Why E- Commerce important for Business.

              E-Commerce and its Strategies :

    1. What does E- Commerce means ?

             E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce means buying and selling of goods, products, or services over the internet.  These services provided online over the internet network. Transaction of money, funds, and data are also considered as E-commerce. 

         As of now, e-commerce is one of the fastest growing industries in the global economy. As per one estimate, it grows nearly 23% every year. And it is projected to be a $27 trillion industry by the end of this decade.

      Examples of E-Commerce Marketing platforms are :

• Amazon
• Flipkart
• eBay
• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Olx  . Quikrr

   

    2. How to get started in E - Commerce ?

 To get started in E - Commerce you have to follow below steps :

   Choose a Platform  There are a ton of e-commerce platforms currently available. Each one has it’s own set of advantages and disadvantages, including specialty markets, so make sure to do your research before selecting one. It will be hard to transition once you have your site setup. Some of the most popular platforms include Magento, WordPress, Shopify, and BigCommerce.

   Register Your Domain  If you can’t do so through your platform, you’ll need to purchase a web domain. Again, there a number of web hosts available so be diligent in your price comparisons.BlueHost is a very popular and affordable web hosting company that also registers domain names. Squarespace also has this capability.

   Design Your Site  Using your platform, design and create the basic layout of your site. You’ll want to consider what your selling and the aesthetic you’re aiming for. You may decide to use a template or theme provided by the platform rather than creating your own, just be sure it is consistent with your brand. You want your site to stand out and be recognizable as associated with your company specifically.

Post Products  Once your site is designed and ready to go, be sure your have high quality product images and detailed product descriptions to post. You want to give customers a real idea of what they are getting when they buy your product, as one of the disadvantages of e-commerce is the inability to interact with a product prior to purchase.

   3. Types of E- Commerce Models :

        Electronic commerce can be classified into four main categories. The basis for this simple classification is the parties that are involved in the transactions. So the four basic electronic commerce models are as follows,

       1. Business to Business :

This is Business to Business transactions. Here the companies are doing business with each other. The final consumer is not involved. So the online transactions only involve the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers etc.

      2. Business to Consumer :

Business to Consumer. Here the company will sell their goods and/or services directly to the consumer. The consumer can browse their websites and look at products, pictures, read reviews. Then they place their order and the company ships the goods directly to them. 

     3. Consumer to Consumer :

Consumer to consumer, where the consumers are in direct contact with each other. No company is involved. It helps people sell their personal goods and assets directly to an interested party. Usually, goods traded are cars, bikes, electronics etc. OLX, Quikr etc follow this model.

    4. Consumer to Business :

This is the reverse of B2C, it is a consumer to business. So the consumer provides a good or some service to the company. Say for example an IT freelancer who demos and sells his software to a company. This would be a C2B transaction.

   4. Advantages and Disadvantages of E- commerce ?

  

     Advantages :

     Electronic commerce also allows the customer and the business to be in touch directly, without any intermediaries. This allows for quick communication and transactions. It also gives a valuable personal touch.

     

• E-commerce provides the sellers with a global reach. They remove the barrier of place (geography). Now sellers and buyers can meet in the virtual world, without the hindrance of location.
• Electronic commerce will substantially lower the transaction cost. It eliminates many fixed costs of maintaining brick and mortar shops. This allows the companies to enjoy a much higher margin of profit.
• It provides quick delivery of goods with very little effort on part of the customer. Customer complaints are also addressed quickly. It also saves time, energy and effort for both the consumers and the company.
• One other great advantage is the convenience it offers. A customer can shop 24×7. The website is functional at all times, it does not have working hours like a shop.
• Electronic commerce also allows the customer and the business to be in touch directly, without any intermediaries. This allows for quick communication and transactions. It also gives a valuable personal touch.

 

      Disadvantages :

       

• The start-up costs of the e-commerce portal are very high. The setup of the hardware and the software, the training cost of employees, the constant maintenance and upkeep are all quite expensive.
• Although it may seem like a sure thing, the e-commerce industry has a high risk of failure. Many companies riding the dot-com wave of the 2000s have failed miserably. The high risk of failure remains even today.
• At times, e-commerce can feel impersonal. So it lacks the warmth of an interpersonal relationship which is important for many brands and products. 
• Security is another area of concern. Only recently, we have witnessed many security breaches where the information of the customers was stolen. Credit card theft, identity theft etc. remain big concerns with the customers.
• Then there are also fulfillment problems. Even after the order is placed there can be problems with shipping, delivery, mix-ups etc. This leaves the customers unhappy and dissatisfied.

         

   5. Benefits of E - Commerce :

 The benefits of e-commerce include its around-the-clock availability, the   speed of access, the wide availability of goods and services for the consumer, easy accessibility and international reach.

 Availability. Aside from outages or scheduled maintenance, e-commerce      sites are available 24x7, allowing visitors to browse and shop at any time.      

 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. 

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.

International reach.  By promoting the products 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. 

             Amazon product sales and Growth Table :

     1.  How Amazon get started in  impressive long term growth ?

            25 years ago, on July 16, 1995, an unheard-of company from Seattle launched a website immodestly claiming to be "earth's biggest bookstore". While that may have sounded a little presumptuous back then, two and half decades later said company, Amazon, is not only the biggest bookstore on earth but arguably the biggest store, period.

If there is one thing that Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is famous for, it’s his relentless focus on long-term growth. Having ignored critics for years, Bezos’ willingness to sacrifice short-term profits for long-term success has paid off big time, turning his company into a global powerhouse and making him the wealthiest man on the planet.

Not only has Amazon cemented its position as the leading online retailer in large parts of the world, it has also built an industry-leading cloud computing business, established itself as a major player in music and video streaming as well as in the booming smart speaker market.

The company has achieved all that by rigorously re-investing most of the money it makes. In each of the past two years, however, Amazon's net income exceeded $10 billion, indicating that the company is now making more money than even Jeff Bezos with his notorious long-term vision can spend. Our chart below illustrates Amazon’s strategy by contrasting the company’s explosive revenue growth with its relatively modest profit growth.

  2. Years of Amazon and E commerce  Retail ?

       Every $10,000 invested at Amazon’s IPO in 1997 would today be worth $4.8 million. Even if you only had $1,000 to invest in 1997, today you’d have more than $626,000.

But who could have predicted back then that an online bookstore would, in two decades time, become one of the world’s most dominant online stores –– offering everything from the books they started with to the high-end fashion that resisted for so long?

20 years ago, there were a measly 40 million people using the internet in the U.S., and online sales generated only $2.4 billion. In 2017, more than 287 million people in the U.S. alone use the internet –– and online sales are expected to hit $440 billion by year end.

That is an 18,650% increase in global internet usage and an 18,233% increase in online sales.

Amazon’s stock price has risen in equal measure, from $18 in 1997 to around $948 at the time of writing –– a 5,166% increase.

This is no chicken and egg problem –– clearly the internet and online sales came first. But these days, it’s hard to tell whether Amazon grows larger as the internet and online sales do, or if the internet and online sales grow larger as Amazon does.

Either way, the relationship is symbiotic, and though for much of Amazon’s history small business and other verticalized online sellers made an enemy of the marketplace, those tides are very quickly changing.

After all, as the ecommerce industry hits one milestone after the other –– so, too, does Amazon.

 E commerce + Amazon facts and stats :

   You might feel the quickening pace at which ecommerce adoption and innovation is hitting market.

• Your business may be having to turn to online for inbound sales in an industry where business has historically been conducted over the phone.
• Or perhaps you are now having to look to AI to implement new buyer journeys for Gen Z purchasers.
• Or perhaps you simply feel the pressure to give your shoppers the options for free or two-day shipping –– just to compete in today’s competitive ecommerce market.

You are not wrong in that feeling. The innovative steps and measures taken today by online brands are part of an ongoing story about modern human convenience and the technology we wield to achieve it.

3. 10 Fascinating Amazon statistic sellers need to know in 2020 ? 

1. * 9 out of 10 consumers price check a product on Amazon. (source)
2. * 2% of Echo owners have purchased a product via Alexa. (source)
3. * Amazon sells more than 12 million products. (source)
4. * Amazon sells over 1.1 million home improvement products. (source)
5. * 95 million people have Amazon Prime memberships in the US. (source)
6. * $1.4K is the average spent by Amazon Prime members each year. (source)
7. * FBA gives sellers a 30-50% increase in sales. (source)
8. * Amazon shipped over 5 billion items worldwide in 2017. (source)
9. * More than 50% of all Amazon sales come from third-party sellers. (source)
10. * 80% of sellers also sell on other platforms outside of Amazon. (source).

    4. How to Boost your Amazon business in 2020 ?

        Here’s what you can do to boost your Amazon business in 2020:

1. Differentiate yourself from the competition by having something unique to offer, solving a problem, improving on an existing product, etc. Find that thing you do better or differently than other sellers and put it at the forefront of your listing.
2. Work with an Amazon consultant to optimize your listings’ titles, bullet points, descriptions, Enhanced Brand Content and keyword banks to achieve greater conversions while optimizing PPC campaigns.
3. Develop a brand, if you have not done so already. Get a trademark, build a website and establish a brand following and awareness, both on and off Amazon.
4. Invest in marketing and promotion of your product on and off the platform. Be ready to spend real ad dollars to compete in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace.
5. Invest in sophisticated seller tools, software and partnerships, like those offered by BigCommerce, to help you appear in front of customers and drive more conversions.

In the end, Amazon is like anything else in business.

It takes a well thought out strategy, creative marketing and a real investment of time, energy and resources to compete.

It is true that Amazon is no longer a quick way to make an easy buck. But for committed sellers, it can result in monumental sales and drive your business through the roof.