A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could. -Zig Ziglar
E-commerce is also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce. It refers to the process of buying and selling goods or services via the internet. It also includes the process of transferring money and data to complete these transactions. Simply put, e-commerce is about having an online shop or a way to get the customer to purchase your goods and services online.
E-commerce first started with the first online sale made on August 11, 1994. A man sold his Sting CD to his friend through the website NetMarket. This was the first-ever example of a consumer purchasing a product from a business with the help of the World Wide Web or commonly known as "e-commerce" today.
Ever since e-commerce has evolved in such a way that products have become easier to discover and to purchase through different online retailers and marketplaces. Freelancers, small businesses, as well as large corporations have all taken advantage of e-commerce. Through e-commerce, they have been able to sell their goods and services on a scale that is not easily achievable through traditional offline retail.
Types of e-commerce Models
There are four types of e-commerce models that easily describe every transaction that takes place between businesses and consumers:
Business to Consumer (B2C)
B2C is a situation where a business is selling its goods and services to an individual customer.
Business to Business (B2B)
B2B is a situation where a business is selling its goods and services to another business.
Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
This is a situation where a consumer is selling a good or a service to another consumer.
Consumer to Business (C2B)
When a consumer is selling a good or service to a business or an organization.
You can build your own e-store with the help of website platforms that are e-commerce enabled, such as Magento, WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, and more. There are other platforms in the online market where you can create a store or list your store with them and sell your products—for example, Amazon, E-bay, Facebook shop, Instagram shop, and more.
It is undeniable that almost all of your customers are online. Therefore, a business needs to understand how to cater to them with the convenience of them being able to buy their favorite product from you via the internet and to be able to be discovered by new customers online.
Several different entrepreneurs are working hard to build a business that lets them live a life of their choice and have it run on autopilot. E-commerce is something that allows entrepreneurs to do so. However, if you are looking to turn your e-commerce business into a massive one, you need to work for it. There is always potential to building your business; all you need is a decision to start putting in the required time and effort to build it up.
Growing Your Business
There are a few ways to grow your business online. I like to call it the online store on steroids or the organic long terms growth with advertising. Not everyone has thousands of dollars to invest in their online business. In reality, there is a lot to do without having to spend any money at all. All you need is effort and imagination. Here are a few tips to growing your business online without having to invest a lot:
Deliver the Best Quality Content
High-quality content is the most important if it is a company blog or a product description. It is all about keeping the audience engaged while providing them with information. The information should be delivered in a way that the readers stay connected. Avoid any text blocks and separate points with headers. Altogether try and keep the language easy to understand.
Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Due to the increase in the use of mobile phones, you need to have a mobile-friendly website. More than 54% of people surf the internet using their mobile phones. If your website is not responsive and does not open on the resolution of a mobile phone, you may be alienating your consumers.
Social Media Add-Ons
One of the advantages of social media is that it is effective without having to spend money on it. You can create a profile for free and easily put your business in front of thousands of potential customers.
Pay Attention to Your Target Audience
Focus your business on a specific audience. The more you filter your content, services, and products, the more you are able to reach quality visitors. This means that you can easily target those who will most likely spend money on your business.
Up Your Diversity Game
Growing a business means expanding the operation. There is nothing wrong with adding new elements to your business, which will help you attract a larger crowd or help you benefit from your existing traffic.
Make Use of Free Marketing Tools
The internet offers many different free marketing tools, from email marketing campaigns to designing the best graphics. It may be hard to find the best tool, but the end result becomes worth it.
Build a Network with Complementary Businesses
The best way to make use of your time and effort is to build your network. Form a relationship with other businesses as this can offer you and your business great rewards. One of the rewards includes getting your brand in the limelight and getting customers to know about your brand.
Entrepreneurs passionate about having an e-commerce business are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising and selling their products. They are either doing it via drop-ship or on products they have stock of. This method of spending money on advertisements on Facebook and Google has been described in the previous chapter.
This allows you to understand what your customers want and need. Accordingly, you can spend to get your goods and services sold. Most of the time, there are no repeat customers, and most of the time, it is a purchase based on impulse. Therefore, spending money every month on advertising to make more money can be trend-based and not last for a long time.
And then, there is the hybrid approach. For example, my business partner owns an e-commerce store called "samedayprinting.com." His domain is now seven years old, and he conceptualized this business 7 or 8 years ago on the idea that people will change their behavior on showing for print. They will be mainly shopping online for the ability to design and print their business cards, flyers, and other related print products they need for their business.
Therefore, sameday Printing was born to meet the needs of customers who wanted an easy way to design and place an immediate order for print products and have them ready the same day. This service caters to customers who may have had a botched print production or whose products never arrived for a trade show, providing emergency print services the same day through an online search.
E-commerce allows my partner to own a printing platform without having to own a printing press. How is that possible? Because he was able to provide the best service for a premium price, giving customers peace of mind. He built relationships with different printing presses around the country that can print for him immediately and deliver the finished product to the specified location. Moreover, he went a step further and offered a white-glove delivery service, where your product would be delivered through Uber or Lyft right to your doorstep.
E-commerce is all about convenience and ease. So if you have a product or service that you believe will change the game for consumers, then you need to be online; it's best that you grow these organically.
Shopify (2020). E-commerce. Retrieved from https://www.shopify.com/encyclopedia/what-is- 19ecommerce
Green Geeks (2020). 7 Free Ways to Quickly Grow Your Online Business. Retrieved from https:// 20www.greengeeks.com/blog/7-free-ways-to-quickly-grow-your-online-business/
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