At the everyday level, e-commerce is trading in online stores and marketplaces. But if you delve deeper, e-com is a concept that unites all processes of the digital economy: financial transactions carried out using computer networks, as well as business models that support these transactions. The most striking examples are marketplaces (OZON, Wildberries, AliExpress), online stores, direct sales through social networks.
E-commerce appeared as a result of the development of sales automation technologies and the introduction of automated corporate resource management systems. The first e-commerce systems and methods began to appear back in the 1960s, when American Airlines and IBM began developing an automated system for reserving seats on flights.
The main principle of e-commerce
The peculiarity is the absence of borders. If the work of an malaysia mobile database offline store is tied to the audience of one city or region, then e-com allows transactions between the seller and the buyer from different countries.
A striking example is AliExpress, most of whose sellers and warehouses are located in China, but sales are carried out worldwide.
Cycle in e-commerce
The stages of purchasing in e-com look like this:
A person chooses a thing they like on the website/in the application and makes a purchase.
Sometimes additional intervention from a warehouse employee is required to ensure that the product is in stock, but in most cases this process is automated, so the database already contains this information.
Payment is made using an online wallet or a regular card. Here, there is another link between the consumer and the seller - the bank, which receives the funds and notifies the seller about it.
After payment, the order is collected at the warehouse and prepared for shipment to the recipient.
The goods are sent to the customer using the marketplace's transport companies or delivery services with which the seller has signed an agreement.
When the order arrives at the pick-up point, the buyer receives a notification. It is also possible to have the order delivered by courier in person.
By adding an online shopping method, you increase your audience by expanding your funnel. You don't need to open dozens of branches across the country or the world to operate. But you will need to expand your warehouse as your audience grows significantly.