What is Ecommerce
What is E-commerce?
Ecommerce is the buying and selling goods or services over the internet. Also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce. To do this, e-commerce uses the transfer of money and data to execute the transactions. E-commerce is often used to sell physical products online but can also be a commercial transaction that can be done through the internet.
E-commerce first began with the first-ever online transaction in 1994. A CD was sold to a friend through a website called NetMarket, an American retail platform. This would be the first example of a consumer purchasing something through the web.
That first sale has grown online transaction, to allow products to be found easier and make purchasing those items more accessible to consumers. Freelancers, small businesses, and large corporations all have gained from e-commerce. This allows them to sell their goods and services at a much larger scale than was not possible before the internet. By 2022 the global retail e-commerce sales are projected to reach $829 billion.
What are the types of E-commerce Models?
There are four types of e-commerce models that help describe every transaction between consumers and businesses.
- Business to Business (B2B)
The business-to-business model is when a business sells a good or service to another business. For example, a software company sells their custom software to another firm for them to use.
- Business to Consumer(B2C)
Business to consumer transactions is when a company sells a good or service to an individual who is not a business, for example, if you go online to buy a new computer from an online retailer. The company is selling that computer to a consumer.
- Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
This is when a consumer wants to sell a good or service to another consumer. For example, let’s say you have some old clothes you want to get rid of. You could have a yard sale and hope to sell them, or you could put them on a site like eBay and sell them on there.
- Consumer to Business(C2B)
When a consumer wants to sell their products or services to a business. For example, an Instagram influencer offers your small business a free post to their followers in exchange for a fee.
What are some examples of E-Commerce?
E-commerce can be a variety of different areas with different transactional relationships between businesses and consumers, along with various items being exchanged as part of these transactions.
- Retail:
This is the sale of products by a business to a consumer without and middle-man.
- Wholesale:
Selling products in bulk is what wholesaling is. Wholesale selling is done when another retailer buys a product then sells that same product back to the consumers.
- Dropshipping:
Dropshipping is when a product is manufactured and shipped by another company and is sold on another site to a consumer.
- Crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding is the collecting of money from people in advance to help get a product or service to market. The company that is developing it can have enough startup capital to bring it to market.
- Subscription:
A subscription is a recurring transaction that happens automatically, so you can use a product or service until you cancel it.
- Physical products:
Physical products require you to have inventory that would need to be replenished as they are sold, which you also ship to the customers.
- Digital Products:
Downloadable digital goods and other services that require you to purchase a license for you to use the product.
- Services
Services are skills that are sold to consumers or businesses.
Conclusion
E-commerce has a significant market share for anyone to take part in. We know that the internet is substantial, and so is selling products online. Why not start up your own e-commerce site and start selling a good or service to people around the world. Hopefully, you have learned a little more about e-commerce and see how large a market you can reach.
United Software Technologies is a leading custom software development company in Ohio and can offer you industry-leading e-commerce development services. Get in touch today to see how we can help!
