Today many people have discovered the ease and quality of online shopping. In addition to the growing number of online shoppers, people are also finding that they can run a successful home based business by selling products online. One of the most popular shopping communities online is Yahoo Shopping.
The Yahoo store is an online store front where people can host their own websites to sell merchandise over the web safely and securely with the most trusted website in the world. Yahoo stores are becoming more and more popular because of the world wide popularity of Yahoo.com.
Yahoo is a global network that receives an average of over 3.4 billion page views a day. Yahoo is the second most visited website in the United States and the number one most viewed website in the world. Yahoo.com had attracted over 1.5 billion annual visitors by the year 2008 and the number of visitors has continued to rise. Just imagine the potential your online store could have if it were being hosted with the most popular website in the world.
Yahoo uses the Ecommerce Wizard software which allows you to add or remove products and details. A business owner may also decide to showcase up to 50,000 items in their store-front. The wizard also includes a great program for web design allowing you to customize your storefront to your liking, however you're able to use other programs of your choice, and even hire a web designer. Using Yahoo as your ecommerce partner is a smart decision because Yahoo.com is the most visited website in the world.
If you're unsure about joining the online shopping community look at all the things Yahoo has to offer. First off, signing up for and creating a store front with Yahoo Stores is as easy as 1,2,3. At Yahoo you can design and build your own website from scratch using Yahoo’s design software called Wizard. Wizard is offered for free or you can design your website using your own website creation software like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. Yahoo even has professionals to build your website for you for an extra fee or you can have your own web designer build your Yahoo store website and upload it to the yahoo hosting service provided.
You can manage up to 50,000 products on your Yahoo store and quickly add and remove items using their step by step wizard programs. If you have an existing web storefront you can easily upload the product database to yahoo and have it up and running in no time.
Yahoo also offers a Merchant Starter Plan for $39.95 a month. The plan includes useful features such as the Wizard software. Wizard offers web design and stock control programs. When making transactions Yahoo uses the secure services of Pay Pal allowing customers to purchase items with popular credit cards or check and money order forms.
Since you're in control of your own store front you can sell whatever comes to mind such as candles, clothes, movies, etc. When stocking your store front you should research popular items and how much the contenders are selling them for; this way you can sell items people are looking for and at attractive prices while competing with the others.
Setting Up Your Yahoo! Store
Yahoo offers a prompt application process that gets your store accepting money from merchant accounts right away. Support for existing merchant accounts is available if your existing merchant account is compatible with FDMS. After you've built your website, uploaded your items and have signed up for your merchant accounts you'll be ready to start making money. You control the prices of your merchandise and you can offer promotions such as coupons, gift certificates, discount pricing, and volume pricing.
With Yahoo Stores, you'll even receive inventory alerts when the quantities of your products are low. You'll be able to manage your yahoo store and categorize your merchandise by color, price, size and any other variable you choose. You can also include trackable links for your affiliate programs.
Yahoo stores also helps you achieve sales by posting your products in their product catalog. The product catalogs are in XML and can be read by shopping directories. Marketing your Yahoo store is easy with Yahoo’s search engine friendly web pages. You get automatic submissions to Yahoo and Google.
You can view your orders several different ways. You can view your orders by email or online or you can also receive your new orders by fax. Yahoo’s easy interface makes it easy to process and ship your orders to the customers.
Automatically email customers to announce order status changes. Yahoo also makes shipping easy by printing out shipping labels and invoices to help you stay organized.
Additional Features
Yahoo Shopping services include price matching which allows consumers to find the desired items at the perfect price by seeing what the others have to offer. When you match prices as the merchant, consumers will be attracted to your web store. Once again the services Yahoo offers are catered to the quality and interest of you and the consumer; when popular items are running out of inventory you will receive email alerts urging you to re-stock your store front.
By running your business online you'll receive orders from all over the world. Yahoo grants you the freedom of using any shipping service you like such as: UPS, USPS, Fed-Ex, and more. Some services such as UPS offer online tools to review and track orders. Keep in mind that tax rates will vary by country, province/state, and postal/zip code.
If you need assistance with your business Yahoo offers a 24/7 technical support line. Yahoo also offers customer service for the consumer. There are many places on the web to partner with for ecommerce but none favor the merchant and customer the way Yahoo does. Yahoo’s services are only of the highest quality and concern for their partners and shoppers. I hope you make the wise decision of creating and running a Yahoo Web-store. Once you’ve built your store-front you will see results at a fast pace, almost instantly filling orders and restocking your inventory.
Other ecommerce sites like Ebay are reasonable but they are nothing like Yahoo Stores. Yahoo offers many options and services that Ebay doesn’t. Yahoo even allows you to use your own domain name. When choosing an ecommerce partner you should review all of the offered services and options.
Yahoo will assist the online merchant with all things necessary to run a professional and successful online store-front. Why choose to use E-bay when you have Yahoo Web-store with Yahoo Shopping. If you aren’t satisfied with the services that other ecommerce sites offer you can easily switch over to the Yahoo Shopping community. Whether it’s your first time running a home based business or you want better service Yahoo is the best choice.
Another added feature that Yahoo Store offers is guided marketing resources and services that will help launch and grow your online business. Not only do they offer marketing services and resources, they also offer web analytics for tracking and testing your web store traffic so you can see what is working and what is not working in your marketing efforts.
Web analytics is probably the single most powerful tool for maximizing your marketing and advertising budget as it allows you to track and test your visitors actions, lets you know where your traffic is coming from, allows you to run split tests, track changes in trends, and this ultimately allows you to increase your conversions and maximize your ROI in your marketing and advertising budget.
Some other added perks and features are display advertising network across Yahoo network (combine with PPC campaigns), free marketing features, and a grand opening email when your store goes live.
Deciding to use Yahoo Web Stores is probably one of the best decisions you will ever make when you choose to open a web business as they are a well known ,one stop shop , ecommerce solution. Yahoo Web Stores literally puts the “E” in easy when it comes to creating a fully functional ecommerce website. So whether you're looking to expand your business -and take it online- or just looking to build an extra stream of income, Yahoo Web tores is your all in one ecommerce solution.
Deciding what to sell in your Yahoo Store
So you’ve signed up for the Merchant Starter Plan offered by Yahoo to start your own business, you have used the Wizard software to enhance your storefront, and you’ve set up payment processing. There’s just one thing keeping your business from advancing! You haven’t a clue of what to sell.
As owner of a Yahoo Web-store in the Yahoo Shopping Community you are able to sell any items of your choice including: clothes, house ware, car-parts, novelty Items, and more. When first selecting items you may just want to start off with a few items that are convenient for you to sell. As your store-front begins to gain business you will want to review what others are selling and for how much. You may also want to see what the hot selling or popular items are. The popular selling items are what you should try to sell in your store.
The prices of similar items that the cmpetitors are selling for is what you will have to make difference with. The better deal you give a customer on a popular item the more business you will obtain. Some might like to maintain a certain theme or interest to their store, if your store-front is for special or certain items the same suggestions apply. For example, if your store is set towards the younger consumer you will want to keep up on what items involve their interest. If you sell home items such as cndles it is wise to select the most popular scents for your inventory.
However, if you do not want to spend a lot of money on big items to sell you might be interested in selling only certain items ranging from party supplies to vitamins. If your store-front is only dedicated to party supplies than you will only need to sell related items such as napkins, masks, games, hats, etc. Also when selecting items you may only want to sell items that can be easily shipped. For example the heavier or bigger an item is the more it will cost for you to ship it.
If you spend too much money on shipping it might not be possible for you to earn the money back from sales. Sensible items to sell if you are budgeting might include cell phone and I-pod accessories. The strategies and tactics that regular shop owners use are the same that you should use for yours even though your business is online.
When looking for items to sell in your store-front keep in mind of the factors that could encourage satisfying sales.
Selling popular items at competitive prices is a sure way to gain and keep customers. While wanting to sell popular items you might not have a supporting budget, therefore it is possible for you to sell accessories to these items such as phone cases, headphones, docking cradles, and more. The items you sell in your store will determine the amount of traffic and customers you receive. Setting up your Yahoo Store was easy and deciding what to sell should be just as easy for you. The most important aspect of your business is the items you sell.
When selecting items rmember to review the pricing of competitors and what items consumers are going after. Once you have reviewed the Yahoo Shopping Community stats you should consider the items you will want to possibly sell.
Once you have your items selected and in inventory you are now ready to start business and earn money. Remember that you are able to sell anything you want in your web-store. If you are running a specialty shop, you should keep up on the newest items and information in relation to your stores theme and demographic. Also remember that selling popular items doesn’t always mean you need to spend a lot of money.
Many people are looking for accessories that match with their personality and style. With the popularity of electronic items such as I-pods and computers, people are looking for ways to make their possessions custom and personal. So if you aren’t able to sell certain items you might be able to earn just as much money by selling accessories and add-on’s for those popular items.
Pricing And Inventory
When pricing your items it is suggested that you should price your items lower than what others charge to keep up competition and maintain a steady flow of consumer traffic. Since customers are able to match pricing, and your prices are better than opposing merchants they will be attracted to your store-front. So keep in mind that reasonable pricing equals more customers, and more customers equal more money.
When a customer fills in an order it is up to you to make sure he or she receives the products. Yahoo Web-store allows you to use any shipping or mail service of your choice ranging from UPS, FED-EX, and USPS. If you would like to check the status of an order UPS offers online tools. To make sure you don’t put too much money out in sending an order you can.
You have the option to set your shipping rates depending on weight, price, location, and more. Because your store is online at Yahoo Shopping you are able to ship orders internationally, however keep in mind that tax rates will differ by country, state, and zip. When popular items are low on stock you will receive immediate e-mail alerts so you may re-order merchandise. It is also a wise decision to keep your inventory organized. You are able to organize your stock by color, size, weight, and other variables.
When keeping inventory it can sometimes be a hassle, but with Yahoo Web-store it is easy. When popular items are low on stock you will receive immediate e-mail alerts so you may re-order merchandise. It is also a wise decision to keep your inventory organized in relevant categories with very detailed descriptions. Yahoo web store allows you to organize your stock by color, size, weight, category, keywords, and other variables.
Keeping your Yahoo store organized using very detailed and keyword specific descriptions. Other ecommerce sites like Ebay are reasonable but there’s nothing like Yahoo Web-store. Yahoo offers many options and services that E-bay and other leading competitors don't offer or have. Yahoo even allows you to use your own keyword specific domain name, remember to use a very relevant and keyword specific domain name. When choosing an ecommerce partner you should review all of the offered services and options.
Why Choose Yahoo Stores
The first thing to look for in your online store provider is great customer service and the opportunity to work with a reliable and trusting company. You want to be able to contact your store customer service team if a problem or question arises and you want them to have a fast response time to answer your questions and give you the correct advice.
Before you sign up with an ecommerce store provider you should check out the “Customer Support” page to see if they offer the sufficient contact information. When you call them do you talk to a customer service rep about your questions, or do you get the run around while arguing with pre-recorded voice. When you contact your online store provider your questions need to be answered within a reasonable amount of time.
Yahoo guarantees great customer service and they are eager to answer your questions regarding your yahoo store. Yahoo Stores have a 24-7 toll free customer support hotline and 24-7 email support as well. If you are unsure of the whole process they also offer Getting Started guides to help you on your way to success with yahoo stores.
Every internet server is going to have downtime, it is unfortunately unavoidable. The hard part is finding a service that is willing to accept the fact that they will have downtime and work with you to make sure that you aren’t dissatisfied with the services. You don’t want to have your online store hosted with a server that is always down because while the server is down you will not receive any sales and customers will not even be able to look at your website.. If a server is offering 100% uptime they are not being truthful to their potential customers.
Yahoo Store offers 99.9 % uptime and a local and remote site backup. Also included is a free BSD(UNIX) operating system. With Yahoo stores all of your personal information is secure and confidential. They offer IP blocking to help keep out potential negative customers. You have full access privileges to your site administration, and you also have many configurable risk tools to help flag fraudulent orders to keep you and your customers safe from identity theft. Yahoo stores offer extensive protection for your website including password protection and domain name locking.
Manage your yahoo store with Yahoo’s Web Analytics real time reporting to stay on top of you sites top traffic and sales sources and shopping cart drop off analysis. Yahoo Stores give you advice on the best keywords to use for your website but telling you which keywords get you most traffic to your webpage and which keywords don’t. Stay in touch with your customers with up to 1,000 email addresses and unlimited email storage space.
Yahoo Stores are the most trusted online stores available. They offer everything needed to start and operate your business from the ground up. Start your business the right way by getting involved with Yahoo Stores and make money online by selling your items from home.
Good luck with your new Yahoo Store. And don't forget to have fun while setting it up and running it.
Wishing you the greatest success,
Terry
