Tips for Creating an Online Store

Black Friday’s negative environmental impact is 50 times that of an online purchase made on Cyber Monday. Retweet

Web-based businesses generate approximately 1,400 tons fewer CO2-equivalent emissions per year than their offline counterparts. Retweet

To have ten pounds of packages shipped by overnight air uses 40 percent less fuel than driving yourself round-trip to the mall. Retweet

The average mall trip produces 4,274 g of CO2, while a typical van-based delivery creates about 180 g (approximately 24 X greener). Retweet.

Be sure to Enter Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores if you sell Eco Friendly products and win a $1600 package. We launched this contest because we want to see more eco friendly online stores!

Find out by checking out Flying Cart’s newest featured store.

And don’t forget to apply for Flying Cart’s Green Light on Eco-Friendly Online Stores!

Inc.com’s recent story, Is Your Product Really Eco-Friendly, breaks down the coming changes with the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides.

Here’s what we learned:

Any claims of being eco-friendly must be backed by scientific evidence or you could be penalized.

“In recent years, businesses have increasingly used ‘green’ marketing to capture consumers’ attention,” said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. “But what companies think green claims mean and what consumers really understand are sometimes two different things.”

The new Green Guides will recommend when terms like “degradable” and “recyclable” can be used.

Degradable = if a product is capable of decomposing in a landfill within a year.
Recyclable = the facilities needed to recycle the item must be widely available – as opposed to only available in a few places with very good recycling programs.

“Most companies really do want to comply,” Leibowitz said. “They want to sell products in an environmentally friendly way. But for those companies that don’t, that fall on the wrong side of the final Green Guides, we’re going to go after them.”

Find more on the FTC’s current Green Guides here.

In honor of our current eco-friendly promotion, here’s one of the most entertaining takes on consumption and its impact on the planet. Enjoy!

Apply now

Do you sell green? Get rewarded! Flying Cart is an easy way to build your own online store. A trusted home for hosted storefront e-commerce used by over 12,000 merchants. Now the company’s new Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores initiative rewards independent business owners bettering the world with eco-friendly products. We’re awarding a free (for life) Flying Cart Glider package, expert coaching on improving sales from Flying Cart founder Rishi Shah, and $100 cash to get things rolling.

WHAT IS FLYING CART:

Flying Cart is an online solution for sellers who want control beyond the aesthetic limitations of eBay and Etsy’s marketplace. From display to checkout, Flying Cart is designed to allow anyone to easily create an online store, sell their products on the web, and build their brand online.

WHAT YOU CAN WIN:

To go along with the launch of Flying Cart’s new design and improved functionality, we’re giving away a lifetime Glider package ($500 value) to give your earth-friendly goods the home they deserve. The Glider package features 25 product listings, use of a custom domain (www.yourdomain.com), a theme editor and customizable CSS and SSL security.

But the award goes beyond the free storefront. Current Flying Cart subscribers already know about the wealth of marketing advice on the site’s blog, but winners of Flying Cart Sells Green will receive personalized marketing advice tailored to your product by Flying Cart’s CEO Rishi Shah. And we’ll throw in $100 of seed money to help you spread the word about your green products.

APPLICATION DETAILS:

Interested merchants must apply here and answer a few questions about your product. Winners are selected by rolling admission, but the entry deadline is November 25th. As a general guideline the products must be upcycled or repurposed, secondhand, made of non-toxic eco-friendly materials, or sustainably produced. The Flying Cart staff will only select the most impressive applications, so be sure your submission shows your passion for your products and environmental conservation.

Apply now! We are excited to see your eco friendly business.

Learn more about the Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores contest on our FAQ page.
Please visit the terms and conditions page before applying.

Please support our eco-movement by sharing this with your friends.  Everyone that tweets this article will receive a free product from one of our winners.
Twitter
Facebook

Q: What is Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores?
The Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores is a promotion from October 20th to November 25th intended to help the growth of a few select eco-conscious small businesses.

Q: What do I win?
Cash, Coaching, and an Online Store.

$100 Cash Baby! This is just to show you we are serious on helping you get the ball rolling.
Glider package for life ($500 Retail Value) - You get an awesome looking store to rock the Internet with.
Coaching session with Rishi ($1000 retail value) - Rishi knows what works and he also knows what doesn’t. He has seen a ton of business come and go and will make sure your business is here to stick around! His coaching session can be in person if you live in the bay area or can be easily done online via Skype.

Q: 90% Chance to win? Is that for real?
Yes. We pretty much want everyone to win something to get them going.

Q: Where can I apply?
Right here.

Q: How many people will be awarded?
There are no set amount of winners, but we hope to award at least 4 amazing companies.

Q: When does the contest end?
Nov. 25, 2010 (right before Thanksgiving)

Q: Why are we doing this?
We simply want to see more eco-friendly stores online. We want to do whatever we can to help eco-entrepreneurs sell their products.

Q: How is this helping the environment?
A single decision to purchase an environmentally responsible product, as opposed to traditional goods, is all that’s needed to start a shift in demand. While eco-friendly products aren’t always the most affordable option, they also force less externalized cost onto the planet (use of resources, carbon emissions from production and shipping, etc.). By giving an edge to eco-conscious merchants, Flying Cart hopes to foster the growth of entrepreneurs striving for a better planet through responsible goods.

Q: What is Flying Cart?
Flying Cart is the easiest way to build your online store. Founded in 2006 with some laptops, caffeine, and the dream to allow anyone easily launch their own brand online. Over 12,000 small businesses currently use Flying Cart.

Q: Who’s behind Flying Cart?

Rishi Shah started the company out of his Mom’s basement with the goal of helping other entrepreneurs launch their store online. Rishi is passionate on helping small business sell their products online and ‘stick it to the man’.

Trevor Dye is an environmental activist with a passion for a greener economy. After joining the Flying Cart staff, he found inspiration in some of the great eco-friendly products already being sold through FC, and from there Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores was born.

Q: I’d like to blog about this. Do you have any images we can use?
Yes. Feel free to use anything on our website. In specific here are some more logos.
Flying Cart logo on the main Website: http://bit.ly/Flying-Cart-Awesome-Logo
Flying Cart logo in White: http://bit.ly/Flying-Cart-White-Logo
Here is a picture of Rishi and Trevor: http://bit.ly/rishi-and-trevor

Q: If I don’t have an eco-friendly product can I still open a store on Flying Cart?
Yes. You can start your store here: http://flyingcart.com

Q: How can I share this with my friends?
A: Ok. We have to be honest. We don’t think anyone will ask this. But we really need your support and the more people that talk about it the faster our eco-movement can spread. Use our one click sharing buttons right here to get the word out there! Here our our sharing buttons:
Twitter
Facebook

Q: I need more info. How do I get in touch with you?
Contact Trevor at [email protected], call us at 1-800-780-6064, or read the full press release here:
http://flyingcart.com/blog/flying-cart-sells-green-award/

Learn more about the Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores contest on our FAQ page.
Please visit the terms and conditions page before applying.

Please support our eco-movement by sharing this with your friends.  Everyone that tweets this article will receive a free product from one of our winners.
Twitter
Facebook

Eligibility

The contest is open to legal residents of the United States (excluding Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, and Puerto Rico) who are at least 18 years of age. Employees of Sponsor, their family members, and direct vendors of Sponsor are prohibited from entering. Entrants are subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited by law.

Sponsor

The award is sponsored by Flying Cart LLC (“Sponsor”), 631 Capp St. San Francisco, CA 94110.

Agreement to Official Rules

By participating in this contest award, entrants agree to abide by the terms and conditions thereof as established by Sponsor in these rules, as well as the Flying Cart LLC Terms of Service located at http://flyingcart.com/terms.php. Sponsor reserves the right to qualify all applications and to reject any applications that do not meet the requirements for participation as established by Sponsor.

How to Enter

Entrants may enter the contest by applying their eco friendly business here: http://www.flyingcart.com/blog/application during the Entry Period. At the time the application is submitted, all entries must include the name, company name, and e-mail address of the entrant, as well as all other information required to create and submit an application. All entrants must also select one of the following categories that best fits the range of their eco friendly products:
(1) Secondhand, (2) Upcycled and re purposed, (3) made of eco-friendly materials, (4) produced sustainably, (5) or other – please provide.
Sponsor reserves the right at any time to reclassify any business as it deems appropriate. By entering, all entrants consent to the use by Sponsor of all the business identifying information provided in the entries for marketing and/or sales promotional purposes without any attribution, identification, right of review or compensation. Entries submitted without complete identifying information will not be eligible to receive the award.
Sponsor assumes no responsibility for computer system, hardware, software or program malfunctions or other errors, failures, delayed computer transactions or network connections that are human or technical in nature, or for damaged, lost, late, illegible or misdirected entries; technical, hardware, software, electronic or telephone failures of any kind; lost or unavailable network connections; fraudulent, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmissions whether caused by Sponsor, the users, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this contest; or by any technical or human error that may occur in the processing of entrants’ sales, that may limit, delay or prevent an entrant’s ability to participate in the contest.
Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this contest award from entries received up to the time of termination or suspension should virus, bugs or other causes beyond Sponsor’s control, unauthorized human intervention, malfunction, computer problems, phone line or network hardware or software malfunction, which, in the sole opinion of Sponsor, corrupt, compromise or materially affect the administration, fairness, security or proper play of the contest or proper submission of entries. Sponsor is not liable for any loss, injury or damage caused, whether directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from downloading data or otherwise participating in this contest.

Entry Period

The award contest begins on October 20, 2010 at 12:01 A.M. EST and ends on November, 25 2010 at 11:59 P.M. PST. Entries received before or after this Entry Period are void.

Selection of Award Recipients

The applications will be judge by Flying Cart staff members.

Notification of Potential Award Winners

The Award Winners will be notified by telephone and/or e-mail within five (5) days of the closing of the Entry Period or upon the completion of the application review, whichever is longer. If any application related questions have not been resolved within thirty (5) days of the closing of the contest, Sponsor will advise entrants of the delay and will fix a new date for the notification of the Award Winners that shall not exceed sixty (60) days after the closing of the award. If any Award Winner does not acknowledge acceptance of the award within seven (7) days after being notified that he or she is an Award Winner, another Award Winner will be chosen. The awards will be sent via PayPal to the Award winners PayPal account.

Requirements of Award Winners

Sponsor may require each Award Winner to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility and liability and publicity release, wherever lawful, as a precondition to award of the Award. If any Award Winner fails to sign and return the requested documents to Sponsor, that Award Winner may be disqualified, and the Award will thereafter be awarded to an alternate Award Winner from the remaining valid entries using the procedure specified above.

Awards

Each Awards winner will receive a cash award of $100, a Glider package on Flying Cart, and a coaching session with the founder of Flying Cart LLC – Rishi Shah. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the Award Winners. Any Award Winner may be required, as a condition of receiving their Award, to execute any documents required by law confirming their tax obligations, if any. If any Award Winner fails to sign and return any tax-related documents as directed by Sponsor, that Award Winner may be disqualified, and the Award will thereafter be awarded to an alternate Award Winner from the remaining valid entries using the procedure specified above.

Release and Publicity

By receipt of the Award and by signing an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release, if requested, each Award Winner consents to the use of his or her name, business name, and address by Sponsor for advertising and promotional purposes, without any additional compensation, except where prohibited. Each Award Winner agrees to release and hold harmless Sponsor and its officers, directors, employees, affiliated companies, agents, successors and assigns from and against any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the contest.

Contest Results and Official Rules

To obtain the identity of the Award Winners and/or a copy of these Official Rules, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Rishi Shah, Flying Cart LLC, 631 Capp St., San Francisco, CA 94110.

Originally published by GreenBiz.com

Next month’s GreenBiz Innovation Forum focuses on the intersection of sustainability and innovation, including how innovation happens inside large companies. Tim O’Reilly, one of the “innovisionaries” to be featured at the event, has been thinking about such things for a long time. He is largely credited with driving both the open source and web 2.0 technology movements into mainstream concepts. Tim’s long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators. In addition to O’Reilly Media, Tim is a founder of Safari Books Online, a pioneering subscription service for accessing books online, and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, an early-stage venture firm.

Recently, Greener World Media president Eric Faurot chatted with O’Reilly about the web as an innovation platform.

Eric Faurot: You have been at the forefront of both the open source and Web 2.0 paradigm shifts. Do you see any parallels to the current sustainability movement?
Tim O’Reilly: One is that the Web represented a complete sea change in the media world. People were in denial for a long time and most companies completely missed the opportunity because they tried to marginalize it. In a way sustainability is an even greater change in the world of consumer products. People are still in denial. I think one of the big lessons from the Web is that things that seem to start small can actually be utterly transforming.

EF: How does the Web change the way we should think about sustainable innovation?
TO: Self-service is one of the big elements of the Internet that I think people haven’t fully come to grips with and part of the potential of in the sustainability movement. People helping each other. People collaborating. It’s like collective action to create certain kinds of efficiency in a system.
For example, eBay and Craigslist are self-service platforms for small sellers to move their stuff. They created new markets. There is a creative destruction here: Craigslist has decimated newspapers and yet a Craigslist world is actually a better, more efficient world for consumers. So when we think about what really happens when the world becomes more sustainable we think of all the things that we stop doing.

EF: Won’t that sound scary to some people?
TO: If you think of the world as zero-sum game then you’re afraid of the future because all you can see is this new thing is coming and it makes you less. But if it’s not a zero-sum game and it’s really about creating value then when you stop doing something that’s less valuable that frees up resources to do something that’s more valuable. That’s how societies get richer.
EF: Can you elaborate on what you mean by “platform?”
TO: All of the great Internet success stories are platform stories in one way or another. A platform is a set of mechanisms that allow other people to use what you do to create value for themselves and for everyone else in the marketplace.

EF: So, Apple’s App Store is a good example of a “platform?”
TO: Absolutely. They are also a great example of a big company that reinvented itself. Apple created new markets where there is consumer demand, where there is this classic sort of American consumer culture world and yet it’s much more sustainable. You can consume new music, new books, and new apps on the same device. In a world of digital goods that’s perfectly okay.

Get on Twitter

Twitter is all the rage. While it’s debatable if it’ll last, one thing is certain, you should use it to grow your online store.

It was hard for me to take it seriously at first, after all doesn’t it serve the same function as Facebook’s status updates. But micro-blogging, or tweets, has taken over the mainstream. Whether you’re products are solely online or you’re operating brick-and-mortar, being savvy to web trends is one of the best ways to succeed.

And it’s never too late to jump on the bandwagon, just don’t be like everyone else. Flying Cart offers a built in feature for one-click tweet’ing of your products, but you can’t stop there. People who use Twitter for relentless self-promotion are like constant commercials. No one wants that, so give something back to your Twitter followers. Entice them to pay attention.

3 Creative Ways to Use Twitter:

1. Encourage Micro-Product Reviews
If someone buys your product, reach out with a thank you and encourage them to write a 140-character review of your product on their Twitter. Reward them with a coupon for a percentage off their next purchase, or any other incentive you have to offer. And be sure to retweet their micro-review on your Twitter.

2. Product Development Micro-Blogging
If you’re working up a new product, let people know about it. Describe the process, show some behind the scenes pictures, and ask for feedback. Even though it’s only a tweet, so much can be said for making people feel connected with your product.

3. Contests or Giveaways via Twitter
You obviously started your online store to make money. But offering a small amount of product for free is a great way to stir a frenzy, or at least attract some eyes. Tweet a product and automatically enter anyone who retweets it to win one of that product for free. Go a step further and offer a coupon to all the others who retweeted but didn’t win.

The ways to use Twitter could go on and on. Just get creative. But don’t forget the basic steps as well:

Every time you add a product – tweet that product!
Every time you have a happy customer – tweet what they say!
Every time you have a sale – tweet the coupon code!

You can also use Twitter Search to find people talking about products you sell. If you find someone mentioning your product, jump in the conversation!