What is eCommerce? Everything you need to know!

“Ecommerce – a big wheel to tie in the unattached to the entire business industry“

Ecommerce is the biggest platform and it’s doing wonders in our lives already. Here is a detailed elaboration about the ecommerce world and its magic in our society.

What is Ecommerce?

Ecommerce is buying or selling goods through the online mode that is technically explained as digital shopping in the electronic medium either by the system or mobile phones. The term Ecommerce itself conveys its meaning as “Electronic Commerce .”

Okay, let us decode how it is in the backend.

           Ecommerce = Production + Distribution + Marketing + Sales/ Delivery

                                                        (Through the Internet )

Why is e-commerce so popular?

It has to do with the convenience factor. Consumers have been demanding more from their experience and ecommerce sites are responding.

Creating a store is more than just designing the website and integrating it with an ecommerce platform. There are many aspects that include design, marketing, promotions and other features. As ecommerce ventures become more competitive, startups need to focus on all these aspects to be successful in this field.

The benefits of e-commerce are that you shop anytime, convenience, lower prices, and a vast inventory of products. As online retail grows, it becomes more difficult for businesses to tell the difference between real and fake reviews.

Luckily, we are seeing more companies using machine learning and artificial intelligence in their business models to boost sales conversions by up to 20%.

Ecommerce also offers prices that are cheaper than what would be found in stores. With the use of ecommerce, businesses have been able to ship items directly to customers’ homes which have improved customer service.

eCommerce is now a global phenomenon, with billions of dollars spent each year on online shopping. The availability of products, as well as their low-cost thanks to increased competition, has proved irresistible for many people worldwide.

When we discuss what Ecommerce is, we should walk back 40+ years to know how it all started. And here we go about the history.

Related stories:-

History of ecommerce:-

Michael Aldrich, the person who is the prime mover of the term ecommerce with the idea of attaching televisions and computers to telephone lines to sell online.

1962	CompuServe company (Dr John R. Goltz and Jeffrey Wilkins)
1992	Books Stacks Unlimited (Charles M. Stack)
1982	Boston Computer Exchange
1992	Books Stacks Unlimited (Charles M. Stack)
1994	Netscape Navigator (Mark Andreessen and Jim Clark)
1995	Iconic entry by Amazon (Jeff Bezos)
1998	Paypal (Max Levchin)
1999	Alibaba(Jack Ma Yun)

And the list goes on with the massive growth and about a 16% rise in worldwide online shopping during the COVID crisis.

Types of Ecommerce:-

Only one way of exploring this is not enough for its gigantic advancement and here are the 6 types of it to understand its targeted audiences. They are

1. Business-to-Business (B2B):

It is the two or more companies do business transactions with each other online. It helps in the sales growth between the companies and also the consumers. It also undergoes several layers of approval and it is the long-term connection with the business and it makes sure about the plan that it generates for the purchases. An example of this type is Amazon, where two and more business people can share their business products in one place.

2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C):

A business person who sells his products directly to their consumers. This directly focuses on the end customer. In the ecommerce term, the B2C is exactly like retail where the company directly deals with their target audiences. This also happens in selling products in stores and also in restaurants. One major example of this type is Netflix, which reaches customers directly with all its services and packages.

3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C):

A product is sold from one customer to another customer with direct contact. This is exactly like trading where the two customers buy and sell the products they have with each other. The products can be either used or new, they will be managed by the customers and they will not come under any organization’s control. One well-known example of this one is, OLX.

4. Consumer to Business(C2B):

A customer who supports the organization with good service. This is where the customer will provide their services to the business people with the proper portfolio and proper experience. First, either the consumer or the business people will reach out to the respective person with the list of requirements, and they will work according to it. And finally, the consumer will give their 100% effort to bring out the business people’s needs. The one known example of this model is Freelancing.

5. Business to Administration (B2A):

An organization that gives business to the public government. This is one ongoing trend in the ecommerce world, where the government will reach the respective organization that is well-versed in the required field and asks for a contract to work for them. The government will list out all its needs and the organization will take this deal. One example of this Business-to-Administration model is OpenGov.

6. Consumer to Administration (C2A):

A customer reaches out to the government through electronic means. You use this model in your life as a citizen, where you initiate the process of billing and filling the requirement that also helps the government to move their further process. One major example of this model is Tax filing.

All the services revolve around these six models and it fits perfectly for the desired and consistent growth. The next one is the few practical forms in which the entire ecommerce world revolves discussed.

Efficient ways to utilize e-commerce platforms

As we discussed its types earlier, these are a few functional ways to reach the targeted audiences.

• Retail Purchasing.
• Wholesale markets.
• Physical products. (shipped physically)
• Virtual products. (ebooks)
• Subscription method.

The features of ecommerce have the most important thing that one will search for when there is a plan for any e-commerce business plans.

Next, we shall see the features, followed by the different kinds of ecommerce.

Features of Ecommerce:

1. It should be easily navigated to help the sellers and the buyers.
2. It provides real-time information with up-to-date facilities for the customers to access.
3. It has simplified tag pricing which helps the customers to buy regularly to maintain sustainability.
4. It has one fine emerging feature like the online processing of orders.
5. It only focuses on the client with 24/7 services.
6. It gives you personalized and brand-needed marketing strategies which keep the business going in the forward direction.

It is much more interesting right, then don’t stop here, the upcoming scrolls are so important in the ecommerce world that would help you in many ways.

Different ways of ecommerce:

1. Social commerce in ecommerce:

Social commerce is the concept of shopping on social media platforms. To elaborate more briefly, social commerce is the combination of, ecommerce and social media. The increased use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube has set its hype to the common people.

2. Visual Commerce in ecommerce 

Visual Commerce is the method of using visual content and augmented reality to strengthen the customer experience. Online brands can notably benefit from getting people to know about their products.

Visual commerce uses images, videos, and virtual reality to help users to learn about them and to connect with them, and finally buy their products. In fact, more than half of our brain is concerned with processing visual information. Also, our brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text.

Visual commerce allows online retailers to build trust and loyalty. This also influences your visitors to help in vanishing the buyer’s doubts. It also creates numerous opportunities for brands to increase average order value (AOV) by presenting products in context, cross-selling, and up-selling with attractive looks and inspiration.

To know more about its importance, you can also refer to the importance of visual commerce

3. Mobile Ecommerce or m-commerce:-

What is mobile ecommerce?  You may think it is the general term for mobility in ecommerce. Yes, you are right it refers to internet shopping in wireless and portable devices like phones, and tablets which are operated by mobile shopping, mobile banking, and mobile payments, and this meaningful term was framed by Kevin Duffey in 1997.

Some advantages of m-commerce are, expanded audience reach with less loading time and well-researched purchasing decisions. This marks half of the entire ecommerce sales by 2021 and the only disadvantage is data secrecy and network connectivity.

Now the most interesting answer to the most searched question is, what are the job opportunities in the ecommerce field?

Disclosing the high-paying job availability that helps an individual to set their path.

Jobs in Ecommerce:-

If there is a new emerging field, there will be loads of job opportunities that help to outgrow the bounds.

Supervising the company’s business interactions on social media platforms.

• Website Designer – (salary ranges between 1.0 – 6.0 LPA)

A person who creates customized designs for the client’s website.

• SEO Specialist –  (salary ranges between 3.0- 15.6 LPA)

A person who specializes in the strategies and tactics to generate traffic and helps in the lead’s expansion.

• Digital Marketer –  (salary ranges between 3.1 – 19.4 LPA)              

An individual who is responsible for marketing campaigns and promoting the brand’s products.

• Project Manager- (salary ranges between 6 –  ₹ 35 LPA)

A well-versed person who turns the vision into reality by prioritizing the customer’s wants.

Ecommerce business:

Ecommerce business is purchasing and exchanging goods in online mode with the use of business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer to consumer or consumer-to-business models.

You can also go and read about the ecommerce business which explains the same in a detailed way.

Web-based business:

Web-based ecommerce businesses can take on various structures including different conditional connections among organizations and buyers and various items being traded as a component of these exchanges.

• Retail – They offer an item by a business straightforwardly to a client with next to no go-between.
• Discount- They offer items in mass, frequently to a retailer, who then sells them straightforwardly to shoppers.
• Outsourcing -They offer an item, which is produced and delivered to the shopper by an outsider.
• Crowdfunding – The assortment of cash from customers ahead of an item being accessible to raise the startup capital important to put it up for sale to the public.
• Membership – The programmed repeating acquisition of an item or administration consistently until the endorser decides to drop.
• Actual items – Any unmistakable great that expects the stock to be recharged and orders to be truly sent to clients as deals are made.
• Advanced items – Downloadable advanced products, layouts, courses, or media that should be bought for utilization or authorized for use.
• Administrations – Expertise or set of abilities given in return to pay, the specialist. The organization’s time can be bought for an expense.

Ecommerce business ideas for 2023:

These are a few ecommerce business ideas, there are many more ideas to look into as smart ideas, technical ideas, marketing ideas, and social ideas. You can also read more information about the best ecommerce business ideas that will help in growing your business.

1. Dropshipping
2. Online Marketplace Selling
3. Amazon FBA business
4. Merchandise creation
5. Subscription plans
6. Sell NFTs

Are you interested in starting your ecommerce business, then I have many ecommerce business ideas and step-by-step procedures to start the ecommerce business.

Now, it is time to reveal the ecommerce website builders, who are responsible for the website creation in such a short span with all the required filters.

Ecommerce website builders:

Website builders are the one intelligent option you can opt for if you don’t have any prior coding knowledge in website creation. There are loads and loads of website builders who help from scratch to design the website with the all details of your choice.

Top e-commerce website builders:

1. Wix
2. Squarespace
3. WordPress
4. GoDaddy
5. Bigcommerce
6. Shopify

E-commerce Hosting in India:

E-commerce hosting is a type of web hosting service that allows companies to operate online stores. Ecommerce hosting providers typically offer features such as shopping cart software, payment gateway integration, and security to protect customers’ information. Some ecommerce hosting providers also offer marketing and SEO tools to help businesses that promote their stores draw attention.

Top hosting sites in E-commerce:

1. Kinsta
2. Bluehost
3. HostGator
4. A2 Hosting
5. InMotion Hosting
6. GreenGeeks

These are the few hosting sites that help in hosting your website to boost business growth. Now, let us move on to the affiliate programs that are available for your business that lays a major part in growing your website.

Affiliate programs in E-commerce:

The one major part of creating and upgrading the website is the affiliate marketing programs. This helps in the major raise of your consumers that is it directs and attracts your targeted audiences. It is nothing but the programs which provide you with the affiliate links through which also you can generate the commissions whenever the searching person clicks the link and process the order confirmation. Below are the few programs that are available in India which are also the most trusted among the top ecommerce platforms.

Top 10 Trusted Affiliate programs:

• Amazon Associates
• Bluehost
• Shopify
• Rakuten
• Awin
• Flipkart Affiliate
• Reseller Club
• eBay partner network
• vCommision
• Hostgator affiliate

E-commerce Sales in India:

The business that opts for ecommerce sales has lots of confidence in its vision and mission plans. In recent years the ecommerce domain has gone its heights to reach its entire growth with all the technological facilities.

• Customer satisfaction.
• Accepting feedback and responding to them.
• Handling Social media.
• Opt for the Visibility.
• Pop-up ads are to vanish.
• Easy payments.
• Round-the-clock support.
• List creation.

Ecommerce delivery services:

The efforts that have been into website creation the website marketing, are as important as concentrating on delivery services and logistics maintenance. And opening the e-commerce platform the order has to be confirmed and then it has to be dispatched and shipped and then it has to reach the customer with all the safety measures. The privacy issue is the one thing that decides the customer’s trust in a brand.

Top 10 delivery services in India:

• Delhivery
• DTDC
• BlueDart
• FedEx
• Ekart
• Ecom Express
• Safe Express
• Professional Courier service
• Shiprocket
• Wow Express

How bad customer experience will kill the ecommerce business

In the ecommerce business, you should be very much careful in handling customer satisfaction, where the experiences and reviews by the customers will make you stand at the top or will drag you down to the last. It completely depends on how you take control of it.

Now, let us discuss the important yet new term that is “Digital word of mouth”, which means the word of mouth through the digital form that is customer reviews, which tends to be “Shrinking Profits”.

Let me reveal the one important thing we as a customer do – researching the products and their quality is the first step in adding the product to the cart. Then the next step is reading the customer reviews, which place the major in deciding the purchase.

About 73% of customers say that based on customer reviews only the purchasing decision is made. To know more about how customer review kills ecommerce, you can also read about the effects of bad customer reviews.

Advantages and Disadvantages of e-commerce

Advantages in Ecommerce:-

1. Convenient shopping from the place we are in.

2. Easy accessibility at lower cost availability.

3. 24/7 connections that are irrespective of the time.

4. Wide range of comparisons and reviews for decision-making.

Disadvantages in Ecommerce:-

1. Unexplainable variation in the shipping charges.

2. Trouble in viewing the product before planning for a buy.

3. The notable issue is the privacy of the customer’s personal information.

Wrap Up

Ecommerce is a growing sector and sure it rules the shopping freaks. Ecommerce not only benefits the users but also the business people to increase their revenue and sales. This blog has captured you with all this vital information and has covered you with most of the detailed information. I hope you enjoyed reading this and get benefitted.

Ecommerce FAQs