Week 4

Week 4: eBusiness

In a world where the Internet is an essential part of our everyday lives, ecommerce has risen up and taken the business world by storm. Doing business on the Internet now is the way to go. Why? Because it’s cheaper, more efficient and faster than doing it face to face. So why wouldn’t people want to? It’s the new age of the Internet and it’s packing nothing but perks for business owners and companies. The leader in ecommerce now is China. They are far ahead of any other country in B2C ecommerce.

One can buy almost anything online now, but the products that have the highest sales are clothing and apparels. If we look at almost any clothing brand today, they have embraced ecommerce and consumers can buy their products on the Internet. Online shopping has become very popular because consumers can now shop in the comfort of their own home, away from the buzz and bustle of over crowded shopping centres and stores. What’s not to like? I even do it sometimes when I’m feeling lazy or when I want to buy something I can’t get my hands on in Singapore.

So now let’s look at what exactly it takes it for a company or business to be successful in ecommerce. According to ‘Practical Commerce”, there are 13 tips for success. A few that I find particularly important are tips such as:

·      - Selling products that your consumers want to purchase

·     -  Personalize interactions with your consumers

·      - Build relationships with your buys and establish a sense of community

Another tip I think is very relevant and essential for our world today is ‘going mobile’. This is very important because almost everyone owns a Smartphone today and they are probably using that to get onto the Internet when they are on the go. So coming up with a mobile application that is simple and easy to use will be a big bonus when establishing your ecommerce consumer base. At the end of the day, we all want to shop in the most efficient way that doesn’t frustrate us and gives us the satisfaction we want when buying things.

Although ecommerce can boost businesses in a great way, there’s always two sides to a coin. That other side is inevitably, failure. Not every ecommerce business will sky rocket and be successful unfortunately and there are reasons for it. One the number one reasons I feel ecommerce business don’t survive is the abundance of competition out on the Internet. They are all striving for success and one is not willing to go out and grasp these consumers, ultimately failure will await you.  Some other reasons why they fail, according to ‘bwired.com.au’ are:

·      - Failing to manage your customers

·     -  Poor user service

·      - Having the expectation that consumers will find you

One needs to be able to handle their consumers online, which is much different that face to face because everything is non-verbal and requires constant attention. Advertising and marketing is still important to get your business’ name out there to garner a larger consumer base. Moreover, if an ecommerce business fails to keep their consumers interested and loyal, there are many more similar businesses that are offering the same services with better execution.

References:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3882-13-Tips-for-Ecommerce-Success-in-2013

http://mashable.com/2013/12/20/ecommerce-tips/