UK Boxing Day Online Sales Break Records

If you are someone who likes to traipse around the shops, fighting shoppers and trying on clothes which don’t fit you, before standing in queues of sweaty bodies, then you need not read this article. If, however, you would prefer to shop from the comfort of your own home, then read on.

Boxing Day online sales for 2009 broke all previous records in the UK. It was sales galore leading up to Christmas and people were even found to be hunting for bargains on Christmas day itself! More and more high street retailers are choosing to sell online and ecommerce has become an all important feature for any major retailer.

Ecommerce, or online shopping, is a great way to start up in business because people can find you and buy from you, all in one hit. If you have your own website, then using an online shop facility means that your products are visible and they are accessible without anyone having to leave the comfort of their own home. People love to shop online – it’s as simple as that. We are becoming an increasingly immobile society that seeks instant gratification, and if people can buy from you whilst making the dinner and hoovering the lounge, then they will!

The most economical way to start your own business is to set up a website with a website builder and there are many of those around. You can literally be set up within moments using the range of templates provided and you will start to pop up in search engine trawls from the minute you publish it. Once you have your website set up and your business registered, an online shop could be the best way for you to get quick sales, depending on the type of product that you sell.

Make your website easy for customers to navigate and let them see how easy it is to buy from you. The easier it is, the more likely they are to stay with you. People don’t want to have to trawl through endless sites and pages to find what they are looking for. They are easily bored so it’s important to capture their interest from the outset. Make your products clear, your pricing structure clear and your pages easy to navigate with good links from one to the next. Joe Bloggs wants a Christmas present for his sister in a certain colour and for £30. He wants it as quickly as possible and he wants it to be delivered within a few days. Consumers know what they want and it’s a consumer-led market.

Think about what you would do when shopping for Christmas or a birthday and what you would want from an online shop. Then adapt it to your own business and your own market. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and start thinking about you can capitalise on this. Make your website customer friendly and start to see your sales rise next Boxing Day! You don’t need a high street presence to make your business work.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Starting a business on a shoestring

There was once a perception that only those with money could make money; that only those who had financial backing could start up their own business. Let’s have a look at why this is not the case.

Many entrepreneurs have gone on from nothing, with very little cash, to make a lot of money from their ideas. The key factors to their successes are the right idea, a good business plan and the desire to make it work. You can have all the money in the world to throw at a new business in the first instance but, if you don’t have the business savvy to make it work, then you may just be throwing money down the drain.

There are online companies that can help you to grow your business venture on a shoestring. It depends on the type of business you are hoping to run so choose your business idea carefully. Why not stick to a business in an area with which you are already familiar – stick to what you know. And if you do have to borrow, then borrow wisely and do your homework first. The last thing you want is to owe money that you can’t afford and end up losing everything you had your heart set on.

Working online is one way to keep your set-up costs down and give the impression that you are a larger business than you really are. Once you have set up a website using a free package, you can be up and running in no time, with very little money required.

Keep your costs to begin with as low as you can; be a miser, stop being a consumer for a while and learn that you cannot reap the rewards at the outset. A lot of hard work will have to come first and so you need to tighten your belt and park that idea of driving a flash car just for the time being!

Work from home; work from your garage, your kitchen and so on. Advertise in free online business directories and make the most of all free advertising opportunities that come your way. Use free stationery printing offers. Basically, get as much as you can for free! Join clubs, join online networking sites and get the word out there at no cost.

Website builders give you the option to trade online and set up an online shop (an e-commerce solution) so that your customers can buy from you any time they like. You become instantly accessible and, being part of the world wide web, you are able to grow beyond your wildest dreams if it works out.

To begin with, source out work which will allow you to get paid in cash quickly. You can’t afford to wait for 30 or 60 days before being paid if you have started your business on a shoestring. You need it now.

And once your business starts making money, then you need to put some of this aside for future growth as opposed to spending it on personal things. There will be plenty of time for this later down the line when you are raking it in! You need to think work, work, work; business, business, business and be thinking ten steps ahead.

Plough as much of your earnings back into the business as you can and watch it grow. Watch your shoestring turn into a fully fledged profitable business!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder - EzWeb123.com