What Is an eCommerce Website: What To Know About This?

eCommerce Website Definition

First of all, let’s talk about the important part here: eCommerce.

Long story short, eCommerce (or electronic commerce) implies the activities of purchasing and selling products or services via the Internet. This concept sounds modern but actually, it appeared way back in the 60s. It was when students from Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used ARPANET to buy cannabis.

However, it was not until 1994 the first official eCommerce transaction happened when a CD by Sting was bought via NetMarket.

What Is an eCommerce Website?

We defined eCommerce as the act of trading something (legal, of course!) on the Internet. But in fact, its definition also expands to the processing of financial transactions and data in order to do those trading activities. With any Internet-connected devices, you can conduct eCommerce transactions, be it computers, smartphones, or tablets.

So eCommerce websites are online stores where people can sell or purchase physical (and even digital) products, from sweaters, books, and headsets to medical equipment. There, they can exchange and store their information like name, address, credit/debit card information, etc. One biggest eCommerce website is Amazon, where you can find anything in this world, from jeans under $50 to a painting priced at $36,800.

Like other websites, eCommerce websites need to be well-developed and fully functional to respond to what their target customers want. This is when eCommerce website development jumps in. It also makes online shopping easy by integrating online payment options, product recommendations, and advanced search.

4 Types of eCommerce

At the moment, there are 4 main types of eCommerce websites. They include:

B2B (business to business): Companies/enterprises provide products, goods, or services to other companies/enterprises via websites. For example, Berlin Packaging, 3DXTech, Amazon Business, etc.
B2C (business to customer): Companies/enterprises sell products, goods, or services to customers online. For example, Amazon, Alibaba, Etsy, etc.
C2C (customer to customer): This is the activity of selling products, goods, or services between one customer to another through an eCommerce platform. For example, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Airbnb, etc.
C2B (customer to business): This happens when end-users sell products, goods, or services back to businesses. For instance, one could offer development services as a freelance developer on Upwork, Fiverr, etc.

FURTHER READING:

1. 6 Best eCommerce App Development Companies

2. How to Save Big on eCommerce App Development Cost?

3. 5 Best eCommerce Website Design Services for Success

Future of eCommerce Websites

Because of COVID-19 and pandemic restrictions, even the most traditional consumers had to buy things online. This changed the way people bought things all over the world. It also helped make online shopping one of the most popular things to do in many countries. As such, it has promoted the thriving of eCommerce websites to meet the increasing demand.

Even when new normals are established and people can shop in their favorite mortar-and-brick stores, they still have that habit of wandering around eCommerce websites. It’s clear that such platforms often provide lower prices and frequent discounts or sales promotions. Further, people, especially those overwhelmed with their work and have no time for shopping, find eCommerce stores more convenient. This propels the growth of the global retail eCommerce revenue. According to Statista, its sales are expected to exceed $8 trillion in 2027, a 39% growth rate from 2023.

But do you know there are over 27 million eCommerce websites in the world? Despite a potential market, eCommerce presents a huge (maybe, harsh) competition. Therefore, the integration of advanced techs becomes increasingly popular to give those who want to stand out an edge. And the future of eCommerce websites is accordingly shaped by these advanced techs.

For example, various eCommerce websites are incorporating AI to provide personalized product recommendations, content, and even targeted marketing campaigns. Meanwhile, AI-powered chatbots can instantly support customers and answer questions when human reps are off. Or eCommerce stores can leverage AR/VR tech to help customers visualize products.

All these things improve customer experience and make eCommerce more interesting.

Main Features of eCommerce Websites

At the moment when you just start building any website from scratch, it’s crucial to define all the most important features to develop or tools to integrate. To perform such a task, the best approach would be to access your competitors’ websites to do some research beforehand.

Nevertheless, lucky you, people from Designveloper have outlined some of the most necessary features in case you’re planning to build an eCommerce website:

Order management.
Various common payment methods.
Mobile compatibility.
Review and rating section.
Shopping cart.
Security features.
Social sharing.

In addition to all these backbone features, you can integrate and structure others that fit your business model and goals.

For example, in the improvement of Aha.is, Designveloper effectively integrated these core features (e.g., social sharing options & security features) while addressing specific challenges. Aha.is required high performance and cost efficiency. So, we implemented multiple cache layers to boost speed, integrated various payment methods, ensured mobile compatibility, and built a robust order management system.

Recommended reading: Web App vs Website: Why Is It a False Dichotomy?

Pros and Cons When Using an eCommerce Website

Choosing an eCommerce website to sell products or services is a good choice. But it may pose some problems. So, what exactly are pros and cons when using an eCommerce website instead of a physical store? Let’s dive in!

Pros

eCommerce websites comes with a variety of benefits. But here, we’ll elaborate on the most visible ones:

Cost-Effectiveness: We can’t deny the fact that investing in a physical store is more expensive than a digital one. In this case, real estate, hiring staff, buying decorations, etc. could require a fortune. Meanwhile, your eCommerce website is much cheaper. Its costs depend on many factors like pricing packages, features, etc. For example, you already have a professional team and augment some staff to outsource some parts of the website. So, it’s much cheaper than leaving the outsourcing agency to build the site from A to Z.

Scalability: Once the number of items increases, your brick-and-mortar store might have to expand the area. Further, you can easily scale up the website when your business grows and serves more customers.

Speed: Have you ever been in a situation where there is high traffic of customers visiting the physical store? It must be a panicky sight to see. But don’t worry because, with an online store, you can process a higher number of orders in a shorter while.

24/7 Accessibility: Unlike physical stores with limited hours, your eCommerce website is accessible to customers around the clock. This convenience allows shoppers to browse, compare, and purchase products at any time. Therefore, it can increase potential sales and customer satisfaction. Additionally, you can showcase a vast collection of products that physical space can’t accommodate.

Global Reach: An eCommerce website breaks geographical barriers, enabling you to reach a global audience. This can significantly increase market opportunities and customer base. In particular, it opens more avenues for your business to enter new markets without the need for physical storefronts.

Cons

Despite those benefits, an eCommerce website sometimes can get on your customers’ nerves. If there’s no physical store, they won’t be able to touch or feel the real products at all.

For example, if you want to sell guns online, it can help to have a physical store for customers who want to examine the product before they drop hundreds or thousands on a piece.

Moreover, as cybercrime is becoming more sophisticated, concerns about data leakage or financial fraud are another reason why many are afraid of this purchasing method.

Conclusion

Building eCommerce websites is not as hard as it seems to be. You can choose an eCommerce platform (Shopify or Wix, for example) then drag and drop elements around to make one. However, the weakness of this approach is that you have very little to no control over these tools.

But hey, people from Designveloper offer various types of services such as web design, web development (eCommerce, educational, real estate website, etc), software development, and even business consulting. If you are interested, contact us and tell us your ideas now! Cheers.