What is eCommerce? Why it is growing rapidly?

1. Basic understanding of eCommerce   
2. Types of eCommerce
3. Functionalities of eCommerce Store:   
4. eCommerce pros and cons   
5. Two types of eCommerce platform   
6. Conclusion

1.    Basic understanding of eCommerce

What is eCommerce?

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet.

For Example: Online shopping, E-ticket, Online assistance, Payment transactions, service subscription like email (Mailgun, Mail chimp) or SMS (ClickATell, Tropo) etc.

Why eCommerce:

• The Internet reaches 45% of the global population and there are more than 3 trillion on users worldwide (Source: www.internetlivestats.com).
• 40% of worldwide Internet users have bought products online (Source: Statista).
• Access to the global market.
• The ability to earn while you are sleep.
• Better Understand Your Customers.

Process of traditional commerce and eCommerce:

Traditional: Manufacture Unit->Distributors->wholesaler->consumer

Ecommerce: Company->Product (Direct selling)

2.    Types of eCommerce:

• Business-to-Business: Intel, TradeIndia, IndiaMart, Heinz
• Business-to-Consumer: Amazon, Dell, Flipkart
• Consumer-to-Consumer: eBay, Quikr, PayPal, Craigslist,
• Consumer-to-Business: GURU, Amazon, advertising, PayPal

3.    Functionalities of eCommerce Store:

• Product management
• Add to cart
• Add product to Wish list
• Checkout process
• Product comparison
• Rating and review
• Order management
• Customer management
• Inventory management
• Analytics and reports
• Marketing (coupon, gift cards, ads, email)
• Tracking
• Return product

4.    eCommerce pros and cons

Pros:

• Easy product, order and customer management
• No checkout queues
• You can shop anywhere in the world
• Low operational cost
• 24/7, 365 days availability
• Easy to compare
• Lots of Choices
• Various types of reporting on sales, customers and stock
• Keep Eye on Consumers’ Buying Habit

Cons:

• Lack of Personal Touch
• Unable to examine the quality of product
• Credit card fraud
• The customer has to wait for delivery of their product

5.    Two types of eCommerce platform

Hosted:

• Shopify (Most widely used platform)
• BigCommerce
• Wix
• Weebly
• SquareSpace

Self-Hosted:

• Magento
• WooCommerce
• Zen Cart
• osCommerce
• OpenCart

6.    Conclusion

List of eCommerce platforms with the recommendations of when to use them:

Shopify:

• For All size of eCommerce store
• If you need to integrate your store with a POS system
• If client wants to build eCommerce store within few days

BigCommerce:

• For All size of eCommerce store
• If client wants to build eCommerce store within few days

WooCommerce:

• Small or medium size eCommerce store
• If your budget is limited
• If your store is only a small part of your website

Magento:

• For All size of eCommerce store
• If you want the most powerful and scalable eCommerce store
• If you need high security and customization
• If you need to integrate your store with a POS system
• Are you expecting heavy traffic for your store