E-commerce: Selling Products and Services Online
Introduction
E-commerce has transformed the way businesses sell to their customers. What was once primarily the domain of large retailers is now accessible to businesses of almost every size.
For small and medium-sized businesses, e-commerce can provide new ways to reach customers, generate revenue and extend a business beyond its physical location.
But successful e-commerce involves more than adding products to a website and accepting payments. The complete customer journey—from discovering a product to receiving it and potentially buying again—needs to work effectively.
What Is E-commerce?
E-commerce simply means buying and selling products or services electronically, most commonly through the internet.
It can take many forms, including:
- physical products sold through an online shop
- digital products and downloads
- subscriptions and memberships
- online courses and training
- professional services purchased or booked online
- products sold through online marketplaces
A business may operate entirely online or use e-commerce alongside an existing physical business.
The appropriate approach depends on what is being sold, who the customers are and how they prefer to buy.
Start With the Customer
It is easy to approach e-commerce as a technology project.
Which platform should we use? Which payment provider do we need? What software should we install?
Those decisions matter, but they should come after understanding the customer.
How will customers discover the products? What information will they need before purchasing? What might prevent them from completing an order? What happens after they have paid?
Thinking about the complete customer journey helps ensure that technology supports the buying process rather than defining it.
Make Products Easy to Find and Understand
Customers cannot examine an online product in the same way they can in a physical shop.
Product pages therefore need to provide the information required to make a confident decision.
Clear descriptions, appropriate images, pricing, delivery information and answers to common questions can all reduce uncertainty.
Navigation and search are also important. Customers should be able to find relevant products without having to understand how the business has organised its website.
Search engine optimisation can extend this further by helping relevant product and category pages appear when potential customers search online.
Build Trust Into the Buying Process
Trust is particularly important in e-commerce.
Before entering payment details, customers need confidence that the business is genuine and that they understand what they are purchasing.
Professional presentation, secure payment processing, clear contact information and straightforward policies covering delivery, returns and refunds can all contribute to that confidence.
Reviews, testimonials and other appropriate evidence can also help customers make decisions.
The checkout itself should be as straightforward as possible. Unnecessary steps, unexpected costs or confusing forms can cause potential customers to abandon a purchase.
Choosing E-commerce Technology
There is no single e-commerce platform that is right for every business.
Some businesses need a relatively simple online shop. Others require stock management, integration with accounting systems, multiple delivery options, subscriptions or connections with external marketplaces.
The objective should be to choose technology appropriate to the current requirements while considering how those requirements might develop.
An unnecessarily complicated system can create additional cost and administration without improving the customer experience.
Measure and Improve
One of the advantages of e-commerce is the ability to measure what happens throughout the buying journey.
Businesses can examine which products attract visitors, where customers come from, which pages lead to sales and where people leave without completing a purchase.
Measures such as conversion rate, average order value and abandoned checkouts can help identify opportunities for improvement.
Small changes to product information, navigation or checkout processes can sometimes have a significant effect on results.
E-commerce as Part of Your Digital Strategy
An online shop should not operate in isolation.
Search engines, content, social media and email can help customers discover products. Analytics can show how those customers behave. Customer service and fulfilment determine what happens after the purchase.
E-commerce therefore works best when it forms part of a wider digital strategy.
For SMEs, the objective is not simply to put products online. It is to create a clear, trustworthy and convenient route from discovering a product through to purchasing it and becoming a satisfied customer.