Business Benefits and Advantages of a Website: Selling Online


Internet sales rose by nearly 17% in 2011 over the previous as shoppers ordered more goods using iPads and mobile phones. The actual figures show that online users spend £68 Billion in 2011 up from £59 in 2010 - now surely that's a great reason to have a website selling online?

Still not convinced, well how about knowing that £1 in every £10 everyone spends in the UK is now spent online?

Some of the benefits of selling online are:

  • Global marketplace - Your web site can be accessed from anywhere in the world, which now means you could sell to anyone ANYWHERE.
  • No middleman - By selling directly to the customers you can now cutout the middleman.
  • 24 Hour business - If your web site can process payment information you can now be open 24 hours a day!


  • Increased customer information - Instead of posting your latest brochure or clients account statement, why not allow them to access it via your web site?

The Internet can open up new avenues for your business to buy and sell products or services online, with such activities generically referred to as ecommerce.

The business relationships provided by ecommerce can be broadly split into two main area:

  1. Business to consumer (B2C) - where you sell products or services directly to individual consumers
  2. Business to business (B2B) - where you sell goods or services to other businesses

Business to Consumer (B2C)

Selling goods in a B2C environment usually requires a website with an online shop.

Consumers anywhere in the world can then browse your online shop and view your products and/or services.

When they decide to make a purchase they goto to your electronic checkout where there would be some form of payment-processing function to accept their credit or debit card.

The payment-processing function will typically take place via a merchant account, which you would set up via an acquiring bank, and which is capable of processing the visitors credit and debit cards.

Business to Business (B2B)

As with B2C the B2B environment usually requires a website with an online shop, yet the shop is not accessible to the public - it's only open to your clients or registered companies.

One of the most significant B2B developments recently has been the growth of online auctions.

Online auctions are computerised versions of traditional auctions where prices are set by buyers bidding against each other.

So where to start?

The first place to start when building your website to sell online is to get great hosting and the best web Hosting company we know is HostGator! PS. For those in the UK, hosting in the US can be cheaper.

To start selling your products and services online contact SeyeneCo.

You can also read more about the business benefits of: