E-commerce is the term that refers to purchasing or selling the products and services on the World Wide Web.
The involvement of technology in trade activities makes it easier for sellers to market their products to a broader set of audiences. It enables customers to purchase from anywhere and anytime.
In 1971, e-commerce began spreading its roots in the market. From then to now, e-commerce took a long journey and showed significant growth. The technology is still advancing and spreading its impact on the market for the larger good.
From 1336 billion USD in 2014 to 3535 billion USD in 2019 of worldwide sales growth in retail e-commerce, we came a long way. And, as per the experts, this figure of retail’s growth is expected to double by 2023.
The reason is pretty clear; it took time for the traditional market to digest the arrival of technology in the businesses. Now, people are more open to the changes and taking e-commerce as a ladder towards growth.
We won’t bore you with a lot more statistical details now. But, some basic knowledge can surely aid a lot in your journey of digitalization.
How is e-commerce different from e-business?
In the online business, we not only talk about the trading of goods but also about all the services that can benefit you commercially by selling via a digital portal.
Though e-commerce and e-business are the words interchangeably used in the industry, they aren’t the same!
E-commerce enables the selling and purchasing of goods and services online. In contrast, e-business only concentrates on the marketing of the services offered by businesses on the Internet. The term “e-business” was initially coined by IBM’s team in 1996. They were handling marketing and digital activities for IBM, back in those days.
With the advancement in technology, e-commerce extended to m-commerce and t-commerce. M-commerce allows the business conduction with the help of mobile devices like smartphones, and t-commerce talks about television commerce as well as tablet-commerce.
On the macroscopic level, e-commerce can be considered as a diverse field that includes m-commerce t-commerce as well as e-business. It’s an umbrella term that is accepting everything inside it.
What actions must you take to start an e-commerce business?
Most, if not all, businesses are taking a step towards e-commerce. E-business is turning as part and parcel of every business, knowingly or unknowingly. Let’s take a basic example of the brick and mortar stores accepting digital payments. Now, even if the owner of the store believes in traditional business practices, the adoption of digital means smoothen the customer experience.
E-commerce is not just a trend; instead, it is the future of businesses. It lets you unlock all those opportunities of expansion that can never be a possibility in the traditional market. Like you can serve your customers 24*7 without your physical presence in the store, and you can reach the global audience irrespective of the geographical boundaries.
The ecommerce businesses can be pure-click stores, brick and click stores, or click and brick stores. This implies that the physical location of your business is not mandatory, and you are always free to take your offline business online. Also, you can open your offline store to make your online business look more authentic in the market. Ultimately, it’s your idea of the product and service sales.
Now, we will talk about the action plan that can help you build an ecommerce business from scratch:
- Select your product/service: The market research will be the first thing to count. Analyze the growth rate and decide the target industry that you want to start with. After deciding on the niche of your business, it will be a lot easier for you to search your competitors. The competitor analysis is capable of guiding you through the list of products that can be profitable for you.Select whether you like to market products or services. If you are considering products, you like to go for physical goods or digital products. Also, you can go ahead with the affiliate marketing style, if you already have the user base. We are not telling you to create your catalog, rather make a list of few products that you like to add. It will give you an idea and help you develop strategies for the next level.
- Prepare a business model: Creating a business model is as important as the map to travel. The business model helps businesses understand the flow of products/services, aids in supply chain management, benefits to business, and the customers, which is guarded by the revenue model. When you mean to run to business, you have to follow the strategic path for revenue generation and maintain the cash flow.None of the businesses start counting profits from the second day. So, you need the investment to manage the business conduction and to keep it functional before you start counting your profits. Revenue model helps you manage the inventory and marketing plan to keep your business running even in the odd times.
- Choose your target audience: Based on the market analysis, you can select the end-user or consumer of your business. Creating a buyer persona will be the next case. The first and foremost thing that you must decide is whether you want to adopt a B2C model, B2B model, or C2C model or B2G. It also depends upon your notion of getting the primary product like manufacturing or getting from the wholesale market. Ecommerce lets you sell to multiple audiences in a go. However, the knowledge of the target audience helps you in choosing the platform to build your ecommerce store. Else, you will end up creating a primary B2C web store.
- Seek for digital channels: It’s the time to select channels to market your products and services. You can opt for either of these options:
- E-commerce marketplaces: To start selling the products that you have available in-stock, you can register yourself on the existing e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc. For the fixed commission fees, you can start selling on these platforms without worrying about setup, customer care services, backend management, and so on.
- Ecommerce sites: To build an ecommerce store for your business, you can either choose the open-source platforms or ecommerce platforms.
- Open-source web development platforms: The open-source CMS and web development platforms allow you to build your store from scratch. To opt for this path, either you need a sound technical background, else you can hire a team of website developers to design your store. The platform is free to use, but the development budget will take a toll on your pocket.
- Ecommerce platforms: These platforms work on the subscription-based model. They let you create ecommerce store and manage the online business on your own. The ecommerce platforms arm you with all the necessary tools required for the management of your business. The best thing is, you don’t need any technical knowledge to create and customize your store. Here, you can sell your products and services on your terms. There are several top ecommerce platforms in the market; you can compare their plans and offered features to select the ones that fit your needs.
- Mobile commerce: M-commerce or mobile commerce is the part of e-commerce or call it an extended version of e-commerce. Earlier, m-commerce was only about responsive websites and customers purchasing from multiple mobile devices. Now, with the increase of smartphone users, m-commerce apps, native apps are also in trend. Though they occupy some space in the mobile device of the user, they are easier to engage customers, especially when compared with responsive mobile apps in the browser. You can grab the attention of more customers if you launch your mobile app in addition to your ecommerce store.
- Conversational Commerce: Conversational commerce includes an idea of selling the products by interacting with the end-user or consumer directly. Social commerce can be considered as a tool for conversational commerce as social media platforms are known to bring the engagement between customers and businesses. The task that earlier cold calls used to accomplish, now, social media is working for the same. With social channels, it is easier to increase brand awareness in the community.
How is e-commerce impacting the business in 2020?
E-commerce is showing amazing growth in the market over the years. Ecommerce has curbed the market and shaped businesses from different perspectives. The online marketplace culture is showing steady growth for digital businesses in the market. The logistic industries also grew with e-commerce, thus, offering the job opportunities to the individuals in the delivery sector. There is no barrier to jump on the bandwagon of ecommerce business; you can start your journey from anywhere and at any time.
For now, the global pandemic COVID-19’s outbreak has already devastated the economy a lot. The e-commerce businesses are also witnessing the downside impact of the same because of the lock-down. But, the government is deploying e-commerce for the door-to-door delivery of the products of basic utility. The online marketplaces are also offering the delivery of products in priority like packaged food, grocery, healthcare, hygiene, personal safety, household staples, etc. When it’s the case of an emergency, e-commerce and an online delivery system are helping it’s best to take the condition in control.
From launching a hobby business to creating a venture, e-commerce can do a lot more than your expectations. If you are yet to create your store, we believe it’s the best time to stay at home and learn to shape your online business. Register now to start your free trial and design your store in the meantime. For any queries, you can write to us at support@builderfly.com.
