I just read How To Set Up A Google Store In Minutes by Lisa Barone on Small Business Trends. Lisa lays it out in very simple steps.
Last week, Google released yet another gadget that may win them friends with small-business owners. It’s called the Google Checkout store gadget and it essentially allows you to use Google Checkout and Google Docs to to easily create your own online store in a matter of minutes. What makes the gadget especially interesting is that because it’s tied to a Google Docs spreadsheet, small-business owners can keep product inventory without having to use another third-party program like QuickBooks. Something many of us can probably appreciate.
I’m not a store user myself anymore, but I went through this hassle early on in my Web days, working with an Amazon.com store first. Our company grew beyond that and we ended up with a much larger system, but it involved a lot of programming by one hard charger in the beginning and a team of four within a year. Happily, we had revenue to match, so it all worked out.
Since then I’ve often recommended the simple turnkey store option to early-stage entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Without it, the hassles are enormous. Yahoo! had a good option even 10 years ago, Amazon.com does, I’m told eBay does (but I hear different things on this one) and Lisa Barone’s post makes the Google store option look very good, too.
The simple store option let’s you start selling quickly. Link the store into a simple site and see whether people will buy what you’re selling. And if people do buy, then a store is the best possible market validation.
Lisa lays out the steps very well, and also comments on some tradeoffs:
I don’t think you can call the new Google gadget a PayPal killer any time soon, but if you’re looking to get an online store up and running quickly, this may be a good way for you to go. The gadget does what Google does best–simplifies Web activities so that even us regular people can take advantage of them.
Do practice some caution, though. The gadget is still in beta so we don’t fully know what Google plans to do with it. You don’t want to launch a huge online store, only to have Google decide to take it down or make adjustments to it without telling you. Still, I think it’s worth experimenting with, especially if you’re simply looking for a quick way to get started in the world of e-commerce.
Well written, and very useful.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
