24

Mar | 2021

eCommerce & its applications


What is E-commerce and What are its Applications?

ecommerce applications

Table of Contents
  • What is eCommerce?
  • Major categories of eCommerce
    1. Business-to-Business (B2B)
    2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
    3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
    4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
    5. Business-to-Administration (B2A)
    6. Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)
  • Most common applications of eCommerce
    1. Retail and Wholesale
    2. Online Marketing
    3. Finance
    4. Manufacturing
    5. Online Booking
    6. Online Publishing
    7. Digital Advertising
    8. Auctions
  • Strategy behind the eCommerce Market
    1. Analysis
    2. Understanding Consumer Data
    3. Research
  • E-Commerce research and analytic applications
  • Analytical Tools
    1. Google Analytics
    2. Kissmetrics
  • Research Tools
    1. Google Trends
    2. Hubspot

Ecommerce or electronic commerce actually means the use of an electronic medium for commercial transactions, but it is commonly used to refer to selling products and services over the internet to consumers or other businesses.

According to another definition, ecommerce refers to the sharing of business information, maintenance of business relationships and conducting business transactions with the help of computers that are connected to a telecommunication network, and without the use of paper documents.

We can classify Ecommerce by application into:

  • Electronic markets – here the buyer is presented a range of products and services available in a market so that they can compare prices and make the purchase
  • Electronic Data Interchange – this is a standardized system where computers communicate with one another without printed documents like order forms or invoices; it eliminates delays and errors otherwise seen when paper handling is involved
  • Internet Commerce – the one we are most familiar with; the medium used to advertise, and sell innumerable products and services; the purchased goods are then shipped to the buyer.

Types of eCommerce

Ecommerce is used in various business fields; the major categories of ecommerce are:

  • Business-to-Business (B2B)
  • B2B is e-commerce representing electronic exchange of products, services and information between businesses. It is expected that the B2B e-commerce market would reach $1.1 trillion in the U.S.in the upcoming years. Some of the B2B e-commerce applications are product and supply exchange websites, online directories, that feature an option to search for particular products and services and thus initiate payment transactions within.

  • Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
  • B2C is the retail part of e-commerce where businesses sell products, services and information directly to its customers online. B2C was introduced in the late 90s which revolutionized the retail system from then. Now the B2C market comprises all sorts of consumer goods including many virtual stores and online shopping platforms where Amazon or flipkart leading the markets with domination and valuable customers.

  • Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
  • It is a type of e-commerce where consumers could trade their products or services with each other online. The transactions are carried out through third party online platforms. C2C e commerce consists of classified advertisements and online auctions like the popular eBay and Craigslist. These types of businesses are also known as C2B2C or consumer-to-business-to-consumer.

  • Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
  • C2B is that type of e-commerce in which the consumer builds their products and services, making it available online for businesses to bid on and purchase. The most popular example of C2B platform is an online market which sells everything for free like the iStock and Job Board. C2B e-commerce is moreover said to be an opposite kind of traditional commerce B2C model.

  • Business-to-Administration (B2A)
  • This kind of e-commerce platform enables online payment transactions between companies and administration or government bodies.Many government authorities depend on e services or products directly or indirectly. Businesses offer supply of e documents, registers,security, etc electronically which has a tremendous growth in the recent years.

  • Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)
  • C2A e-commerce refers to transactions conducted between individual customers and public administration or government authorities. Unlike government authorities, consumers make use of e-commerce and methods to make transactions for various industries including educational, health, retail industries.

    The proliferation of Ecommerce today is extremely high, leading to a significant increase in the demand for e-commerce development services.

    Most common applications of Ecommerce:

    • Retail and Wholesale
    • Ecommerce has numerous applications in this sector. E-retailing is basically a B2C, and in some cases, a B2B sale of goods and services through online stores designed using virtual shopping carts and electronic catalogs. A subset of retail ecommerce is m-commerce, or mobile commerce, wherein a consumer purchases goods and services using their mobile device through the mobile optimized site of the retailer. These retailers use the E-payment method: they accept payment through credit or debit cards, online wallets or internet banking, without printing paper invoices or receipts.

    • Online Marketing
    • This refers to the gathering of data about consumer behaviors, preferences, needs, buying patterns and so on. It helps marketing activities like fixing price, negotiating, enhancing product features, and building strong customer relationships as this data can be leveraged to provide customers a tailored and enhanced purchase experience.

    • Finance
    • Banks and other financial institutions are using e-commerce to a significant extent. Customers can check account balances, transfer money to other accounts held by them or others, pay bills through internet banking, pay insurance premiums, and so on. Individuals can also carry out trading in stocks online, and get information about stocks to trade in from websites that display news, charts, performance reports and analyst ratings of companies.

    • Manufacturing
    • Supply chain operations also use ecommerce; usually, a few companies form a group and create an electronic exchange and facilitate purchase and sale of goods, exchange of market information, back office information like inventory control, and so on. This enables the smooth flow of raw materials and finished products among the member companies and also with other businesses.

    • Online Booking
    • This is something almost every one of us has done at some time – book hotels, holidays, airline tickets, travel insurance, etc. These bookings and reservations are made possible through an internet booking engine or IBE. It is used the maximum by aviation, tour operations and hotel industry.

    • Online Publishing
    • This refers to the digital publication of books, magazines, catalogues, and developing digital libraries.

    • Digital Advertising
    • Online advertising uses the internet to deliver promotional material to consumers;it involves a publisher, and an advertiser. The advertiser provides the ads, and the publisher integrates ads into online content. Often there are creative agencies which create the ad and even help in the placement. Different types of ads include banner ads, social media ads, search engine marketing, retargeting, pop-up ads, and so on.

    • Auctions
    • Online auctions bring together numerous people from various geographical locations and enable trading of items at negotiated prices, implemented with e-commerce technologies. It enables more people to participate in auctions. Another example of auction is bidding for seats on an airline website – window seats, and those at the front with more leg room generally get sold at a premium, depending on how much a flyer is willing to pay.

      E-Commerce is all around us today, and as an entrepreneur, you should also get into this realm if you want to expand your markets, get more customers and increase your profitability.

    Strategy behind the eCommerce Market

    The e-Commerce market depends on mainly 3 dominant elements:

    • Market Requirements
    • Target Customer Market
    • Frequent Trends in the Industry

    How can you improve your marketing strategy for e-commerce websites? Everything you do affects the promotion of your particular online business. Doing it following a strict pattern would make wonders on your business website.

    • Analysis

      Analyze the statistics and current trends in the business in the niche. Gathering as much as possible data regarding a particular industry, the product makes much difference. It should be more specific to the point to make perfect decisions.

    • Understanding Consumer Data

      Setting demography always betters the business. Find out the geography, economy, particulars of potential customers. Frequently keep a check and maintain a data record on consumer surveys, consumer reports, and social media audiences.

    • Research

      Research is the best way to improve business. There are a lot of competitors and a slight fall indicates serious weakness in the market. Research about the competitors, regarding their dominance, their strength, and weakness, their business goals, insights, etc.

    E-Commerce Research and Analytic Applications

    Analytics plays a vital role in the development of e-commerce which decides everything from optimizing the CTA to the traffic on the website. Analytic tools differ with their accessibility, price, complexity, etc. there are various e-commerce tools available that depict your data the way you wanted it to look and help you get more customers independent of organic traffic, social media, or email marketing.

    Why do you need to research your eCommerce market? It isn’t that complicated to sort out online marketing. In the end, it’s all about finding your customer requirements. Ecommerce market research is just gathering information to analyze what your potential customer exactly needs. Concerning analytics, research gives an idea of the quantitative and qualitative notions behind why people buy a particular product or service. Here we list out some popular E-Commerce Analytical Applications.

    Analytical Tools

    • Google Analytics

      One of the best and free analytic tools for e-commerce business marketing and who refuses to use a Google product! Whatever the product is, you need to increase the e-commerce conversion rate. It is more powerful and preferred than any other analytic tool as it allows you to track your website traffic at every stage. So that you can point out weakness if any that leads to friction.

      Features:

      • Optimization
      • Data studio
      • Tag manager
      • Effective surveys
      • Search Ads 360
      • Display video 360

      At the end of the day, Google analytics could inform you about how many visitors arrive at your website daily, at what location, and through which device. Also, google analytics offer you to examine:

      • Your customers LTV
      • The performance of individual products in the market
      • The point from where traffic is driven(device)
      • The page that attracts most visitors
      • The page having the most bounce
      • About how the visitors are transforming
    • Kissmetrics

      This is an ideal analytic tool that enables brands to remarket into a large audience focusing on individual visitors rather than in general traffic. Kissmetrics is intended for large scale marketers wanting more advanced and deep reports. It allows you to know the count of visitors, about how many times a specific visitor checked in and how frequently they landed on a product page, etc.

      Features:

      • User Insight management
      • Engagement management
      • Intelligent Campaign
      • Integrated with Instagram, Facebook, Shopify, woo commerce, etc.

      Kissmetrics helps you determine the marketing channels with the highest ROI and about the campaigns working. It allows you to activate notifications like popups and lightboxes to persuade visitors. Kissmetrics is customizable and you can segment them to preview the trigger appearance. Services of Kissmetrics includes:

      • improves the conversion rate
      • Analyze potential audience
      • Drives traffic
      • Automates email chain

    Research Tools

    • Google Trends

      A popular Google product used to analyze queries across multiple regions and languages, thereby knowing what is trending in your market category. Marketers could examine what people are searching for and what matters the most. Google trends use graphical representation to illustrate and compare search volumes of different queries.

      Key Features:

      • Trending Search
      • Realtime search query analysis
      • Realtime search trends
    • Hubspot

      It is a complete CRM platform that proffers you all the tools to upgrade your e-commerce website. Hubspot is immensely used in Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Content Management, social media marketing, web analytics, etc. It provides four different software specialized to grow your business.

      Features

      Marketing Hub Sales Hub Service Hub CMS Hub
      Lead generation Advanced CRM Customer feedback SEO recommendations
      Marketing automation Meeting scheduling Knowledge base Drag-and-drop editor
      Analytics Quotes Tickets Website themes

      Advantages of Hubspot:

      • Increased conversation
      • Potential Lead generation
      • Accelerate sales
      • Streamlines customer service

    Are you looking for a reliable and reputable ecommerce app development company to establish your online presence? At IPIX Tech Services, we have over a decade and a half of experience helping startups, small and medium businesses achieve their business goals through online marketing. Do contact us for more details!

    Applications of e Commerce PDF

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