All About E-commerce: The Online Era

With over 2.5 Billion Internet users world wide, eCommerce has become one of the most rewarding and growing business all over the world for start-ups like Amydus.com to eCommerce Giants like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay etc. The reason behind the success of eCommerce in recent years is mainly because of the easy access to the World Wide Web. Stats show that more than 40% of Internet Users have bought products or goods online at least once in the past year. 40% of 2.5 Billion that is 1 Billion used the Internet to buy a product or service (Source) .

How Much more can eCommerce grow?
Ecommerce is changing, Internet users are now using different devices to purchase products and services. Mobile devices such as Tablets, Smart Phones etc. now pitch in to more than half of the Internet users. Mobile commerce sales reached $40 billion in 2014 and is estimated to reach $50 billion in next 2 years. Even social media is also contributing to eCommerce, Facebook’s eCommerce customer acquisition was .25% and Twitter contributed .1%. The potential for eCommerce can be easy measured if it is compared to retail, Wall-Mart’s 2013 revenue was $468 Billion and standing next to it Amazon’s $70 Billion revenue looks like a dwarf. These stats clearly indicate the potential of eCommerce Business.

Who to follow?
Amazon and Alibaba maintain their dominance over the western and Eastern hemispheres of the globe (In terms of Consumer Products). Together these two eCommerce Giants amassed revenue of $80 billion in 2013. Both of these eCommerce mainly work on the B2C business model, Amazon can be also credited for the development of world wide eCommerce. Ebay on the other hand has a C2C business model and generated a revenue of $14 billion in 2013. Ecommerce owners are creating new technologies to provide a better user experience. Amazon for example is looking at delivering products to customer door steps via drones.

World Wide Commerce!
Ecommerce is not confined to first worlds. It is definitely spreading worldwide. Third worlds are now the biggest market for eCommerce. US eCommerce sales accounted for just 5.2 % of the sales worldwide. One of the issue faced by third world users like that of the likes of India for example is of trust. Surveys show that 25% of users are not confident about the security of the website and do not wish to share their financial details. 20% users consider shipping costs to be very high and 15% are skeptical about the safety of the product in transit.

Countries like India offer 137 million users with a better growth rate for eCommerce than that of UK and USA. Companies like Flipkart, Jabong and Myntra have become house-hold names for Indian Internet users.

How to get started?
Starting an eCommerce platform can be a little tricky, mainly because of the high degree of competition and complexity of web development. Even though start-ups outsource most of their web development and marketing tasks to  IT consulting companies, having a strong insight of the entire online retail process can really make a winning difference.

We are starting a series of blogs on which we will share our insight on how to start a successful eCommerce business. These Blogs will attempt to answer all your eCommerce related queries right from choosing a content management system to managing online marketing. Feel Free to add your comments, suggestions and queries below.

Keep track of the series Here.