What is e-commerce?
What is E-commerce?
E-commerce is a term used to describe the buying, selling, and distribution of goods or services using electronic means.
Online shopping has become extremely popular in recent years. Millions of websites now offer goods for sale online, and people are purchasing items through the internet and e-commerce sites regularly.
E-commerce sales are growing rapidly. In the United States, e-commerce sales have increased by over 500% since then.
E-commerce is also referred to as B2C (business to consumer) in some instances or B2B (business to business). E-commerce is not just buying and selling products online, however. It can also include services such as accounting, finance, legal, and IT. It can also be used for philanthropic purposes such as donating money to a charity.
Many companies have jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon in recent years, including Amazon, Apple, eBay, and Alibaba. Even brick and mortar stores have started offering online retail services as well – think of all those grocery stores that offer an online grocery shopping feature.
Why has e-commerce taken off so rapidly?
There are two primary reasons for this.
Firstly, customers have become accustomed to being able to buy products online. For instance, from sites such as Amazon or eBay at a low cost with free shipping options. They’re more likely to spend more money in their online store than they would in a physical store due to this convenience factor.
Secondly, it’s much easier and cheaper for businesses to sell goods or services online than it is for them to open up additional stores – especially if they’re an overseas company expanding into a new market or looking to enter a new industry where they don’t have a physical presence yet.
Many businesses find that they can reach more customers online than they can in person. More so for customers that live outside of their local area or across the country or even the world.
Impacts of E-Commerce in Business Industry
E-commerce is changing the way business is done globally. Here are some of the ways e-commerce is impacting today’s business industry.
Increasing Competition
The good news is that e-commerce has increased competition for small businesses and startups. It’s made it possible for anyone with even a small start-up idea to get their product or service to market quickly and more cost-effectively than they could have done in the past.
The downside is that e-commerce has also increased competition for established businesses. Customers are now able to put the business under pressure to adopt an online presence or risk losing customers to the competition.
This can put a lot of strain on existing business models as they have to shift their focus away from other areas to compete with their online rivals.
Online Marketing
The widespread adoption of e-commerce has meant that businesses need to be savvier when it comes to online marketing. For instance, they have to have a strong presence on all social media platforms. Besides, they need an effective website and an active content strategy in place if they want their brand story to be told effectively.
It’s no longer good enough for a company just to have a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. Because, they need more than that, and they need to leverage those channels effectively if they’re going to reach customers online.
E-Commerce is also impacting online marketing by forcing companies to rethink their overall marketing strategy. For instance, many companies don’t realize that email marketing is still an effective channel for them, despite the growth of social media over the last decade. They’ve become so dependent on social media marketing. As a result, neglecting other channels such as email marketing. Which can be an important part of any company’s overall online marketing strategy. For one reason, email marketing allows you to communicate with your audience directly – without the interference of any social media platform algorithms or limitations on what you can post or who you can contact.