like this, you might want that."

Disadvantages to the Online Buyer and Seller

But all is not perfect in the online shopping world. The disadvantages to the buyer include no face-to-face exchanges with a merchant if questions arise, the hassle of shipping retuned goods to the merchant, and solving long-distance customer service problems. And for all its advantages to the online seller, an eCommerce business still faces the same challenges as those of physical businesses, such as building a digital presence, marketing and promoting the business, taking orders, fulfilling and shipping them, and tending to all the customer service issues that any business must solve.

Customer service, customer care, good products or services at a fair price, and above all, a good, well-thought-out business plan that is well executed are principles that still hold true in business whether online or not.

So, why is eCommerce so special? Why has it been such a success and growing in use every year with consumers?

eCommerce levels the playing field and lets small companies that have found a unique selling niche compete, literally, on a global scale. If you have the right kind of business, the Internet can open up a vast market of customers to you at an affordable price.

And that's the opportunity that Yahoo! stores offers.