This book is great for anyone who is curious about how commerce on the Web works. It provides a rather comprehensive overview of each key topic, including business models, marketing, shipping, design, and payment processing. Most readers will be introduced to issues they hadn't even considered previously. The book is chock full of pointers to real-world sites that either illustrate approaches or provide key services like marketing or payment processing.

Aside from the process of building your own Web store, the authors also introduce you to the growing list of commercial sites that enable you to build a virtual presence with little or no up-front investment. Online auctions are also covered.

There are some screen shots, but the majority of the book comprises well-organised text, bulleted lists of options and tips. Even readers unfamiliar with the Web will follow the discussion easily and get a good grasp on the state of the art of Web selling. --Stephen W Plain, Amazon.com

Topics covered: Online market overview, business models, Web success stories, store design, product stocking, promotion, international sales, payment processing, electronic software distribution (ESD), shipping, online auctions and all-in-one store builders. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Synopsis
This book covers three key informational areas that are relevant to the various communities of people who want to set up online stores:1. All The Basic and Inside Business Information About Setting Up a Mail Order Store 2. A Fundamental How-To About Doing Retailing on The Web 3. Basic Planning and Strategy Information For Existing Online RetailersExamples will be given throughout the book which will be drawn mostly from the story of how Joe Cataudella built Tronix Multimedia into a successful business on the Web. Examples include Usenet ad posts that don't work, banner ads that do, and expertise on how to organize Email programs and design store Web pages. Everything is covered, from shipping tricks to legal issues to customer service do's and don'ts. Most Web commerce is not going to be fancy merchant server setups that cost thousands of dollars. It's not going to be large stores that sell 1thousands or millions of items. It's going to be small unique outlets run by sole proprietors that set up Web stores as extensions to their existing stores. In addition, many new Web stores will be started by people who've never started a store before-- real or virtual.

Both of these groups will want to keep their costs low and will need a lot of basic help getting things up and running and doing it cheap. This is their book.

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