The history of e-commerce dates back to the 1970's. With the start of EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), these programs allowed companies to facilitate commercial transactions electronically. Throughout the 1980's the e-commerce, orELECTRONIC COMMERCE, started to grow even more. With this growth came even more acceptance of credit cards and ATM's (Automated Teller Machines). By the 1990's e-commerce ERP systems (Electronic Resource Planning) was introduced, as well as data warehousing and data mining. *Data Mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information.

 

By the mid 1990's popularity of the Internet grew. By 2000, many US and Western European companies began to emerge on the World Wide Web. With this emergence came a new meaning for e-commerce. Unfortunately, during 2000 many of these e-commerce businesses disappeared with the dot-com collapse. Even though the Internet was being used by the general public now, the largest transactions of e-commerce were B2B (Business 2 Business). This all took place by the end of 2001 and translated into nearly $700 billion dollars in transactions.

 

In 1994 Amazon.com, Inc had begun. Founded by Jeff Bezos and launched by 1995, the company started out selling books. To date, Amazon.com, Inc has added many other products to its line. Some of these products are DVDs, MP3s, CDs, Furniture and much more. As one of the founding e-commerce companies, Amazon.com, Inc has revenue of US $14.84 billion and a net income of US $476 million as of 2007. By 2007, Amazon.com, Inc has nearly 17,000 personnel working for the company.

 

In closing, the effect of e-commerce can be seen throughout our everyday lives. Whether it is in the form of ATM's, online banking, shopping or credit card transactions, one thing remains the same... e-commerce in a sense has made our lives easier. From a business stand point to a consumer view, e-commerce has developed into a technology of endless avenues. As our lives push forward and grow, so does this technology. E-commerce is the future and will continueto impact us as we continue to shop, bank and spend our hard earned cash.

 

 

I think anyone who's sold or bought on eBay in the past couple of years will agree that the system wasn't doing what it was intended to do. But the discussion of what to do about that dates back to who knows when, and THIS was determined to be the best solution? Don't the problems with this just spring to mind unbidden (pun totally intended)? Let's see:

• There are as many problem buyers (slow pay, no pay, wrong pay, too stupid to read the plain language description of an item, certified insane, and on and on) as there are sellers. Ebay's "seller protections" are essentially too little too late. Too little because you have to be reeeeeally bad to be blocked from bidding. Too late because there's no meaningful feedback on buyers to guide a seller through the process of receiving and answering questions and so forth, and because you have to be really bad to be blocked from bidding.
• Sellers are 50% of the equation that is eBay. Will this not result in the mirror image problem (now sellers are going to lose confidence in the system), in no time flat?
• Buyers are still allowed to leave feedback of any sort! how weird is this? If the feedback system has demonstrated that the human tendency to manipulate, exaggerate, and so forth is alive and well, what about this new policy reduces that tendency?
• I could go on. But others closer to the eBay playing field are way ahead of me. I just could not read that message today and not throw in my two cents (again with the wink), late though they may be. Surely there is some way of actually solving the problem of meaningless feedback. I suspect once seller confidence dwindles as buyer confidence had, we will see some wiser minds at eBay go to work on this.

Feedback can be entered at the option of each member for either party involved in any transaction. For example, if a buyer purchases an item on eBay and pays promptly, the seller will normally give positive feedback to the buyer. The same circumstances apply when a seller sells an item to a buyer. If the buyer feels positively about the transaction then he or she will reciprocate with positive feedback to the seller.

Positive feedback is a win, win situation for all parties that are aggressively trying to do business on eBay. The more positive feedback that is received, the better your reputation and the more likely you will be able to enter in many successful business transactions on the site.

Negative feedback, on the other hand, may result from many things. For a few examples; a seller may not ship as quickly as the buyer would like, or the actual item received is not like it was advertised online, or the merchandise was damaged in shipping. A buyer may not pay promptly, or their method of payment may not be satisfactory. Another case of negative feedback may stem from the fact that one party will give the other party negative feedback, so then the second party will give negative feedback in return.

Feedback extortion is also known to happen. One party may want more or different merchandise that is not currently offered in the sale and that party may threaten with negative feedback in order to get the merchandise that they want.

Negative feedback is deadly to your reputation on eBay. You may have many positive transactions with a wonderfully high feedback rating, and then one negative feedback can drastically harm your reputation eBay's former policy was that negative feedback would affect your reputation for the term of your membership. In their latest change in policy, eBay states that negative feedback will affect your reputation for one year. In most cases, a high feedback score is a good sign, but eBay warns that members should always check another member's Feedback Profile to read comments and look for negative remarks.

Here is how the positive and negative feedback ratings affect your overall feedback score:

• +1 point to your Feedback Score for each positive comment and rating left for you
• No points for a neutral comment and rating left for you
• -1 point to your Feedback Score for each negative comment and rating left for you

As you accumulate more positive points, you are awarded different colored stars. Following are the different levels of stars that are awarded:

Yellow star: 10 to 49 points
Blue star: 50 to 99 points
Turquoise star: 100 to 499 points
Purple star: 500 to 999 points
Red star: 1,000 to 4,999 points
Green star: 5,000 to 9,999 points
Yellow shooting star: 10,000 to 24,999 points
Turquoise shooting star: 25,000 to 49,999 points
Purple shooting star: 50,000 to 99,999 points
Red shooting star: 100,000 points or more

Some members who are trying to build their reputation on eBay by acquiring the different levels of stars will specifically look for transactions that are easy and cheap to complete. A cheaply priced item, with free shipping, or greatly reduced shipping will be very attractive to them. They can easily score another positive feedback rating without having to spend too much to do so.

Digital items that can be downloaded are another way for them to achieve higher feedback ratings at little or no cost.

“Digital goods are often reproduced at little to no cost to the seller. On eBay, this creates the potential for feedback manipulation. To preserve the integrity of the feedback system, all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically (including e-mail delivery) must be listed using the Classified Ad format in the Everything Else>Information Products category only.”

eBay has specific guidelines set in place in an attempt to thwart feedback manipulation:

“Feedback left or received, including detailed seller ratings (DSRs), where the feedback's primary value is to artificially enhance a member's reputation rather than provide commentary and ratings on genuine transactional experience is not permitted.

Consequently, offering to sell, buy or barter feedback is not permitted. In addition, registering multiple accounts (or working with others) in order to exchange feedback to artificially increase your feedback score is not permitted.

EBay will view the recurrence of listings which are uncharacteristic of a reasonable business model to be in violation.”

Violation of eBay's feedback manipulation policy may result in the following actions:

• Listing cancellation
• Limits on account privileges
• Account suspension
• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
• Loss of PowerSeller status
• Feedback removal

Threatening to leave negative or neutral feedback for another member unless the other member provides goods or services not included in the original listingBottom of Form

Although I had a good job and the promise of a rewarding career in the future, every morning I felt like a slave to a system that demanded so much of my time. Caught in the maze that I had indeed created for myself, it seemed like there was no escape. But then I had an epiphany, and I put the monotony of that hard life behind me, forever.

First I should say that I'm still a mom, and I still work hard, but gone are the dreaded hours sitting in traffic and the boredom of my old job. My children are happier now, and we spend infinitely more time together as a family. And no, I didn't drop off the grid to live on a commune - I still live in the same house, and I still put in 8 hours a day, same as before, but now I wear comfy clothing and walk my girls to school in the morning. Now I leisurely shop for clothes, take photographs of my finds, and work for a few hours at the computer in the afternoon. And I waste time watching the money come in.

I started my eBay business in January 2007 operating under the user ID Attic*Industry. My target market: twentysomethings with fat wallets and an avant-garde sense of style. It started innocently enough. I bought a mouthwatering flocked 1950's vintage prom dress for $50.00 at a thrift shop in Kingston, Ontario. The dress was gorgeous and I just had to have it, even though it was obvious that it would never fit me. The anguish of spending fifty precious dollars on a decoration for the inside of my closet got to me in a matter of hours, and it was then, for the first time, I considered an ecommerce solution: eBay!

After snapping some digital pictures of the dress, I wrote a passionate, detailed description for potential buyers. I had no difficulty getting my very first item listed on the eBay website; I already had a PayPal account, and so before I went to bed that night Attic*Industry was open for business.

Day one was an eye-opener. You know that famous quote from Ray Kinsella's Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come…?” These words came true online. The bids came fast and furious, and from all over the world. On day seven the auction closed and I realized a profit of $310.00. My love of good quality vintage clothing was no longer a burden to my bank account - now it was a terrific boon.

After dabbling for six months and seeing my sales grow exponentially, I decided it was time to put my executive career on hold and sell vintage clothing online full time. After only four months I became a respected PowerSeller with stellar feedback, and in August 2007 I was selected as a finalist for eBay Canada's Entrepreneur of the Year. I can proudly say that I've sold beautiful clothes and fashion accessories to hundreds of people on six continents in over two dozen countries, and all with zero negative feedback.

The good news for you is that the internet is still accepting applications for the next ecommerce success. With eBay the start up costs are minimal. Equipped with a nine year old digital camera, no knowledge of html and no budget, I entered the marketplace and experienced no difficulties finding buyers for my goods.

Top Tips For Selling Online

1. Research your market

   Recognize what buyers are looking for, and how much they will pay for it. Learn to identify what's common and what's rare. Make yourself an expert in one or two categories, and develop the ability to spot each specimen's unique "hidden qualities." This means reading support material, articles and blogs and spending time on eBay watching popular auctions close to learn the true prices of things.

2. Develop exclusive sources of merchandise

   Once you've experimented with online sales and sold off some things you've had lying around the house, you must find the courage to shop for more stuff. "Merch" is what they call it in retail sales, and acquiring good quality unique merchandise is the downfall of many ecommerce businesses - everything from sales tax, broker's fees, transportation and the price of gas will cut into your bottom line. To shop smarter, you have to use the computer. Smart shoppers use their computers to select the best hunting grounds, find parking, and even the cheapest place to buy fuel, in advance.
   
   If you are like me and you buy and sell vintage clothing and fashion accessories, you'll shop at charitable second hand stores like Salvation Army, Value Village, and Goodwill. Use a local search service on your computer to find other discount retail outlets that are liquidating terrific merchandise at rock bottom prices. I use Poynt on Microsoft® Windows Live Messenger�,,� or AIM® to make a map of such stores in my area. Powered by Yellow Pages in Canada and Superpages.com in the United States, Poynt is a great tool for finding used clothing stores outside trendy overpriced neighborhoods. Enter keywords like "second hand", and "used furniture" and "used electronics" and click on the pins as they appear on the corresponding Microsoft® Virtual Earth scalable map interface. Poynt is a whole new way to economize shopping. Another secret: hit the "print screen" button on your computer to screen grab the image and make a handy map to print or send to friends.

3. Get a merchant account

   Get this at PayPal to safely and easily accept payments from your buyers. PayPal was bought by eBay almost five years ago and has since become the ubiquitous payment standard - the word PayPal is now used as a verb. “I'll send the dress when you PayPal the money.”

4. Shoot crystal clear photographs

   Make sure you include at least three different angles of each item you are selling. Amateurs, photograph the objects outside during the day against neutral backgrounds.

5. The online world is a small

   Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: be honest about your merchandise and ship items quickly.

6. Stay focused and don't give up

   It WILL be slow at times, but a consistent presence is always key to building your profile as a reputable business. Remember this is a business, and just like the bricks and mortar firms on main street - you have to keep the shop open and lights on, even if people don't step inside the front door.

7. Be Passionate

   I have found that the more adoring I am, the more expressive I become. Every article of clothing that I truly love seems to benefit from my descriptive praise and enjoys a higher than average final sales price. So be expressive. Use your vocabulary and instead of labeling something "blue", call it “sapphire,” and instead of saying that something has a "tight fit", why not write that it “hugs curves for maximum figure enhancement.” You get the idea.

8. Keep costs low

   When shopping, make sure not to overpay. That $50.00 dress I mentioned at the beginning of this article was an anomaly for me - most times I don't pay over $15.00 for anything.

Lastly, I will write the greatest secret of all - social network your business online as you quest to become an expert in your field. Keep my tips in mind but go forward boldly and indulge your passion, be it for baseball cards or butter churns, glass eyes or rare car parts. Ask yourself: what is stopping you from becoming the next eBay Powerseller?

I also won 200 double palettes of eye shadow and blusher for £15. The seller lived close to me, so I was able to collect them personally and save on postage costs. She advised me to separate the palettes and sell them for £1 each, or 6 for £5, which I did, and they're flying off my stall. My modest £15 investment will realise between £300 and £400 - a bargain in any language!

Don't discount something just because you think it's past its sell by date and has been superseded by a new model. Recently, I bid on 200 leather mobile phone cases, winning them for less than £20 including postage and packing. For those of you who failed your maths test, that equates to less than 10p per item. Why did nobody want them? Because the cases were made to fit phones two or three years old. However, not everyone wants to upgrade at the end of their contract, and those who have stuck to the ‘old faithful' phone are delighted to be able to get a case to protect their aged friend. I've sold over half of my cases at £1 each. If demand falls, I'll reduce them to 50p to clear them. I don't mind. I've already realised 10 times my investment.

Another good tactic is to sign up to your favourite sellers' emails. Then you can see what's coming and put in a bid early. I would always advise putting in your maximum bid straight away. That way, you're not going to lose your item for the sake of an extra 20p in the last half hour of bidding. And a word of warning. Never, ever bid more than the article is worth just to win it. That is not a bargain, and bargain hunting is what we're here for, remember. Smile to yourself and move on to the next bid. I guarantee it will be just around the corner.

The first step is to develop a plan. The plan should reflect your ability and taste. Take the venture seriously like you'd take any other business undertaking. You should offer goods about which you are well informed. Be clear in your mind about the kind of merchandise you intend selling- Are you going to offer a variety of goods or only specific things? How are you going to sell? Is it going to be sold on a fixed rate or in an auction? Then, the problem of warehousing- where are you going to store the goods, has to be sorted.

It is always better to start the business on a small scale with minimal risks. You can accommodate the goods in the basement or garage of your residence or consider renting a premise for the purpose. Make sure that the law permits you to use that particular space for commercial purpose. In addition, think about how you are going to pay for the items- a variety of finance options are available depending on your ability to pay interests, your collateral securities and the progress of your business.

How are you going to receive payment from the buyers? PayPal is option for many, as you do not need a merchant banking account. Explore the open market for sellers willing to sell you goods that want to sell on your online store. If you are a regular customer, they may offer the goods on discounted prices. In addition, tie-ups with transporters become necessary to ensure efficient and safe delivery of the goods to the buyer at a reasonable cost.

You need to invest in some necessary things like a computer, a digital camera, and a postal scale. You merchandise need to be photographed as they create an impression in the buyersÕ. In addition, the descriptions that go with the photos have to be honest and accurate. Set aside some time to devote to you business, for making new lists of goods for sale, inventories, to wind up old deals, to check for emails from potential buyers

When you have the plan in place, then the time is ripe to register yourself as an eBay seller. Visit the eBay site and click on the sell tab found in the homepage. Provide all the information asked including bank and credit card account numbers. Right software tools for your business like Sellathon, Seller's Assistant Pro, and Turbo Lister help to track potential buyers and manage auctions. As you gain experience, you may specialize in the selling of particular items.

It is imperative to build and creditability. Pay attention to the feedback that they give you. eBay is a good opportunity for doing business, with the right action-plan and information it can indeed be very lucrative.

For each vendor who does not like the idea that their point could sell for a lower price than what they hear, there's another who wants to move hundreds of the same issue quickly. EBay tries to answer all tastes. This e-mail gives you an overview of the different types of auctions and their benefits for you.

Auctions Normal

These are the bread and butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: Buyers of the bid, outbid others, they bid again, and the winner receives the item. Simple.

Reserve Auctions

Reserve auctions are sellers who do not want their items to be sold at a lower price at a certain price - a concept you know if you are familiar with real bids. They work exactly like auctions on eBay normal, except that the buyer will be informed if their offer does not meet that price you set, and they will need to bid again if they want the matter. If nobody is willing to meet your price, the auction is canceled, and you keep the matter.

At Fixed Price ( "Buy it Now") Auctions

Buy Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a button Buy Now normal at an auction, meaning that buyers can choose either normally or to bid for simply pay the asking price and avoid the bidding process. Some vendors, though, now cut the process of auctioning and simply a list of all their items at a fixed price. This allows you to avoid any complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how you want them to sell.

Recently, eBay has added a key fixed-price auctions: the "best offer". This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to sell a little more stock at a small discount. The only drawback to reserve auctions and fixed-price, then you pay a little extra to use these formats. In general, it is more useful to the aid auction items and high-value fixed-price bids for low-priced - car, but remember that you can combine the two formats.

Multiple Item (Dutch) Auctions

These are auctions where you can sell more than a certain point. Dutch Auction can be done through competitive bidding. The buyers a price and offers say how many points they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price, which had been one of the bids of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting around your head, then do not worry - everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of a point, and the lists by using a combination of two types of auctions: a multiple-point fixed price auction. It simply means that you can just say how you of the question that they have, and to offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how much they want and then click on Buy Now obtain them.

Now that you know the different types of auctions, you must ensure that the elements that you intend to sell eBay did not violate the list of policies.

When you think about what to sell, there are a few points to consider. The most important of them is always to sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you do not know about anything, but you will never need to write a good description and sell for a good price.

You may think that you are not particularly interested in something, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most of the time, I am sure you are going to find a kind interest. If all else fails talk to your friends and family, they will almost certainly say: "Oh, and why not sell you…", and you slap your forehead.

Among the things that you know enough about, then you should consider that things could actually get a fairly good price to sell, and how it will be appropriate for display. If you find something that you are well informed and it is small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, so it's great!

Do not worry if you think that the thing that you sell is too dark - it is not. There is a market for almost anything on eBay, even things that would not sell, once in a year if you their stock at a store. You probably do even better if you fill a niche that if you sell something in common.

Tax and Legal Matters

If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you will have to start paying taxes - this is not for you. If you decide to sell on eBay full time, you should probably register as a company.

Prepare Yourself

There will be ups and downs during the sale on eBay. Do not pack as if something goes a little wrong in your first sales by sellers on eBay who succeed are those who love, and stick to what is happening.

Anyone can sell on eBay, if they believe in themselves - and if you decide it's not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you will not really lost anything.

If you are ready to start selling, the next thing you need to know the different types of auctions, so you can decide which you will use to sell your items. Our next message will give you a guide.

The site quickly became popular massively, as sellers came to list all sorts of strange things and buyers actually purchased. Based on the confidence seemed to work remarkably well, and the fact that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site has been designed from the outset to collect a small fee on each sale, and it is Omidyar that the money used to pay for the expansion AuctionWeb. The costs quickly added up to more than his current salary, and he decided to quit his job and work on the site full time. At this point in 1996, he added that the comments of facilities, to allow buyers and sellers rate each other and make the buying and selling safe.

In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb - and his company - called eBay, which is what we called the site for a long time. He began to spend a lot of money for advertising, and he designed the logo eBay. It was in this year that one millionth item was sold (it was a toy version of Big Bird from Sesame Street).

Then, in 1998 - the peak of the dotcom boom - eBay has become big companies, and investments in Internet companies at the time allowed him to bring in senior managers and corporate strategists, who took in public on the stock market. He began to encourage people to sell more than a simple collection, and quickly became a huge site where you can sell anything, big or small. Unlike other sites, though, eBay has survived at the end of the boom, and is still strong today.

EBay, the year 1999 has seen the world, the launch sites in the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. EBay purchased half.com, an Amazon-like online retailer, in 2000 - the same year she presented Buy now - and bought PayPal, an online payment service, in 2002.

There are now literally millions of items bought and sold every day on eBay, the world over. For every $ 100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $ 14 was spent on eBay - it's a lot of laser pointers. Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps you want to know how it could work for you? Our next message will give you an idea of the possibilities.

As a customer on any auction site it is a good idea to read some of the negative and neutral comments to get a feeling about the seller. Being burned by a seller is not an easy task. You should not be afraid to report the store if you feel the store took advantage of you and did not send you what you paid for. It is the sellers job to work to please the customer.

Rude remarks from sellers are not in the best interest of the seller either. Those with petty excuses such as “Buyer did not read rules of auction” are poor answers from the point of view of the buyer and really leaves the seller with little to no creditability. It is also a mistake to blame it on the seller if they are Newbie.

A good seller knows how to treat customer. Knowing to send packages with shipping instructions for easy returns can be important, as well as being able to admit one made a mistake. A seller should make remarks that are positive in statement even if they have negative connotations. It is always best to give the benefit of the doubt. In fact, it is good business. The truth is a positive comment tells nothing about the seller. Moreover, if you play both sides of the field as a buyer and a seller, even the remarks made to someone who sold to a seller can make a seller look bad.

Any seller is a fool and an idiot who badmouths a customer. They are putting out their hard-earned cash to buy a product from a seller. If a seller feels that their customer should pay for return shipping on item in which they created the problem, in this business world this is considered bad business.

Before considering to go into the auction business it is a good idea to know a little bit about selling and customer service in general. Otherwise they are wasting their time. Using pity that you are selling for a loved one is not good business - it just means you want to be a charity case. When one creates a store online they are branding themselves even if they are selling used items.

If a seller does not understand these simple items they should not be in business.