Am I organized?

Do you have the time to run your site or do you need help? Who will take the orders and update it? And, are you equipped to handle large-volume sales?

Do I have compelling and relevant content?

Even if you are able to attract potential customers to your site initially, how do you get them to come back? One way to do it is to keep your site fresh and offer a little more perspective on your product or a related topic than your competitors.

Getting a virtual URL

Be sure you get your own identity. It is much easier for customers to remember yourcompany.com versus hosting company/directory/anyname.com. And, you'll have more control over your site. Having your own identity allows you to move freely around without disruption. Successful e-commerce companies all started without a bit of fame but with enough great ideas to come up with a unique domain that have great success rate.

Are you able to offer payment options?

One of "selling points" for the Internet is immediacy. People want to be able to order and get your product quickly. That means you may want to think about a secure way of accepting credit cards, or perhaps offering a toll-free telephone number.

Am I willing to invest the time and money needed?

If you think you can just put up a site, submit to the search engines and the money will start rolling in, think again. You need to examine what your needs are, and how you will attract new customers. Find out how others have done it, seek advice, and learn from the mistakes others have made. Also, be sure and read everything you can find about e-commerce because its methods change and improve constantly. Unless you are a very good do-it-yourselfer, you may want to consider outsourcing. Creating a professional site is much harder than it was before some couple of years ago. Building and maintaining a web site is not just a one-shot deal. You have to keep updating the site and refreshing the content regularly outsourcing can help you here.

Do I have a means of distribution and customer service?

How are you going to get your products to the potential national or international customer quickly? "With e-commerce, you will get inquiries and make sales all over the United States or even World Wide if you're dreams are high. So, it is best if your business sells a product that can be easily shipped. And, don't forget about customer service, it is as important or more important to have strong customer service support on the Web customer issues.

Get an email account

E-mail is a good way for you to build relationships with your customers. Not only is it a means for them to contact you, but you can let them know about specials and sales on your site. Prospective customers will inquire about your product via email. A response to each inquiry within 24 hours is recommended.