“Ecommerce? It’ll never catch on!” they said.

“People will never hand over their bank details to a machine, it’s not safe. It’s so impersonal,” they said.

“Nobody wants a machine collecting personal information thank you. It’s too complicated,” they said.

“Well it’s all very well for Americans but never here – it’s just not a British way of shopping,” they said.

Just some of the objections you might have heard over the years. Not from web users but from businesses putting up the shutters and talking themselves out of profits.

Has Ecommerce caught on?

Well £38 billion spent online by UK Internet shoppers in 2009 pretty much tells its own story. Yes. E-commerce is massive and it’s getting bigger all the time. The Centre for Retail Research predicts that 2010 will see a 12.4% growth to £42.7 billion. People are also increasingly confident in buying more expensive items. Those willing to spend more than £1,000 on a single transaction rose from one in ten in 2008 to one in four in 2009.

What’s more, it’s the Brits who are the most committed online shoppers in the whole of Europe, accounting for almost a third of total sales. Second were the Germans with a spend of £29.7 billion, followed in third place by the French who spent £22 billion.

Whatever you sell, it’s time to get selling online

Of course, once you have your e-store designed and primed, populated and ready for action, the small matter of how people will find you raises its inconvenient head. However attractive your store is and however wonderful your products are, unless you ‘get above the noise’ you won’t make a penny online.

The answer to this challenge? Web marketing and SEO (search engine optimisation)

There are an enormous number of web marketing and SEO techniques that you can use to get your site in front of customers and to start making money. On page you can use SEO keywords and tags, blogs and plenty of optimised content. Off page there’s link building, social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, press releases, offline ads and marketing. The options are almost endless. The important thing is that you integrate all of your web marketing and SEO efforts into a cohesive strategy.

For the best advice on how best to devise and apply your strategy talk to a pro SEO or web marketing company.