At its simplest level, eCommerce is the buying and selling of goods, services or information over the internet. It is here to stay and plays a bigger role in our lives every year. eCommerce can be broken down into the following areas:
- eTailing. These are mainly “virtual” storefronts which act as a catalogue of products of merchants and usually include a “shopping cart” system to enable consumers to purchase online with the use of credit cards. Today’s Internet climate dictates that if you can’t buy what you see online while you are online; you will probably lose the sale. The great advantage of etailing is international coverage at minimum cost and the ability to trade 24 hours a day with minimum staffing levels. The benefits to consumers are shopping from home and a wide range of choice. This range of choice can sometimes be a downfall as it confuses some consumers who in frustration may give up on buying the product at all!
- EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). This is the business-to-business (B2B) flow of information between companies, or within a company itself. Information equals power, and whatever creates power also generates money, creating new businesses to supply that information. EDI is still widely used today, alongside newer methods such as APIs that connect companies’ systems directly.
- Email marketing. Direct marketing through email. Unfortunately, it also creates the equivalent of the junk mail we find in our physical mailboxes every day. Electronic junk mail is known as spam. While spam is one of the negative sides of eCommerce, email marketing done properly, to people who have asked to hear from you, is a very successful and acceptable way of generating income for a business.
- Security services. The well-publicized dangers of card payments online have fueled the growth of many companies that protect consumer and business transactions. This includes encryption (the SSL certificates that put the padlock in your browser), secure payment processing and fraud protection. This will be a growth area for as long as eCommerce is with us, because as soon as a new “unhackable” technology is introduced, someone tries to hack it.
- Statistics. Demographics and survey results about internet habits are a huge industry. Web planners rely on information from these sources to plan websites and justify their marketing spending.
- B2B (Business to Business). When I began in computer hardware sales some years ago, I spent a great deal of time and money on national and international phone calls to locate components. Today, if contacting a supplier meant having to pick up a telephone, many businesses wouldn’t bother. In the B2B world, wholesalers and retailers rely on the internet for fast and efficient communication and transactions.
Bill Gates is reported to have said something along the lines of: “In a few years, there will only be 2 types of businesses, those that are online and those that are out of business.” You may not buy anything online yourself, but I’ll guarantee that most of the companies that supply you with goods and services do. Knowingly or not, we all have a role in this brave new world.