There is big business in selling ink toner and cartridges online. After all, no one buys ink toner just once. No, we need to keep buying it again and again while prices for ink toner and cartridges are simply too expensive at most brick-and-mortar stores. All of this equates to, as we said above, selling ink toner and cartridges online being big business.

The ink market in the United States is over $6 billion dollars, and with consumers being able to print photos and color documents at home, the need for ink is not going away any time soon.

However, none of this means that it is an easy business. You have got to approach selling ink toner and cartridges online in the right way.

1. Choose What to Sell

Let's assume that you already know what you want to sell online: ink toner and cartridges. Now, you need to consider which ink toner and cartridge niche you want to focus upon. Odds are that you cannot offer all of them at this stage.

A great way to identify what products are moving is to visit ebay and do an advanced search of "Sold Listings" for ink toner and ink cartridges. This will show you what the public wants. Since "Sold Listings" also shows what prices items sold for, you can see what prices you will need to source your ink toner at in order to make a profit by selling it at what people are willing to pay for it.

Once you have identified a possible niche, buckle down and research it. Perhaps you have learned that drum cartridges for Brother Printers are prime movers. If so, you need to learn all that you can about these printers and their drum cartridges. You need to become the internet's go-to expert.

2. Pick the Right Domain Name for Your Ink Toner, Cartridge Online Store

Okay. You have your niche, drum cartridges for Brother Printers, now you've got to choose a domain name. You need to select a name that tells your potential customers exactly what you do. Having a domain name that describes your business also helps your online business by increasing its search engine results page ranking, which is highly important in the online business game. Try to select a domain name that people will remember.

3. Build Your Ink Toner, Cartridge Online Store

Whew... You've got your niche. You've got your name. All you need now is your online store. There are two ways to get this done: outsource the work or do it yourself.

Regardless of which avenue you decide to travel there are some design principles that you absolutely have to follow. Make sure your color pallet matches your niche. An ink toner and cartridge online store would do well using the three primary color, red, yellow and blue. Also, this online store would need crisp, clear fonts and lines.

Next, have your store set up so visitors can easily navigate it. A key to this is setting up your important information in an "F" pattern to take advantage of the way people's eyes tend to take in information. The designers at Shift4Shop are well aware of this key and a whole lot more. Our 50 plus design templates have all been designed with the customer in mind.

4. Get Payments Into Your Bank Account

Getting paid is where the rubber hits the road. After all, until the cash starts coming in, your online store is a failure regardless of its name, niche, or design. Your goal as an online merchant is to make it as easy as possible for your customers and clients to pay.

Two simple online payment solutions are PayPal and Google checkout. People trust them and they are easy to use. Shift4Shop stores come with both of these payment features built in. However, the drawback to PayPal and Google checkout is that they both direct customers to their sites to complete their payment, which, since it adds a step, is not as easy for your customer as it can be.

To eliminate this extra step, go with a payment gateway option. Shift4Shop offers these as premium features. When you use a payment gateway, your customers are never directed away from your site.

5. Select Your Shipping Methods

These days, as long as you are not selling large, bulky, and heavy items you need to give some serious consideration to offering free shipping. Odds are your competitors offer it. All of the major shipping services offer tracking features, which many customers really appreciate. Shift4Shop stores possess imbedded support for the major movers of products in North America to include FedEx, UPS, USPS, Canada Post and DHL.

6. Promote and Market Your Ink Toner, Cartridge Online Store

You know what? We've gotten ahead of ourselves. Before you can get paid and ship products, you have to get eyeballs onto your online store. While your domain name and online store design will go a long ways towards accomplishing this, you will need to devote resources towards promoting and marketing your online business.

Thankfully, these are two areas in which Shift4Shop excels. Making use of 40 plus powerful SEO tools, we will spread the good word about your online store. Just a few of the SEO tools we will utilize to build your online business are Facebook stores, integrating blogging, Twitter, newsletter manager, and the Shift4Shop coupon creator.

7. Grow Your Ink Toner, Cartridge Online Business

When the first sales start coming in is not the time to sit back on your haunches. No, you have to work to provide the best customer service possible. Do this by packing and shipping your orders as fast as you can, which in most cases means within 24 hours.

Additionally, you need to use Shift4Shop's powerful pack of sales and other tools and reports to identify trends and keep track of who is buying what and when they are buying it. All of this information will help you manage inventory, project sales, and plan specials. Our online stores support many leading accounting programs such as QuickBooks to help you with this along with automating the emailing receipts, printing shipping labels and keeping track of payments. And, finally, waiting to support you at all times is the Shift4Shop support team.