The last two decades have seen exponential growth in the rise and variety of e-commerce sites, transforming the way consumers and businesses buy and sell products. The e-com model doesn’t just benefit businesses with reduced costs and always-open stores, it has also vastly increased the amount of choice available to consumers who are no longer restricted purely by geographical limitations or what was most readily available.

The evolution of online shopping

While the e-com revolution may have been slightly slow to start, its acceptance and usage gradually grew through the early 2000s, with big-name companies like Amazon and e-Bay already making their mark. As more people began to explore the options for shopping online, soon populations also came to realize that e-com offered a far greater choice, and normally with significantly lower pricing.

These lower prices – plus the convenience of shopping entire product catalogs from home – proved a tipping point for many potential shoppers, completely upending the traditional, real-world, brick-and-mortar commerce model.

The influence of social media in improving client/company connections

The advent of social media heralded a new age for firms in terms of how (and where) they could communicate their message to clients (both potential and existing). With continued improvements in mobile tech, better on-the-go connection speeds, and the mass take-up of cellular devices, companies could reach out to customers in ways never before possible.

This two-way social media process has enhanced the branding of more media-savvy firms and allowed them to build true and long-lasting connections with their customers.

Moreover, the increased use of mobile tech also gave rise to the shop-anywhere concept of m-commerce (mobile commerce), which again served to increase the acceptance of the overall e-com model.

Improved tech and changing behaviors

Where the web used to be slightly slow and clunky when it came to online shopping, advancements in tech, coding, and connection speeds have revolutionized the online purchasing process. These improvements in tech are perhaps best demonstrated by the proliferation of mobile shopping apps now available (although just shopping on mobile websites has also been refined).

However, while tech has undoubtedly helped reshape the modern commercial environment, experts suggest it has been aided by a fundamental shift in buyer behavior. In the very early stages of e-com, many consumers felt it slightly strange or alienating to buy online – but, over the last couple of decades, these hesitations have largely dissipated.

The effect of the Covid lockdowns

While it’s true that consumer opinion was already becoming more accepting of online shopping through the last two decades, recent evidence suggests that Covid proved to be a defining factor in its startling expansion. As a result of the Covid lockdowns and stay-at-home rules, analysts believe e-commerce growth was accelerated by as much as four to six years.

A transformation of markets and high-end product sales

The technologies and security measures employed by e-com sites have made it possible for consumers to buy increasingly high-value products online – everything from computers to cars and even homes. Indeed, it could be argued that this shift towards such valuable goods has marked a coming of age for the e-commerce model and proves the trust people now place in online shopping.

Order fulfillment

In the not-too-distant past, one of the greatest hesitations people had about shopping online was the potential for slow delivery times and poor order fulfillment. However, e-com businesses soon realized these limitations were hampering trade, so they began to integrate more tightly with shipping companies to improve this critical aspect of their operations.

Some of the more common e-com operational models in use today

As any seasoned business professional will attest, order fulfillment and customer satisfaction are probably the most important parts of the entire purchasing process. In particular, this means making the activity of shopping as easy as possible while also getting goods to clients quickly.

This desire to streamline operations has led to the establishment of entirely new e-commerce models in a bid to try and improve customer satisfaction while also increasing the chances of re-ordering. Just a few of the more common e-commerce models are listed below.

Set up an independent e-com site

Similar to the traditional high street model, an e-com site will be run by the firm itself (or its trusted web design and maintenance team). This model is most common among smaller retailers looking to expand their services online to increase their market penetration.

The proliferation of e-com platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify has made it easier (and more secure) than ever for business owners to start selling online. However, while even unskilled people can set up this type of site, if this is the direction you want to take your company, you would be well-advised to seek the help of a professional design and development expert to avoid any problems further down the line. With an independent e-commerce site, your firm will be responsible for stock, invoicing, updating your site, processing orders, and handling shipping arrangements.

Work with an online marketplace

Online marketplaces essentially act as a hub, allowing firms to piggyback on their established success to reach out to larger markets. Successful examples of this model include e-com behemoth Amazon as well as other services like eBay and Alibaba.

Running the online marketplace model, your firm won’t need to worry about having a site designed or the potential implications inherent in processing online orders. Rather, everything is handled by the hub platform provider.

One of the greatest advantages of these e-commerce services is that you’ll already be tapping into their huge user numbers – although, it should be said, you will also have almost zero control over how you brand your shop site. Nonetheless, they offer a ready-made pathway into the world of online sales at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself.

Sign up to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) marketplace platforms

Similar in nature to online marketplaces, P2P networks allow individuals to offer services directly to potential consumers using their platform. A good example of a P2P network is Airbnb which lets property owners ride on the back of their service so they can rent out their properties directly to travelers.

Although Airbnb is perhaps the best-known P2P platform, there is now a huge variety of other services that cater to a plethora of other industries. For example, if you run a courier company, there are many online transportation services you could use that offer a bidding service to help you find shipping work. By connecting with their hub of networked companies, you could land new jobs while still retaining a healthy bottom-line profit – get bidding today.

As with the marketplace model, one of the major benefits of working with a P2P platform is you can take advantage of its considerable popularity and expensive marketing to reach out directly to people most likely to be looking for what you have on offer.

Try establishing a subscription-based e-com business

The Holy Grail of most firms is to achieve guaranteed regular income, and surely no model offers this better than building a subscriber base that pays you on a constant, recurring basis.

Subscription services have grown massively over the last decade in everything from oven-ready, pre-prepared meals, which the subscriber cooks at home, to wine delivery services and streaming media. Indeed, if you get it right, there are considerable benefits to this type of e-com operation. One need only think of the likes of Spotify, Netflix, or Dollar Shave Club to see just how profitable and effective this business model can be.

Dip a toe into the dropshipping e-commerce model

Very much the new kid on the block, dropshipping takes advantage of today’s considerably better online integration to the point the entrepreneur doesn’t even need to invest in product stock.

With the dropshipping model, the business would build a website that is virtually ‘stocked’ with the goods it wants to sell, but without ever handling any actual product. When a client comes to the business site and makes a purchase, there is an automatic handover to the manufacturer who then handles the order fulfillment on their side.

The dropshipping e-com market share has exploded in recent years, with an estimated predicted value of around $244 billion in 2023. By 2025, that figure is expected to mushroom to an incredible $476 billion. If you’re looking to get set up in e-com but want to avoid the risk of hefty start-up costs and investing in stock that you might not sell, dropshipping could well prove the solution for you.

Employ the services of a distribution center or try warehousing

While these terms are often considered interchangeable, there is, technically, one distinct difference – although even the boundaries in this distinction often become blurred.

A warehousing facility will typically take control of your inventory and ensure it is stored correctly, with the correct items being picked and passed to you as needed. With a distribution center, you simply pass your orders to the firm, which will then ship the goods directly to your clients. In truth, although there are sometimes differences in the scope of service between the two terms, most warehousing companies these days now also offer fulfillment as part of their overall logistics operations.

This article provided by James Daniels