Definition of eCommerce website
Trading, whether commodity-based or selling and buying things and services, has existed for centuries. No one can be a supplier of themselfs. This makes the need to do business. Transactions occur around the world for centuries, locally and remotely. Keeping this concept in mind, think electronically! This is the beginning of answering the questions: “what is an eCommerce site”.
What is eCommerce
Ecommerce, also known as e-Business, is simply the sale and purchase of products or services through the electronic medium, such as the Internet. It also means the transfer of data electronically. Specifically, the money transfer between the two parties. That is, the online shopping we know.
ECommerce has been around since the 1960s when Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) began transferring documents back and forth. The 90s saw online shopping as an emergency, which is much easier today. It’s made so easy and convenient that anyone can make a purchase even while taking a break, with just a few clicks. This has evolved further with the evolution of smartphones, where they offer shopping whenever and wherever, as long as it is from an internet connected device. You can now search almost any product online without having to be physically there.
What is an eCommerce site?
ECommerce websites are online portals that provide services and products transactions through the internet. In its beginnings, eCommerce was done halfway through e-mails and phone calls. Now, with a single website, any transaction can be done and executed online.
There are many types of eCommerce websites for each area. The most common is selling products, but there are also auction websites, business-to-business eCommerce sites, services, music portals, consulting websites, finance management, and more. The types of eCommerce sites are a part of the answer to the question: “what is an eCommerce site”.
What is mobile commerce?
Mobile commerce simply means selling and buying products, using mobile for a device. With the ability of smartphones, almost everyone owns a smartphone and uses it more than laptops or computers to browse the Internet. In the last decade there has been a significant increase in transactions that have been carried out through smartphones
Different types of eCommerce
There are many types of eCommerce that have different functions.
- Business-to-business (B2B) – Transactions performed by two companies for services or products
- Business-to-customer (B2C) – Transactions that take place between the company providing the service or product and the customers
- Customer-to-customer (C2C) – Transactions that take place between two customers who provide services or products
- Customer-to-business (C2B) – Transactions that take place between a customer providing a service or product and a business
- Customer-to-Administration (C2A) – Transactions between individuals and public administrations
The Importance of eCommerce
With the growing use of mobile devices and laptops, there are many advantages of eCommerce such as:
- Global market approach
- Global consumer choice
- Less expense
If you understand the importance of eCommerce, you know the answer to the question: “what is an eCommerce site”?
Disadvantages of eCommerce
Some of the disadvantages of eCommerce are:
- Frauds and insecurity
- Data privacy
- Inability to check the product or service
- The need for tech support
What makes an eCommerce website good?
If you are trying to start an eCommerce website, there are a few things you need to know and keep in mind. Don’t be fooled by the competition because there are many eCommerce websites that control the market. Top eCommerce websites are:
If you know what an eCommerce site is, you can know how to make a good one.
How to promote eCommerce website?
What we said above does not mean that the new players have no chance of getting into the game. If you are a small business, you can focus locally on your city or a little wider. You can also specialize in a product and increase it’s quality.
Initially, your website should be fun, simple and user-friendly. Consumers should be able to find what they are looking for, whether by price or quality. It should be easy to locate prices, images, cart, etc. The wait for the page to load should be short, and the images should be professional. People want to see what they are buying.
An advice, if you are selling a product, do not charge shipping. This is often a reason where you can lose clients. Always show how many products you have in stock because you should not leave any doubt on your customers. Regularly check that everything is OK. Also, often show discount offers to attract potential customers to your website. If you know what an eCommerce site is, you also know how to promote it.
How to control website growth?
Now we talked about how to create a good ecommerce website, but how to calculate its growth? If you know what an eCommerce site is, you know how to control it too.
Are you performing well? What metrics should you check regularly?
Some of the metrics that you should check regularly are:
- Sales
- Category performances
- Requests
- Average price of orders
- Bounce rate
- Average on-page time
In all these metrics, which do you think is best to check if you’ve performed well? What is something that says “My website is growing!”?
Sales, right?
Wrong! In fact, it’s the number of visits. As your visits increase, so does your website. This defines the growth of your website.
If you have a lot of visits, your orders will increase, your business will grow and you’ll have more profit.
There are many tools you can use to know the number of visits such as:
- Google Analytics
- HubSpot
- Lucky Orange
- HumCommerce
Make sure you are in control of what is working and not working. Demographics also play an important role. You have to show the right thing to the right people. Leave no room for doubt, in any aspect, to any client. The contact should be up to date and complete. Trust plays a key role in an eCommerce site. If you understand what an eCommerce site is, you will have no problem with demographics.
What are a “must have” for an eCommerce website ?
Offer plenty of payment options for your customers to make their purchase easier. Every customer has their own preferences. You should also offer the possibility of returning damaged products. Many customers prefer a company that assures them that their money or the product can be returned if something goes wrong.
Comprehend that the cart on a shopping site is also the key to an ecommerce website. And it is often underestimated by the majority. Many customers will leave if something goes wrong in the shopping cart. Imagine if you have carefully selected 20 products, and when you go to the shopping cart some are missing or none of them appear. You have to be very careful on the cart page.
And lastly, try to get customer reviews. People want to see how satisfied past customers have been and if there was something that went wrong. WordPress offers many plugins that make their work easy in this aspect.
ECommerce has made the job a lot easier, and you should get involved as soon as possible. It is easy, fast and flexible. The number of people using eCommerce is growing every day, and make sure you take advantage of this flow.
ECommerce websites are one of the types of websites that we create here at Porosit Web, at affordable prices. To learn about other services that we provide, please visit our services page.
