The first step in building an e-commerce site is determining whether your goods are appropriate to be sold over the Internet.

• The most obvious products to sell over the Internet are recognizable commodities or brand name products.
• If a product is easily available in the marketplace, there must be some additional and compelling reason for someone to want to purchase the product from a web site.
• If your product is for a niche market, the decisive reason to sell it over the Internet may be the access to a broader market.
• If your company has created an international or regional reputation, you should use this reputation to expand your market when selling over the Internet.

Be sure that there are no legal limitations to selling your product over the Internet.