We are sure that all users reading this article are aware of how important the Internet is in their lives. The global network has opened for people not only a number of cognitive opportunities, but also brought communication between users to a whole new level! Therefore, it was not news to anyone that the Internet began to be used for online business.
At present, almost every serious and diligent person is able to earn with the help of the World Wide Web. "How?" some will be surprised. The answer is simple - with the help of e-commerce!
The concept of e-commerce and its main components
E-commerce- the concept is very broad and includes many categories, which we will definitely discuss later. If we give the most generalized interpretation of this term, we can say that this is a system of economic relations that are carried out using the Internet. In a narrow sense, e-commerce is online entrepreneurship.
E-commerce includes the following global categories:
- online trading
- electronic data interchange (because in the modern world one of the most valuable resources is information)
- electronic banking and insurance services
- money transfers and electronic money
- electronic marketing (systems for collecting user data, electronic catalogs, directories, bulletin boards)
Today, almost every physically existing commercial organization (even the smallest one) has its own website.
It can be a regular information site with basic information about the organization, services, answers to frequently asked questions, contact information. Or it could be.
It all depends on the specifics of the organization, its scope and goals. Also, this direction is a great chance for individual entrepreneurs who decide to try themselves as network businessmen.
In the modern world, more and more processes are becoming automated, so it is obvious that this area of Internet business will continue to develop successfully. Let's talk more about the advantages and disadvantages of network commerce.
Advantages
1) The main advantage is its ability to reach the global market without necessarily implying large financial investments and costs. The restrictions of this type of trade are not defined geographically. This allows consumers to make global choices, get the information they need, and compare offers from all potential suppliers, regardless of location.
2) Through a direct connection with the end consumer, online entrepreneurship reduces the chain of intermediaries, sometimes even eliminating them completely. This creates a direct channel between the manufacturer or service provider and the end user, allowing you to offer products and services tailored to the individual preferences of the target market.
3) E-commerce allows suppliers to be closer to their customers, resulting in increased productivity and competitiveness for companies. As a result, the consumer benefits from an improved customer experience, resulting in greater intimacy as well as more effective pre- and post-sales support. With these new forms of e-commerce, consumers now have virtual stores that are open 24 hours a day.
4) Cost reduction is another very important benefit usually associated with e-commerce. The simpler and more convenient a particular business process is, the more likely it is to succeed. This results in a significant reduction in transaction costs and, of course, prices charged to customers.
Flaws
The main disadvantages associated with e-commerce are the following:
1) Strong dependence on information and communication technologies. This issue is especially relevant for the Russian market. Far from all remote regions have high-speed Internet, which would contribute to the development of online commerce;
2) Lack of legislation that adequately regulates new e-commerce activities both nationally and internationally. This also includes the high percentage of fraud in the field of e-commerce and the lack of effective methods to combat it.
3) Not all consumers are inclined towards e-commerce. For many customers, the ability to "feel" and visually evaluate the product is a key factor when buying certain products. The inability to fully assess the quality of the purchased item is the main factor hindering the development of e-commerce.
4) Loss of loss of privacy by users and insecurity when conducting online transactions. With the development of security technologies, the risk of this factor is significantly reduced. However, losing your money when paying over the Internet is much easier than losing it by personally handing it over to the seller in some store.
5) The threat of problems with the delivery of goods, return processing, etc.
E-commerce in numbers
The birth of e-commerce began to take place smoothly in 1998. Today, after almost 20 years, the total turnover of online commerce amounted to 2.36 trillion dollars. The first place in terms of online sales among all countries, of course, is occupied by China. Russia is only in 9th place, which means that there are development prospects in this area.
E-commerce is conditionally divided into more than 14 types. Let's highlight some of the most common and interesting ones and talk about them in more detail.
- B2B - in decryption, the abbreviation means "business to business"
- B2C - "business to consumer"
- C2C - "relationships between consumers"
- C2B - "relationships between consumers and trade organizations"
- B2A - "business administration"
- C2A - "consumer administration"
Business to Business (B2B)
In this type of e-commerce, both participants are commercial enterprises. As a result, the scope and value of B2B e-commerce can be overwhelming. As an example of such a model, the following situation can be described: a smartphone manufacturing company is looking for wholesalers to sell its products.
Thus, in this scheme, goods are sold for their further resale to end consumers. The main goal of the B2B system is to increase the efficiency of online cooperation between companies.
Any business model is characterized by its own platforms through which trade relations are implemented. For the B2B scheme, such platforms are exchanges, auctions and catalogs.
With the help of the catalog, you can get maximum information about the characteristics and properties of the purchased product. Also, buyers can compare products by price, terms and conditions of delivery, reviews, etc.
Such information transparency can greatly facilitate the choice of the client. Most often, catalogs are created in areas where there is a sale of low-cost goods for which demand can be predicted, and the price of which hardly changes.
Auctions are usually held for items of a unique type. For example, they can be rare items, specialized technical equipment, etc. Pricing here is never fixed and occurs right at the time of the auction.
The seller lists all his lots, and numerous buyers offer an ever-increasing price if they are interested in the product. The auction for the lot ends after a predetermined time, after which the goods are given to the client who offered the highest price last.
On the exchanges, prices are formed in accordance with supply and demand, and therefore they are very rarely stable. The exchange is perfect for selling popular, common and simple products with easily standardized characteristics. The exchange is also suitable for industries where price and demand fluctuate frequently. Often, exchanges provide the opportunity to trade anonymously.
Business to Consumer (B2C)
When we hear the term "e-commerce", most people think of the B2C model. We can say that this scheme is a logical continuation of the B2B system, because it is the B2C type that ensures the delivery of goods to the end consumer.
Thus, the type of "business-to-consumer" corresponds to our ideas about traditional retail. The only difference is that in this case, trading is carried out via the Internet.
This type of relationship is most common in online commerce. There are already many virtual stores on the Internet that sell all kinds of consumer goods such as electronic devices, software, books, shoes, cars, food, entertainment products, services and more.
The business-to-consumer scheme brings many benefits to both the buyer and the seller:
For the seller, this scheme is beneficial mainly because there is no need to hire a lot of paid staff, as is the case in conventional stores. The buyer does not need to spend time visiting the store: any product can be bought on the Internet, having studied the characteristics and reviews.
Another well-known fact - through the Internet, any item can be purchased cheaper than in a regular store. For household appliances, the difference in prices can be several thousand.
Examples of the largest online stores operating on a business-to-consumer basis are: Amazon, ozon, Aliexpress, etc.
Based on the B2B scheme, another offshoot in e-commerce has emerged. Since 2010, the sale of goods through social networks began to actively develop. networks, so this type of trade is called "social commerce".
The B2B type is implemented using the following trading platforms:
- online shopping
- web-showcases
- social media
Consumer e-commerce (C2C)
This area affects trade relations between people who do not conduct entrepreneurial activities. Drawing an analogy with ordinary life, we can say that this is something like an advertisement in a newspaper for the sale of a particular product.
In Russia, well-known bulletin boards act as trading platforms for the C2C format: Avito, Yula, etc. Also, the C2C format began to spread widely in social networks. Special groups are created in which users post ads for the sale of things from any category.
Consider a few more existing schemes. We note right away that they are much less popular and it is very difficult for an ordinary user to make money on them. The following diagrams are presented mainly to broaden the general outlook.
Consumer business (C2B)
This type of e-commerce is very common in projects based on crowdsourcing. A large number of people make their services or products available for purchase to companies looking for these particular types of services or products.
Examples of this practice are sites where designers submit several options for a company logo, and one of them is selected and purchased.
Other platforms that are very common in this type of commerce are marketplaces that sell photos, images, multimedia, and design elements.
Business Administration (B2A)
This part of e-commerce covers all online transactions between companies and the government. This area is typical for areas such as fiscal, social security, employment, legal documents and registers, etc.
Consumer Administration (C2A)
The "consumer-administration" model covers all electronic transactions conducted between individuals and the state apparatus.
This scheme can be applied in the following areas:
- Education– dissemination of information, distance learning, etc.
- Social Security- through the dissemination of information, making payments, etc.
- taxes– filing tax returns, payments, etc.
- healthcare– making an appointment, online consultations, paying for medical services
Both models related to public administration (B2A and C2A) are closely related to the idea of efficiency and usability of services provided to citizens by the government supported by information and communication technologies.
Main conclusions
Based on the information presented in the article, we highlight several key points that characterize the main provisions of e-commerce.
— for the implementation of business transactions, there must be at least two participants. One of them will always act as a seller, and the other as a buyer.
- The B2B system (business - business) - represents wholesale trade, and goods are sold here to legal entities. Type B2C (business-to-consumer) is retail and brings the product to individuals (end consumers)
- Any user without special information and computer training will be able to earn using B2C (business-to-consumer) and C2C (consumer-to-consumer) schemes.
— Type of commerce B2C is the most common type of e-commerce. Each user will be able to earn in this way by creating their own online store. You can read more about creating your own online store without investments in this. We also wrote an article about - this is a great example that personifies the receipt of income through the C2C system.
- In general, there are a lot of online business schemes. You can expand this list to 30-40 schemes, depending on the subjects of economic relations. For example, if we consider the government to be a separate entity, then we can come up with many more types of online commerce: B2G (business to government), G2B (government to business), G2E (government to employees), G2G (Government to government), G2C (government to citizen), C2G (citizen to government). We remind you that all the main and generally recognized types have been considered in this article.
Conclusion
Summing up all the above, we can only say one thing: continues to develop successfully, penetrating into narrower specialized areas of trade. The future belongs to the Internet and technology. Perhaps in a few decades, consumers will no longer need traditional retail stores at all. In the meantime, this has not happened, you just need to know that e-commerce is a great chance to earn money and create your own business with minimal investment.
The owners of online stores are familiar with the concept of "electronic commerce" firsthand, they certainly know the answer to the question "e-commerce - what is it". But if you understand the essence, then many nuances emerge and this term takes on a broader meaning.
E-commerce: what is it?
The general concept is as follows: e-commerce is understood as a certain approach to doing business, which involves the inclusion of a number of operations that use digital data transmission in the provision of goods or the provision of services/works, including through the Internet.
Thus, it is any commercial transaction that is carried out using an electronic means of communication.
The scheme of work is arranged as follows:
- anyone can be a blogger or any other owner of his own Internet page) registers in this system;
- gets its own link;
- places a special code on its web page - an advertisement of the selected official partner of the e-Commerce Partners Network appears;
- monitors website conversion;
- earns a certain percentage for each purchase of a visitor to his site who clicked on an affiliate link.
WP eCommerce
A large number of people are now passionate about e-commerce, primarily because of the desire to create their own website, a unique online store to sell their own products. To meet this growing demand, developers have focused on creating e-commerce templates (e-commerce templates). What is it we will consider further.
One such example of templates is WordPress e-commerce. It is a shopping cart plugin for WordPress (one of the most famous web resource management systems, intended primarily for creating and organizing blogs). It is provided completely free of charge and allows site visitors to make purchases on the Internet page.
In other words, this plugin allows you to create an online store (based on WordPress). This e-commerce plugin has all the necessary tools, settings and options to meet today's needs.
Good day, dear readers of my blog "Business, Money, Internet"! Since the task of my site is to provide information about earnings and business on the Internet for people who have only their own computer and Internet access, who do not have the opportunity to invest a lot of money, but who have some free time that they can devote to part-time work and earnings on the network , then let's clarify the concept of e-commerce, as such. And consider its application from the point of view of a simple computer user. So ?
What can he do? a person who does not have special skills for doing business on the Internet.
Of course, it is difficult to do something for a person who does not have basic knowledge of electronic payment systems, Skype, QIP and other means of communication. But even if you have mastered these issues to a sufficient extent, it cannot be guaranteed that you will succeed in everything at once in terms of creating your business on the Internet.
But from now on, please, in more detail. What else can a beginner do on the Internet to get some kind of income?
I will not touch here participation in the work of network companies that provide various kinds of services and offer various goods for sale. This is the topic of another article.
But nevertheless, such types of earnings exist. And in this article we will look at one of them. This is the creation and sale of information products.
So what is an information product? And to be more precise, an information product.
Surely many have come across, or maybe they themselves have used e-books, ringtones for mobile phones, games for PC or mobile phones, all kinds of programs, educational video / audio recordings, paid access to information and other services and products of this kind.
These are information products, and digital goods in a different way.
What are the main characteristics of such products?
First, they are in demand and have great appeal.
Secondly, you do not need to bear tangible costs for production and packaging.
Thirdly, they are inexpensive to distribute and deliver.
And, fourthly, they are easily updated and do not become obsolete.
The question arises: a where can i get this product for sale??
This can be done in two ways:
First - create yourself, which would be the best option. Of course, you will need to spend a certain amount of time, but at the same time you set the selling price yourself and you have no competitors, because your product is one of a kind!
Second - participate in affiliate programs and sell other authors' products. It is good that today there are many high-quality products on the market that are not ashamed to offer the buyer. For novice businessmen, this option is ideal. Do you have to start somewhere? And at this time, you can start working on creating your own information product.
And if you have your own visited site, then you are generally a rich person by now! You just have to choose an affiliate program that matches the theme of your site. To do this, you will only need to register on the website of the owner offering the affiliate program. After that, get and place on your site a link (code) or a banner of an affiliate product.
Moreover, by participating in affiliate programs, you get your percentage or a certain amount for each copy sold through your site. Such affiliate programs are designed for long-term cooperation, since the number of customers you brought increases over time, customers who previously bought something can then return for new purchases from the “bookmarks” and you will still receive your reward.
I think that I answered the question of the article. And you just have to make your choice.
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The scale of e-commerce has grown, which has made the life of buyers more convenient, and opened up new opportunities for business. Let's take a closer look at what it is and!
Main components of an e-commerce system
In a real store, you just take new jeans and take them to the checkout, where you pay cash, and then leave the store with your purchase. Everything happens in a similar way when you buy online, but there is one important difference: you cannot touch the product until it is delivered to your home.
This creates new problems for retailers. In addition to the fact that they need transaction processing tools, they also need a way to verify that the item you ordered is in stock.
In other words, e-commerce combines three components: a server that manages an online store and processes transactions ( creating appropriate links to bank computers to check the buyer's card details). A database that can check the items that are in stock in the store. As well as a delivery system associated with a warehouse where the goods can be temporarily stored and from where it should be sent to the buyer.
Only the first of these three systems is absolutely necessary for an online store. Many people successfully maintain small online stores without complex databases or logistics systems. All sales are made through a website where they take orders and then ship the goods through more traditional means. For example, small merchants who sell goods on eBay do not know How does an online store work from the inside?. Their "database" is in their head, and their " logistics system is just a walk to the nearest post office.
How E-Commerce Works
Here is one example of how a complex, fully automated e-commerce system can work:
- Sitting at his computer, the client orders a book online. His browser interacts via the Internet with the server that manages the store's website;
- The server sends the order to the manager. This is a central computer that monitors all stages of order processing from its receipt to the dispatch of the goods;
- The order manager queries the database if the item the customer needs is in stock;
- How to work with suppliers in an online store: if the goods are not in stock, then the database can order a new batch of products. This activity may include interacting with the manufacturer's ordering systems. Thus, it turns out the approximate delivery time of the goods, while the client is still sitting at the computer ( in real time);
- The warehouse database confirms that the product is in stock or provides information about when the product can be received;
- If the item is in stock, the manager continues to process the order. It then goes to the financial system that processes the transactions to accept payment from the client;
- The financial system can perform additional verification through the server of the client's bank;
- The bank computer confirms whether the client has enough funds in the account;
- The financial system allows the transaction to continue, although the funds will not be fully transferred for a few more days;
- The manager confirms that the deal was successfully processed and notifies the server about it;
- The server displays a web page to the client, which displays confirmation of the processing of the order and the completion of the transaction;
- The manager sends a request to the warehouse for the goods to be sent to the client;
- The truck of the logistics company picks up the goods from the warehouse and delivers them;
- After the item has been shipped, the warehouse system computer sends an email to the customer to confirm that their item is on the way;
- The goods are delivered to the customer.
All these actions are invisible to the client, except for the computer he is sitting at and the courier who rings his doorbell.
How to create an online store website?
To understand how does an online store work, you need to understand that they should be accessible, have simple and understandable navigation. Reliable, because no one is willing to enter their card details on a site that is not secure.
Setting up an online store is not easy. Not only do you need to create a dedicated website from scratch, you also need to develop your own system that can reliably process customer bank card data.
Anyone can set up an online store within minutes these days. Payment systems such as PayPal provide functionality for processing transactions. Many install virtual storefronts on eBay and then use PayPal.
Some platforms (notably Amazon) allow mini versions of their store to be hosted on their own site for a small fee.
Successful companies like eBay and Amazon have proven that there doesn't have to be an obvious connection between a site's name and the products it sells. The main thing is that over time people recognize, fall in love with and begin to trust the brand, begin to visit its site instinctively.
How you deliver your goods is also fundamentally important: customers love fast delivery. But this does not mean that you need your own warehouse and truck fleet. Companies like Amazon have created sophisticated warehouse and dispatch systems that you can use.
Using e-commerce to sell information
How does an online store work without a warehouse? You can sell not only traditional goods on the Web. Many make money by offering a combination of free and paid services. Yahoo! It is the most famous example of such a platform. Created as a comprehensive directory of other sites, it mutated into a search engine and then into a portal offering access to various types of premium services. For example, you can get free email on Yahoo or pay extra money for a more sophisticated system. You can store your photos on Flickr for free, or pay to have them printed or edited in a variety of ways.
Newspapers, magazines and book publishers are also trying to make money through a combination of free and paid services. Most of them offer basic content for free, earning from ads. Some also offer some of their articles as part of a subscription.
The purchase of an article is a transaction similar to that which a user enters into when purchasing an item on Amazon or eBay.
Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce
How online clothing stores work. For example, some of them offer free returns if you don't like the clothes. Many people simply cannot live without online shopping. And they don’t even think about going to a real store, where prices are often higher.
For companies, e-commerce also opens up new opportunities. Not many of them can compete with huge businesses like Amazon or eBay. But anyone can open an online store and start trading. Small local stores, threatened by the expansion of large supermarket chains, have found a second life thanks to online sales.
E-commerce also threatens many traditional ways of doing business. When shoppers head online during the Christmas rush, they naturally spend less in physical stores. Realizing this, some companies, such as Wal-Mart, tried to make up for these losses in some way by launching programs such as " bricks and clicks» ( the presence of a real store and a site closely integrated with it).
Customers have also become smarter and more experienced. Before buying a product in an online store, they try and evaluate it in a real store. Or use websites to find local branch stores where they can inspect and purchase exactly the items they need.
Before you start working in an online store, it is important to remember that e-commerce is still only a part of all trade, but its share is steadily growing.
Steady Growth in E-Commerce Share: This chart shows what percentage of total retail sales has been e-commerce from 2006 to present.
As always, customers set the rules, and this will continue to be the case. Some traders have tried to counter the online shopping threat, but protectionist tactics are doomed to failure in the long run.
The mobile future of e-commerce
If you've owned a retail business for a long time, chances are you already have a website where you take orders from customers. But today, something new is reappearing to change those rules: mobile commerce.
More and more people use the Internet through mobile devices:
Amazon, Google and Facebook are seeing the mobile segment as a decisive battlefield over the next few years. Poll conducted by Google in 2012, showed that 74% of users were more likely to return to a mobile-optimized site again, and 67% said they were more likely to buy something from a mobile-optimized site.
Gartner predicts that mobile commerce will account for about half of all e-commerce revenue in 2017.
How to optimize your site for mobile devices?
Before you start working in an online store, you need to check how the site works on a mobile device. There are various emulators and testers that you can use to simulate mobile devices on PC ( including a great tool built into the Google Chrome browser). But it is much better to take a real modern smartphone with a browser or a tablet computer and see how your site actually works.
If your site was designed to run on a standard widescreen laptop, you'll find it looks terrible: columns can shift and overlap, text and links are too small, and so on.
There are four options for optimizing your site for mobile devices:
- Adaptive design: redesigning an existing site so that the same HTML code works equally well on both desktop and mobile. For this, a style sheet is used, which contains rules that are applied depending on the screen sizes of the user's device. You can tell if a site is responsive by viewing it on a desktop as well: if you narrow the width of the browser window, the site will rebuild from desktop to mobile. Responsive sites are easy to maintain and optimized for search engines, but they don't always provide the best user experience as they provide the same pages for all users ( only formatted differently);
- Dynamic display: page construction is slightly different for desktop and mobile devices without changing their address (either with a common style sheet or by linking styles for different devices). To do this, you need to use PHP or ASP. Dynamic display is also SEO friendly practice and provides a good user experience, but it can be difficult to implement;
- Separate mobile site: First determines if the client is using a desktop or mobile device, and then redirects them to the mobile or desktop version of the site. This way, you can optimize your site for mobile users without compromising the experience of desktop visitors. The disadvantage of this method is the need to maintain the second version of the site. Remember that search engines like Google don't like duplicate content, so use canonical URLs to help them figure out where the main version of each page is. You can buy a working online store and use cookies to remember which version of the site to serve for the user when he navigates from one page to another. It is also useful to allow mobile users to view the desktop version of the site. Sites with separate URLs are generally not SEO optimized practice, however, they can provide a good user experience.
- Separate mobile application: Development of a free application for mobile devices that effectively handles the site as a whole. This will incur additional costs for the development of the application. But such a solution gives a much better user experience. It also prevents users from leaving for competitors' sites when clicking on other links. Thus, mobile applications are a great way to "capture" and retain users.
Other technologies are currently being developed, such as AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), which allow much faster development of a mobile site, but potentially sacrificing some of its functionality.
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