Introduction

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the
transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business
transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-
to-consumer or consumer-to-business. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used
interchangeably.

Role of e-commerce

Availability

Aside from outages or scheduled maintenance, e-commerce sites are available 24x7, allowing
visitors to browse and shop at any time. Bricks and mortar businesses tend to open for a fixed
amount of hours and may even close entirely on certain days.

Speed of access

While shoppers in a physical store can be slowed by crowds, e-commerce sites run quickly,
which is determined by compute and bandwidth considerations on both consumer device and e-
commerce site. Product pages and shopping cart pages load in a few seconds or less. An e-
commerce transaction can comprise a few clicks and take less than five minutes.

Wide availability

Amazon’s first slogan was “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” They could make this claim because
they were an e-commerce site and not a physical store that had to stock each book on its shelves.
E-commerce enables brands to make a wide array of products available, which are then shipped
from a warehouse after a purchase is made.

Easy accessibility

Customers shopping a physical store may have a hard time determining which aisle a particular
product is in. In e-commerce, visitors can browse product category pages and use the site search
feature the find the product immediately.

1
International reach

Bricks and mortar businesses sell to customers who physically visit their stores. With e-
commerce, businesses can sell to any customer who can access the web. E-commerce has the
potential to extend a business’ customer base globally.

Lower cost

Pure play e-commerce businesses avoid the cost associated with physical stores, such as rent,
inventory and cashiers, although they may incur shipping and warehouse costs.

Personalization and product recommendations

E-commerce sites can track visitors’ browse, search and purchase history. They can leverage this
data to present useful and personalized product recommendation. Examples include the sections
of Amazon product pages labeled “Frequently bought together” and “Customers who viewed this
item also viewed.”

Features of e-commerce

Ubiquity

The traditional business market is a physical place, access to treatment by means of document
circulation. For example, clothes and shoes are usually directed to encourage customers to go
somewhere to buy. E-commerce is ubiquitous meaning that it can be everywhere. E-commerce is
the worlds reduce cognitive energy required to complete the task.

Global Reach

E-commerce allows business transactions on the cross country bound can be more convenient
and more effective as compared with the traditional commerce. On the e-commerce businesses
potential market scale is roughly equivalent to the network the size of the world’s population.

Universal Standards

E-commerce technologies is an unusual feature, is the technical standard of the Internet, so to

carry out the technical standard of e-commerce is shared by all countries around the world

2
standard. Standard can greatly affect the market entry cost and considering the cost of the goods
on the market. The standard can make technology business existing become more easily, which
can reduce the cost, technique of indirect costs in addition can set the electronic commerce
website 10$ / month.
Richness

Advertising and branding are an important part of commerce. E-commerce can deliver video,
audio, animation, billboards, signs and etc. However, it’s about as rich as television technology.

Interactivity

Twentieth Century electronic commerce business technology is called interactive, so they allow
for two-way communication between businesses and consumers.

Components of e-commerce

Good product to sell:

You need to identify a good product/service. The product/service must be in demand or else it is
only good for you. So do your research for the products and services in demand before you start.

Find a niche to sell to:

If you a small business, the best place to start is with a small niche you can colonize and convert
to your base. You can reach wider niche easily with a dedicated base on your sleeve. At least you
have something to fall back to in the case. So choose your base. Example, working class looking
for convenience shopping, busy people who need skilled professionals, at home moms, brand
minded, students etc. You get the idea. When you start with a sling of David, soon you will be
hunting giants.

Get a location for your e-commerce business:

If you are not into exclusive home delivery. You will need a location as the contact points for
service consultation or product pickup. Your location has to be central enough for your
customers. It can be a home office.

3
Have enough products in stock:

At least have a reliable logistics that make the products available asap after an order.

Design a delivery mechanism:

Make sure that you have mapped how you intend to deliver to customers asap. It must be quick
and as promised. You only have one order to impress a customer to them to a fan. So, get all
your vehicles, dispatch bikes, packing bags, receipts, delivery man and others ready. If you are
sourcing the delivery to another company, make sure thay agree with your terms and they are
reliable.

Design an easy to use e-commerce site:

When you are sure all others are in place, design a website or buy one. Make is easy to use and
navigate for the visitors. The menu, the navigation, the site feel must all be attractive so that
visitors can stay longer on your site. The longer they stay, the higher the chances of buying from
you.

Make your site mobile friendly:

More purchases online are done through smartphones. If your site won't adjust to fit
automatically to the screen of mobile users, you won't be selling to your potential. So, make sure
your site is mobile-friendly. Google provides free online tools to check the usability and mobile
compatibility of your site. The tool will even provide you with insight on how to improve your
site. You can use the Google tools here at Pagespeed and Testmysite. GTmetrix also provides
useful insights that allows you to compare your site with competitors sites, and it's free. Try
GTmetrix.

Make your website design crisp:

Use a very clear image to describe what you sell. Remember visitors don't have the luxury of
seeing the physical product. Your picture therefore, is the best and only identification they have.
If it is not clear or not good, it gives them the impression of an inferior item. So, do your best to
make it crisp and clear. Make the description clear and bulleted, with the best features at the top.

4
Let call to action(CTA) button be moderate and unique. The CTA button could be a link to Order
page, contact or booking form, call-through or chat plugging. Whatever it is, make it crisp.

Optimize your site for an SEO:

In this Google first age, you want to make sure your site pops up on Google search whenever
there's a search for your products/services. Employing a good SEO expert or finding out how to
do it yourself is one of the best investments you can make on your e-commerce business. Make
sure the SEO is the foundation of every page you design for your website. That way, you will be
found more often. And the more you pop up, the higher your chances of selling.

Publicize your site:

Let the world know what you are selling. When you have the product the world needs, make sure
you tell them about it. Nobody will patronize your products if they never hear about it. At least,
it's not their fault. So, get the word out there. Use the free ads and paid ads available to you. Find
out about the best ads you can use. Unless they hear and see, they will not buy.

Secure payment:

Provide secure payment methods. Whether it is Cash on Delivery (CoD), Bank Transfer, Credit
Card Payment or Gift Cards redemption, make it easy and secure for the customers. These are
the vital components to the e-commerce business. I hope they help you to launch out well.

Conclusion

E-commerce is conducted using a variety of applications, such as email, online catalogs and
shopping carts, EDI, the File Transfer Protocol, web services, and mobile devices. This includes
business-to-business activities and outreach, such as using email for unsolicited ads, usually
viewed as spam, to consumers and other business prospects, as well as sending out e-newsletters
to subscribers and SMS texts to mobile devices. More companies now try to entice consumers
directly online, using tools such as digital coupons, social media marketing and targeted
advertisements

5
References:

Laudon, Kenneth C.; Guercio Traver, Carol (2014). E-commerce Business Technology. Society.
10th edition. Pearson.

Chaudhury, Abijit; Kuilboer, Jean-Pierre (2002). E-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure.

McGraw-Hill.
Nissanoff, Daniel (2006). FutureShop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way
We Buy, Sell and Get the Things We Really Want (hardcover ed.). The Penguin Press