Online Stores, Web shops & E-commerce explained
What is an Online Store or Web shop?
Online stores or web shops, are websites, or apps that have been enabled and optimised for product & service sales and fulfilment, entirely online, from start to finish.
These business usually operate in one (or more) of the following sectors:
- B2C β Business to consumer
- B2B β Business to business
- C2B β Consumer to business
- C2C β Consumer to consumer
Many B2C online stores may have originally just had brick and mortar retail businesses, prior to the advent of reliable, refined web based sales. Some still retain their physical high street presence, some are just online and some have both.
Almost anything can be offered for sale online, with lightweight, easy to post/mail items being hugely popular, including digitally delivered items.
Buyers can easily locate their desired products or services, using online catalogues and advanced search and filter tools.
Improved SEO and Search skills from the buyer, have played a huge part in greatly propelling the e-store business over the last few years. In 2021, 20% of global retail sales were online. This is thought to be on the increase, especially during a Pandemic, lockdown world.
Nowadays, most Apps are SaaS based, so no downloads, installations or maintenance is required of the software. Virtually anyone, with just basic skills, can build their own e-store in a very short space of time.
Once you have your idea and your plan, you will just need a reliable company, with a user-friendly ecommerce platform, offering a secure electronic payment method.
There are many Vendors including:
- WooCommerce
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Shift4Shop
- O-Commerce
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