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 With Christmas just around the corner, and the economy in turmoil, we all need to make a little extra cash. Whether you're a store owner looking to bring in some extra orders, or a stay-at-home parent looking to startup a new business, the Yahoo! Store is a great option for you. Kevin Richards, founder and CEO of Ventura Web Design, the Premiere Yahoo! Store Designer and Google Adwords Certified Company, has been helping small-business owners build successful webstores since 1997. Kevin runs through some of the basics of setting up a Yahoo! Store in 10 easy steps.
The Yahoo! Store, also known as Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, provides everything that you need to sell online. For only $39.95/month plus revenue share of 1.5 percent, you get: Your own domain name, business email, website hosting, ready made design templates, shopping cart, payment processing, analytics, and even a network of professional developers ready to help you. While you will need your own merchant account to accept credit cards, Yahoo! has made it very easy for you to accept Paypal through their automatic integration tool.
Some may ask "Why does Yahoo! have a revenue share?" While I cannot speak for Yahoo!, my guess is that it allows clients to have an easy way to scale their business. A client who sells $5000/month through their store doesn't need the same level of bandwidth or server capacity dedicated to their site as a site that does $50,000/month in sales. This "pay for play" model allows store owners to grow, and their store grows with them.
Since brevity is the soul of wit, here are the top 10 steps to get your store online:
1) Visit smallbusiness.yahoo.com. Choose the Merchant Starter account. (Contact Ventura Web Design for coupons to save on your monthly fees). Follow the steps to create an account and purchase your domain name. Your domain name is the name by which your company will be known on the internet. For example, ScentsandSprays.com or VenturaWebDesign.com.
2) Once you have activated your store, you will use the Design Wizard to choose your pre-made template, or customize it to fit your needs. (Note: You can always seek the advice of a professional design firm to help with this step.) If you are brand new to ecommerce and only have a few products, you will probably choose to use the Design Wizard to start out with. If you are a bricks-n-mortar store with an established logo/brand, you will most likely want to work with a designer. There are several that specialize in the Yahoo! Store. Typical stores cost anywhere from $3000 to $6500.
When selecting a designer, remember to find someone that speaks your language, wants to learn about your business, and shows a genuine interest in your business model. Don't be fooled by companies that try to sound bigger than life and tell you how great they are. In the end, you'll find that those companies only care about how great they are, and not how great your ecommerce store can be.
3) Add products to your store using the Catalog Manager. This is as easy as filling in the fields and uploading the product photos. If you need help with Product Photography, we recommend ProductPhotography.com. They can take even the most difficult products such as jewelry and glassware, and make them look really good. Without good photography, you will have a difficult time selling your products online. ProductPhotography.com is an inexpensive way to get great photos online fast.
4) Charge your customers sales tax and shipping via the online Wizards. While I am not an attorney, nor an accountant, I can tell you that generally store owners need only collect tax from customers that ship the products to the same state in which the merchant has a physical location. Be sure to check with all of your local entities, department of taxation, etc.
5) Choose which credit cards to accept and apply online for a Merchant Account, or just stick with PayPal using the Payments Wizard. Wow, this Yahoo! Store must really be magical with all of these "wizards." (Sorry,... I had to say it.) Unlike most other platforms, the Yahoo! Store quickly and easily allow you to accept all major credit cards and PayPal. With other ecommerce software, you would need to find a third-party, integrate them into your store, etc. Yahoo! makes this incredibly easy. But yes, you do still need to work with an approved processor. You can learn more direct from Yahoo! by visiting this page.
6) Remember to tell your customers about yourself via the About Us page. Don't forget to share your privacy policy, customer service policies, and contact information. Customers want to know that you are a real person and can be reached if there is a problem.
7) Have a friend look over your website. A fresh set of eyes will give you some good ideas, and make your site easier to use. This is also a great place to have a professional take a look at your site. If you cannot afford one, or simply don't have time, here are a few ideas to keep in mind:
a) Make sure that your site has no more than 4 colors (this includes your black text). You should have a text color, a highlighted text color, a primary color, and a secondary color.
b) Use one font style throughout your site. Minor modifications done to intentionally draw attention are okay, but in general, you should stick to one primary font.
c) Don't use industry jargon or cute catch phrases that may confuse your customers. If it's a shopping cart, it's a cart. For example, don't call it "Sandy's Dog House" and expect people to know that the products they've added to their cart will be located there. Keep things as simple and straightforward as possible. Try to make your customers feel like they've shopped with you before, even if it's their first time.
8) Press the PUBLISH button to make your store live to the world. This is a great feature of the Yahoo! Store in that it allows you, the store owner, to have a staging area in which to edit your site without those changes going live. If you make a typo, you can catch it before your customers see it. This comes in really handy if you make a mistake in pricing. Who wants to explain to a customer that the item they bought for $10 really costs $100?
9) Go to this page and let Google know that your website is live. This will help get you listed in the free search results area.
10) Start promoting your website via Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN Live. Each of these tools have more wizards to help you get started, or you can contact a professional.
And in 10 easy steps, you're online and selling.
From what I understand, there have been staffing cutbacks at the North Pole, and Santa needs all of the help he can get. So put on your elf hat and pointy shoes, and let's get to building that Yahoo! Store.
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