Review: Creating Stores on the Web

by Joe Cataudella, Ben Sawyer, and Dave Greely
Peachpit Press, 1998, 544 pages, softcover

If you're looking for a comprehensive book that explains how a small business can set up on online store, Creating Stores on the Web fills the bill admirably. The book consists largely of what storeowner Joe Cataudella learned as he developed Tronix Multimedia, a online videogame store begun in 1993, and one of the first Web retailers to turn a profit. The book has a practical guidebook flavor, with Joe explaining candidly what worked and what didn't.

While you won't learn much about modern store-building software needed to set up a store beyond providing an annotated listing of such products, you'll find a great deal of helpful information on nearly every other practical topic.

Creating Stores on the Web is especially strong on the business approaches storeowners need to succeed on the Web. It includes an excellent chapter outlining the various online store business models, and then discusses details such as stocking the store, weighing the pros and cons of drop shipping, creating retail content on a budget, preventing online fraud, taking credit cards, and shipping products. Sections of the book also discuss online sales demographics and psychology, store promotion, online competition, and customer service excellence. The text closes with a chapter written by an attorney concerning legal issues involved with online sales.

Larger corporations won't get much from this book, but its unapologetic small business slant makes it just right for entrepreneurs planning to set up a Web store.