The main thing about ecommerce: what is online trading and how does it work?
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The growth of online sales and the decline of offline trade has been a trend in recent years. Half of city residents hardly ever go to offline stores, and in 2023 the number of online orders increased by 104%. And such statistics are understandable: the user does not have to waste time on long shopping trips; he just needs to make a few clicks to buy almost everything - from crushed stone to a sofa. This is the whole essence of e-commerce, and we will look at how it works and what it is like in this article.
What is ecommerce: in simple terms about complex things
Essentially, ecommerce, or electronic commerce, is online trading. That is, any sales, placing orders and reservations, payments that are made on the Internet. And we are talking not only about finances, but also about business processes, for example, organizing the logistics of goods also applies to ecom.
Thus, e-commerce includes:
- all platforms and services where online payments are made: online stores, booking services, marketplaces, etc.;
- application and software stores, such as Google Play, App Store;
- B2B services for automating data collection and warehouse management - CRM, accounting systems;
- electronic funds transfers and data interchange (EDI);
- supply chain management - courier, logistics and transport fulfillment company;
- online transaction processing.
These are all the things that the functioning of an online platform cannot do without. Moreover, the object of sale in e-commerce can be not only physical goods, say equipment or clothing, but also:
- digital goods - purchases in online games, music, films;
- physical services - delivery of products, documents;
- digital services - online courses, consultations.
All this is important to take into account.
Main pluses of working with ecommerce
The first is the minimum cost of renting and equipping premises. Unlike an offline location, you can get by with a warehouse and online consultants.
Another advantage is that an online business is easier to scale because it is not tied to a specific location. To get to another region, the seller does not have to open branches or look for partners. He sells goods or the ecommerce fulfillment services directly on the website - this reduces the cost of selling goods. For example, for a small business, the easiest way to present products in another region is to place them on marketplaces and classified sites.
And lastly, in ecommerce it is very easy to collect sales data and track how channels perform at each stage of the sales funnel. Analytics and call tracking systems help with this - they will show at what step customers leave, what they buy, and what problems they contact the call center with!
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