Sinclair Research
Adam Smith Shop
Fine & Modern Art
Letchworth's Shop
Palamanando
TrickWRX
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E-COMMERCE
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.
It cannot be denied that many traders have done spectacularly well on the Internet.
Hotels and booksellers are obvious examples to cite, but numerous retailers have established a niche for themselves on-line and done extremely well.
An e-commerce solution can serve your clients or customers at their own pace and in their own time.
It can also be substantially cheaper to set up and run a virtual shop than the real bricks-and-mortar equivalent.
An on-line shop has many obvious benefits and a few that are less obvious.
For example, you don't need to actually be selling anything for an e-commerce solution to be suitable for a need you may have.
A simple shopping cart can be a convenient way to manage items you want to make available to visitors.
An on-line shop is open 24 hours a day, holidays included.
People like to shop when it's most convenient to them, the existence of 24-hour supermarkets proves that.
An on-line shop is open round the clock, with no lunch hours, no weekends and no holidays.
Your staff don't call in sick and there are no working time directives or other employment-limiting regulations to contend with.
Our advice has remained the same for some time now: dip your toe in the water, don't dive in head-first.
If you don't have a web site at all at the moment, start off with something simple and learn the ropes.
Too many mistakes are made by people who don't understand the pitfalls.
The Internet is a whole new arena, it would be like opening a shop in a new country, you need to learn about how they do business there and what the risks to you might be.
We can help you with that.
Pick some of your best customers and involve them.
Existing customers will appreciate the extra convenience of being able to order on-line - boosting sales to your existing customer base.
But tell them about your new venture and they will be enthusiastic to provide feedback, as well as flattered to have been asked.
Get them to test the process and make it as easy as possible for customers to use your site.
Pick a few of your best-selling lines and start off with just those.
You may not have handled postal sales before, in which case choose some easy-to-ship items that will survive a few days in the postal system, and familiarise yourself with the process.
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Working Time Directives do not apply in Cyberspace.
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