What is E-Commerce?
It is also called Electronic and Internet Commerce. Buying and selling goods or services using the internet is called E-Commerce. E-commerce is also referred to as selling physical products online. it can also be described as any kind of commercial payment transaction through the internet. E-Commerce specifically refers to as transaction of goods and services. Ecommerce sales happen almost entirely on the internet except for the shipping and delivery process.
Table of Contents:
The First Online Sale:
The first online sale was made by a man on August 11, 1994. He sold the CD to his friend through his website of an American platform. It was the first thing sold by a business through World Wide Web (WWW). But it is also said that the first thing purchased online was a pizza from a pizza hut in 1994. Pizza hut celebrated the 20th anniversary of that transaction and offered a 50% discount on all large and medium-sized pizzas.
Ecommerce made products easier to discover and purchase via online retailers and markets. Freelancers, large and small businesses have benefited from Ecommerce. Ecommerce Enabled them to sell their goods and services at a scale not possible with offline retail. Global Ecommerce retail sales have reached almost 27 trillion dollars by 2020. and according to eMarketer online retail sales will reach almost 6.17 trillion dollars by 2023 22.3% of its total sales.
Types of E-commerce Business Models:
There are four main business models of E-Commerce that mostly take place for the transaction between the consumer and the businesses. These are given below:
- Business to Business. Also Known as B2B.
- Business to Consumer. Also known as B2C.
- Consumer to Consumer. Also Known as C2C.
- Consumer to Business. Also known as C2B.
Examples of Ecommerce:
Here I will give an overview of almost 8 examples of e-commerce. These all examples will clear your mind about e-commerce and online transactions made for e-commerce.
- Retail
- Wholesale
- Dropshipping
- Crowdfunding
- Subscription
- Physical Products
- Digital Products
- Services
1. Retail:
The sale of a product directly from a business to an individual consumer without any intermediary is known as retail selling. You go to market and purchase a product from any shop (online or physically) and use the product. it is retail.
2. Wholesale:
The sale of bulk products to a retailer is called wholesale. A Wholesale business sells a number of products to a business that sells these products directly to the consumer the selling and buying between the bulk seller and retailer are known as wholesale.
Let me try to explain it in simple words. Let's suppose, you are running a boutique shop where an individual customer comes to buy a single product at a retail price. You go to a manufacturer to buy the dresses to sell them in your shop. You purchase 100 dresses from the manufacturer. The deal was done between you and the manufacturer is known as wholesale. Now I think you are clear about Wholesale.
3. Dropshipping:
The sale of a product that is manufactured by a business but shipped by a third party to the customer is known as dropshipping. In Dropshipping the merchant does not manage stock or inventory. He works as the middle man. When a consumer places an order this third party or middle man fulfills the order from another business that has stock and manages the inventory. Middle man gets paid for his fulfillment service.
Let me explain it in simple words. Consider you are the middle man, you approach a shoe store that deals in wholesale online, you copy the products information and list them on your own website with higher prices than the wholesaler, let suppose wholesaler is selling it for $200 and you list it with the price $230. consumers place an order on your website and make an online payment of $230 to your wallet. You who are not managing the inventory go to the wholesaler store and place the same product order with the details of the consumer who placed an order on your website and do the transaction via your own wallet the actual price of the product is $200. You save $30. Now the wholesaler ships that product and deliver it to the consumer. It is dropshipping.
4. Crowdfunding:
The Collection of money from consumers in advance for a product that is being available in the market in order to raise a startup to bring it to market.
I think It is something like you want to start a new business and you don't have enough money to raise it in the market. So you collect money from the consumers for that product which is currently not listed in the market but is about to be listed. When you have collected the money you purchase the product and start the business.
5. Subscription:
The automatic repeated purchase of the products or services on regular basis until the subscriber or consumer chooses to cancel. It is known as subscription-based e-commerce.
I think it is something like you sell software or Mobile app and consumers purchase it one time and subscribe it for automatic purchasing for the updates of that software or Mobile app.
6. Physical Products:
7. Digital Products:
Downloadable digital goods are known as digital products. for example, templates, courses, and Media that is purchased for consumption or licensed for use.
8. Services:
You can provide your services if you are an expert in any skill. It is also a form of eCommerce where you provide your services and in return, you get money through online transactions.
I hope, now you have understood the basics of E-commerce.
How Can you Learn E-commerce Free Of cost?
If you want to learn E-Commerce in Details you can join the Digiskills, Enablers, and Extreme Commerce courses which are free of cost available on their official websites.
I have already written a blog on how to get access to free courses of Digiskills, Enablers, and Extreme Commerce. If you want to read that blogs then click on the links below.
I have also added the video series to this website. These are very informative tutorials for you if you are a beginner. If you want to learn from this video series click here
How to get access to videos courses of Digiskills?
How to get access to video courses of Enablers?
