I’m waiting. I’m waiting for the entrepreneur with the answer to small business (SB) e-commerce. Maybe it’s you. Here’s how I feel a really great system could work.

LOCAL
First, the website would be a local site. Forget this business of ‘selling world wide’. If you’re not selling your products or services world wide today, what makes you think you can sell it world wide tomorrow? Different state and municipal taxes are difficult enough for in-state businesses without including the problems of international tariffs and laws. And besides that, your prospective customer wants someone nearby to talk with when things go wrong, and they will. Local to me means somewhere I can drive to in two hours or less.

FORMAT
The master website should be a ‘host’ website, leading visitors to a group of SB websites offering a panoply of products. The host would charge the SBs a fee for connecting to the host based on actual sales of products and services. This means the SB would have to create a special website that they would control, but the SB site would have to design their site based on the host’s criteria.

What this means to the consumer is that they would not be shuffled off to the SBs regular website, but seamlessly to a special site connected directly to the host. The SB site would have to be secure, and it would have to operate like every other SB site on the host. It should also indicate (with proper page headers) that the consumer is buying through the host site system, and not from the SB’s regular site.

PRICES, SHIPPING, TAXES, & PAYMENTS
All shipping, taxes, payments, returns and other functions are the responsibility of the SB. The looks of the web pages should be similar across the board, but each SB is responsible for their own back-office business. The SB is in charge of pricing policies, but because the SB has no direct advertising costs for the host site (although the SB could advertise that they are on the host site), and the SB only pays a fee when a product or service is actually sold, the prices of goods and services can be dramatically reduced for consumers. This brings people back over and over again to the host site, and subsequently the SB site, looking for bargains.

HOST SITE RESPONSIBILITIES
The host site would do the advertising … on and off the web, but mostly off the web in the local area served. In addition to that, the host site would design and maintain the system such that any sale to a SB would be reported to the host, and a monthly bill for services would result. Another important host responsibility would be as a conduit for consumer feedback. For example, if consumers have continual problems with a SB, the SB would be removed from the system and replaced with another offering similar products.

WHAT IT MEANS
A site similar to that described above would allow the SB to sell products and services in a reasonable physical area, build some customer loyalty, cost a minimal amount (after the initial setup cost), have their business advertised by the host, and make some money from people who would rather shop the internet for deals than go from store to store. Not a bad deal. The host would front the high initial cost of the system, and make money from the sale of products and services offered by others. The consumer would have a relatively local outlet for goods and services, be assured of prompt shipping, and be able to save over the usual shopping either on or off the internet. It would also offer the consumer a clear path for feedback.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you’ve got the bucks, or if you can get the bucks, this host system would be a dynamite money-maker. The structure could be leased to entrepreneurs in other cities, and would make a great franchise opportunity. There’s a lot more to this, of course, but the small businesses of the world are waiting for an opportunitist. Are you the one?