We're going into business! No, we aren't trying to sell you anything, we're going to talk about the business of buying and selling online.
Guests
Rae Montgomery
Rae Montgomery
Rae Montgomery is a technology literacy coordinator with the University of Minnesota Extension Service where she has been managing technology education projects since 1984. She has worked extensively in developing educational applications for interactive television, satellite videoconferencing, and the Internet. She currently coordinates the Access E Info suite of technology outreach programs that help community and business leaders, residents, small businesses, local governments, and nonprofit agencies make informed decisions about using the Internet. She has a master's degree in adult education and an undergraduate degree in plant pathology from the University of Minnesota.
Tanya Westerman
Tanya Westerman
Tanya Westerman is the owner of Kangaroo Korner, an online business since 1997 that focuses on designing, manufacturing, and marketing babyslings. She lives in Lino Lakes with her husband, a fulltime medical student at the University of Minnesota, and her three children: Kylah (age eight), Jonah (age five), and Griffin (age two).
For Your Files
University of Minnesota Extension Services Associate Professor Rae Montgomery said when selling your product, remember this: "You always need to be very honest in describing your product, otherwise you won't get good feedback. So be honest, be accurate; use words that people might search for. They might not search for 'beautiful ring'; they're going to search for 'ring'. You have to have your product found. And you need to have a good photo—that's pretty essential. People won't buy things without seeing [them]."
And Rae had a few notes particular to E-Bay. One concerned pricing your product: "You would start by being very familiar with E-Bay. Look around a lot. Try to find items that have sold recently that are like your's (similar to the items that you're trying to sell) and see what they sold for. It will kind of give you an idea of the pricing."
Another note about E-Bay concerning paying for your purchases, or getting payments for your products: "Paypal is available and is actually owned by E-bay, and it kind of acts as the intermediary between the customers (between the buyers and the sellers). It lets you exchange money, basically by e-mail, with anyone that has an e-mail address. And it's safe and takes the worry out of wondering if you're actually going to get paid or not."
One last note from Rae was about marketing: "You have to promote your Web site, don't you. It's not a case of 'If you build it, they will come.' Basically you need to tell everyone about it. It's called viral marketing. Anything that spreads itself the way a virus does, that's what you want to do when telling people about your Web site."
And finally Internet business person Tanya Westerman had a word of caution for potential e-business folk: "It takes several years of putting back every dime that you make back into the business before you're going to see anything."
And that wasn't all Tanya warned us about: "The computer is always on and if I want to go check my personal e-mail, the business e-mail is right there. It's hard for me to not do it. It's very hard to take a day off."[
Online Mall
Enables a group of sellers to market their products together without needing to have their own individual Web sites.
Pay Pal
Intermediary between buyers and sellers who are using eBay. Allows the safe exchange of money through e-mail addresses and takes the worry out of whether the seller will get paid or not.
Viral Marketing
Tactic used to promote a Web site. You tell people about your Web site, they tell somebody else and the word spreads quickly just like a virus.