The owners of online stores are familiar with the concept of "electronic commerce", they certainly know the answer to the question "e-commerce - what is it". But if you look into 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, this is any commercial transaction that is carried out using an electronic means of communication.
E-commerce system (electronic commerce system) is a kind of technology that gives system members the following opportunities on the Internet:
- manufacturing companies and suppliers of goods/services - to offer their products online to potential buyers, as well as to receive andprocessing customer orders;
- clients (buyers) - to find and select goods and services on standard Internet resources at the price they are interested in and place orders.
Often, banks are involved in this bundle to make electronic payments.
Basic components of e-commerce
E-commerce includes:
- trade;
- data exchange;
- messaging (using e-mail, facsimile, data-to-fax);
- money transfers;
- electronic catalogs, directories, bulletin boards;
- data collection systems;
- news service;
- electronic forms;
- information services;
- Internet access, etc.
E-Commerce Benefits and Benefits
Unfortunately, even in the age of high technology, there are people who manage to say: “I absolutely do not understand the newfangled e-commerce, what is it, and why is it needed at all? I prefer to work the old fashioned way.”
Fortunately, there are only a few such people, and if these "dinosaurs" are still preserved, then they conduct their business on the principle of "word of mouth" and only "for their own", without going out into the virtual spaces. The volume of e-commerce is growing rapidly, as is the growth of e-commerce users, whose reviews are only positive. This is due to a lot of advantages and benefits:
- Marketing and transactional (trade transfer) costs are significantly reduced;
- problems are solvedremoteness of the territorial location of the seller and the buyer;
- conditions are being created to create direct interaction between market participants;
- emergence of the possibility of entering the global market for small and medium-sized businesses;
- the market becomes transparent: all participants in trading operations instantly receive all the information they are interested in: product prices, delivery terms, offers from competing firms;
- exit of business “out of the shadows”: the problem of criminalization of market processes, avoidance of taxation, etc. is practically solved.
E-Commerce platform and available transactions
E-commerce operations are carried out between legal entities, both private and public, as well as between legal entities and individuals.
The platform for the functioning of e-commerce participants are, first of all, online stores.
Thanks to the existence of e-commerce, the following business operations and transactions are available to market participants:
- establishing relationships between potential customers and suppliers;
- execution of electronic exchange of information;
- Providing pre-sales and after-sales support for a customer who purchased a product in an online store (from the characteristics of products or services, instructions for use, ending with feedback and customer reviews);
- deed of sale of goods/services/works;
- electronic payment for the purchase (via electronic money transferthrough a bank);
- manage the delivery of goods, including the buyer;
- managing the status of applications and services provided.
Scope of e-commerce
Fields of activity in which e-commerce is carried out are very diverse:
- Internet marketing;
- online stores;
- commerce operations that include ordering a product (or service), receiving it and paying for it;
- cooperation of several companies on one web resource;
- organization of business administration (tax, customs, concessions, etc.);
- accounting;
- shipping and supply;
- feedback from customers, reviews.
Territorial levels of e-commerce
E-commerce is carried out at the following levels:
- regional;
- national;
- international.
The main difference in the organization of business operations at each of these levels lies not in the technological component (since e-commerce is carried out on the Internet and is global in nature), but in the legislative one.
In the foreign market (as opposed to the domestic market), it is somewhat more difficult to implement an e-commerce system. This is due to the difference in the system of taxation, accounting, customs fees, legislation of different countries.
Ecommerce Categories
This category of business can bedivided into 4 types of e-commerce:
- business-to-business;
- business-to-consumer;
- business-to-administration (business administration);
- consumer-to-administration (consumer and administration).
For example, business-to-business refers to companies that use the Internet to place orders with suppliers, receive and bill invoices, and process and receive payments.
Business-to-consumer type is the most standard online store for individuals, in other words, it is an electronic retail. It should be noted that this is the most common type of trading at present.
The type of "business administration" includes all operations carried out between legal entities and government agencies. In Russia, a striking example is the site of the tax service (assumes the possibility of electronic exchange) or sites of public procurement and tenders.
The type of "consumer and administration" has just begun to spread: these are all transactions carried out between individuals and government agencies. Well-known in Russia service "Electronic government" or "Portal of public services", for example.
Thus, the basic concepts of e-commerce were defined, what it is, scope and main participants.
ePN as an example of successful e-commerce
One of the most famous and popular examples of e-commerce in Russiais an e-Commerce Partners Network (ePN).
ePN is an advertising platform that brings together various affiliate programs of some of the largest e-commerce projects (for example, eBay, AliExpress).
The scheme of work is arranged as follows:
- any webmaster (it can be a blogger or any other owner of his own web page) registers in this system;
- gets own link;
- places a special code on its web page - an advertisement for the selected official e-Commerce Partners Network appears;
- monitor site conversion;
- earns a certain percentage for each purchase of a visitor to his site who clicked on an affiliate link.
WP e-Commerce
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 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 onwebsite.
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.
