What is eCommerce?

eCommerce is the term which refers to any transaction made online. Of course, as many of you will already know the most popular example of eCommerce is online shopping. Online shopping is defined as the buying and selling of either products or services online. However, eCommerce isn’t just about online shopping, there are actually other forms of eCommerce which could come in handy for any business you want to run online.

There are three main types of eCommerce present on the internet today, and these types are based on the participants in each transaction. There is B2B which is business to business: B2C which is business to consumer: and C2C which is consumer to consumer. There are also other types such as cloud hosting ecommerce.

eCommerce is becoming one of the largest markets in the world. In the last 5 years the popularity of the internet and trading online has meant that this market is growing and growing, and it still keeps growing to this day. Mobile commerce in particular, which is driven by the sale of mobile phones and tablets, has become a huge part of the market online in recent years.

The Benefits of eCommerce

There are a ton of reasons which eCommerce is beneficial to your business, and here are some of the reasons:

Global market – the beauty about being online is that there are no location restrictions. In the real world you wouldn’t be able to visit a store in India and then one in Australia in the same day, but online you can do it within a matter of minutes. This presents a much wider audience for retailers.

Around-the-clock availability – unlike a physical store on the high street, online stores do not have a closing time. That means that people can visit the site and make purchases 24/7, which is hugely beneficial to the merchant.

Reduced costs – eCommerce businesses are great because they don’t cost as much to run as a regular business. The cost of running a website is pretty low and you won’t need to rent out a store or hire a ton of employees to run it. All you need to do is have a warehouse and staff to manage the shipping of items.
Inventory management – by using software to manage inventory levels and save a huge amount of money with delivery and shipping procedures.

Targeted marketing – as with any online business, you will have access to a huge amount of customer data. Because of this you will be able to target your marketing strategy with social promotions, emails and other promotions. You will be able to see the buying habits of your customers which will help you to create streamlined email newsletters for them.

Working from anywhere –  want to work from home? Go ahead. If you would rather go out to your local coffee shop and setup in there, you can! Going on holiday? Take your laptop with you to keep an eye on things! The greatest thing about working online is that you can work anytime, anywhere.

So, if you these benefits are of interest to you in your business, you may want to consider setting up an e-Commerce store!

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