Creating & Running a Successful Online Business

To create and run a successful online business, the owner needs to consider the purpose for the website which is to sell services or products directly to consumers. It needs to be able to process payments, handle inventory, and be able to take care of shipping and returns. It also shows details about products/services, categories, and checkout. Many pages may be included.  It markets products/services using email marketing and/or often paid advertising.

     Best practices of design and layout would include a home page, category page(s), shopping cart, contact, about us, search engine, email subscription form, a blog, and legal information.

Determining and collecting sales tax can be managed by various ways.  1) If the owner of the website sells through an online marketplace, those companies would be required to collect and pay the sales tax due in some states. 2) The owner could use sales tax software to manage the calculations, filings, and reporting process. 3) The owner could calculate the sales tax manually.

 Shipping costs and time of delivery could be handled by figuring out the shipping cost based on weight, size, and destination, offering free shipping, offering flat-rate shipping, etc. Software could be used to help the owner monitor if he has enough products to fill an order and to update the inventory as items are sold. The owner could look at past sales and forecast how much inventory is needed. A policy for handling returns should be established and clearly defined. The customer should be offered support by phone, or email. If I become an Amazon affiliate, Amazon would handle the returns. The money is refunded if a product is returned, but I would earn no commission.