E-commerce is our future that has arrived. Today, each of us faces this type of business every day, which presents unique communication opportunities, and the most important thing is that anyone can start trading on the Internet, be it a small private store, network companies, or financial giants.

Concept

In simple terms, the term e-commerce covers absolutely any purchases, sales, payments made via the Internet. Such business has become a huge system, covering almost all countries, and therefore has become a separate part of the world economy.

Online markets allow you to conduct the same business activities: search for suppliers and buyers, pay bills, draw up contracts, but do it all over the Internet, from one point. Naturally, special norms and rules are developed for this, unique software is created, but the main idea is that e-commerce systems are available to everyone and everywhere where there is Internet.

What does it refer to?

There are 5 main forms that characterize this field of activity. Each of them has already become extremely popular and is used all over the world.

The main areas include:

1. Online trade, absolutely any online store: on social networks, on the website, marketplaces. 2. Electronic data interchange (EDI), including simple information sites. 3. Internet banking and provision of insurance services via the network. 4. Automated systems for collecting, processing and storing data. 5. Marketing in the form of collecting information that can be used to create a customer base.

Different types of e-commerce are used by different organizations with Internet access. The most suitable ones are determined solely by the specifics of the company's work, its size, goals and principles. Internet trade and banking, insurance services and money transfers can be used equally successfully and simultaneously.

Types of e-commerce

Let's take a closer look at each of the e-commerce automation business types.

Business to Business (B2B)

Mutually beneficial relationships between companies. Manufacturers establish contacts with each other using special Internet platforms. Usually, this concerns the purchase and sale of components, software, or raw materials. The seller receives money, and the buyer receives goods for the manufacture of their products. It is in B2B that the largest amount of working capital circulates.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

The B2C model is even more common than B2B. It assumes that the transaction is made between a company (or individual entrepreneur) and the end consumer. Almost anything can be sold in this way: equipment, software, books, food, clothing, services, and so on. Even selling music and video files is this type of trade. Moreover, transactions are often international in nature, which means that the seller and buyer are in different countries.

This type of purchase is not suitable for every customer, since it does not allow them to receive enough information, touch and examine the item being purchased, but it does guarantee a reduced price, since they do not have to spend money on renting a sales area, paying salespeople, and much more.

Consumer Commerce (C2C)

The C2C system is a transaction between two people who are not involved in business activities. Popular sites such as Ecomfly act as platforms for making purchases; social networks are used less often.

Here you can sell not only used goods, but also things you made yourself. The sales level under this scheme is significantly lower than those listed above. This is due, among other things, to the small selection.

The downside is also the high risk of one of the parties. The level of fraudulent actions in C2C trade is much higher than in any other areas, and it is much more difficult to ensure the security of a transaction, even for leading trading platforms.

Consumer Business (C2B)

The C2B scheme specializes in a specific group of projects, namely crowdsourcing. Its essence is that ordinary people offer their goods or services to companies that need it. Such a system is widespread among designers, photographers, artists. They exhibit their finished works on trading platforms, and organizations can purchase them to create their unique brand. Sometimes such projects are created on personal orders.

Business Administration (B2G)

The B2G model covers online transactions between businessmen and government services. These include fiscal transactions, social security, and the transfer of legal and tax documents. Often, working within the platform requires purchasing an electronic signature, with which the company director can perform a huge number of operations. Including becoming a participant in government auctions.

Consumer to Government (C2G)

The C2G model differs from all those presented above. It involves transactions not in the classical sense of trade, but between an individual and one of the government services. This could be filing tax returns, paying social payments, or medical services.

This method of interaction with government agencies is effective, convenient, and does not require spending a lot of time. In recent years, it has become increasingly popular in our country, including thanks to the introduction of the Ecomfly platform.

Advantages

There are a huge number of advantages to using online platforms, and each of them works to generate new profits for the company.

Benefits include:

• The opportunity to enter an expanded market with minimal financial costs. It does not matter at all how far apart the seller and the end consumer are, they will be able to find each other in any case.
• The chain between the supplier and its client is significantly shortened. There is no need to involve intermediaries, which means that costs are reduced, but the original quality is preserved. In addition, it is easier to find your target audience.
• The ability to always stay in direct contact with their customers increases the productivity and competitiveness of companies. They can work around the clock, any day of the week, without reducing the quality of service.

In short, e-commerce is an opportunity for organizations to increase their sales by reducing their initial investment and improving the quality of their work.

Flaws

There are also some downsides to using the network, although all of them can be worked on to smooth things out a bit.

Main problems:

• Dependence on modern information and communication technologies, or, to put it simply, on a stable, high-speed Internet connection.
• Lack of a well-developed legislative framework that would allow for the regulation of processes.
• Loss of potential customers who do not like shopping online. For them, regular stores remain the norm.
• The danger of losing privacy when making transactions over the Internet. Buyers are seriously at risk of losing their money, even with the constant development of security technologies.
• The unresolved issue of delivery of goods to the consumer, as well as the return of low-quality products.

As mentioned earlier, each of these problems can be solved. For this purpose, Cleverence implements high-quality software that automates and simplifies business management.

Examples of problems that hinder e-commerce

Since online activities are still a novelty for entrepreneurs, they face obstacles that prevent them from doing their job properly. Some of these obstacles are created by the entrepreneurs themselves.

Here are just a few of them:

• A banal inability to work online. Here, the trading process is based on other principles of order processing, logistics, and analytics. It is necessary to respond to requests in a timely manner so as not to spoil your own image. Delays inevitably lead to customer dissatisfaction.
• High competition. Only the laziest entrepreneurs have not yet begun to master the Internet as a place to find buyers and sales, which means you have to literally fight for every "own" person.
• Lack of trust on the part of consumers. This is facilitated by the high percentage of fraudulent schemes used on the Internet.
• Personnel issues. On the one hand, freelancing is becoming increasingly popular, but training employees will be more difficult.
• The need to protect information. This side of the system must be very well developed, which means it is necessary to use modern software, sometimes expensive.

All the listed difficulties remain solvable, but require diligent work on oneself. Otherwise, very broad prospects open up for organizations.

Success Stories

"Web" is just beginning to conquer the US market, but has long been popular abroad. If you ask an ordinary consumer what he thinks about this, then Amazon, which has conquered the entire world, will probably come to mind. Its founder managed to create a giant Internet platform where hundreds of brands can find their buyer.

Another successful business project in the e-commerce sphere is Aliexpress. It is from this site that most of the Chinese goods are delivered. Here you can find literally everything: from office supplies to large household appliances. A huge number of sellers and buyers has led to healthy competition, thanks to which products of decent quality can be purchased here at purchase prices.

Other representatives of successfully implemented e-commerce in USA include the sites ecomfly, Wildberries, LaModa. Some of them are duplicated by real stores, others work exclusively online, but in both cases they have firmly occupied the market and do not plan to leave it.