What Is An eCommerce Platform And How Can You Get Benefit Out Of It

E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. You buying your furniture for your house, or you buying your favorite pair of shoes from an online store constitutes your participation in e-commerce. Ecommerce platforms have benefited many start-ups, independent freelancers, small businesses, and large corporations.

Are you one of these or someone aspiring to grow their business online? Then this is the blog for you!

1. Business to Consumer (B2C): It is the most common form of eCommerce business. In this model, you order your product on an eCommerce platform who then sends a notification to the seller, who then dispatches the product which is received by you. Anything the consumer buys online— their favourite pair of shoes, household appliances, books, dresses etc — all come under the Business to Consumer model.

Pro-tip: "Enriching customer experience would be of utmost importance here considering this model depends on it for it to be successful. An exclusive feel can help you with the same. Launching your business with an edge of exclusivity creates an urge within the customers to buy. Services like Amazon Accelerator essentially take care of such tasks for you to help you focus on the most important task - to sell better to your customers."

2. Business to Business (B2B) : When a business purchases goods or services online from another business then it is referred as Business to Business. Retailers who purchase their wholesale products online are one of the best examples of this type of e-commerce business. For example: Amazon also provides Business to Business services which can help you discover a faster and smarter way to do B2B buying online.

Did you know: According to a recent survey, 60% of B2B tech buyers in 2021 were millennials.

3. Consumer to Business (C2B): Many freelancers, designers, artists and photographers licence their art pieces to businesses for publishing. This online transaction of services from an individual to a business comes under C2B. Thus, under this model, businesses allow individuals to sell goods and services to companies. This business model is gaining popularity among the freelancers and work-from-home individuals who are offering their services to companies. Pexels is one such website which provides royalty free images and videos from creators.

4. Consumer to Consumer (C2C): Have you sold any of your things online to another customer? If yes, then you come under this category of eCommerce business. In this model, a consumer sells goods and services directly to another consumer. Imagine, you list an old camera on any eCommerce platform and another customer sees the product and buys it. This sort of transaction will fall under the C2C category. In this case, the eCommerce business will only charge a samll commission for using their website. OLX, Quikr are such websites which help in buying, selling, and exchanging products and services.

Thus, whatever goods or services that you buy over the internet, you become a part of the eCommerce environment. With the advent of the internet, E-commerce platforms are seeing a boom in both the customers and sellers. A recent survey suggests India’s e-commerce market will reach US$ 111 billion by 2024 (over 1000 crores) and US$ 200 billion (over 2000 crores) by 2026. The stats prove that there is a lot of space for both sellers and buyers to get benefits out of this. While sellers will get a larger customer base to sell their products, buyers will get more varieties of products to choose from.

- 24*7 Availability: Unlike physical stores which has a time limitation, the customers can purchase your products 24*7.

- Cost-effective: E-commerce platforms are cost-effective. You don’t have to pay for the cost of electricity, rent, and other miscellaneous expenses.

- Low cost to start: Starting your business online costs you a very nominal charge.

- Identify customer’s purchasing pattern: Data is easily available online, thus you can easily analyse your customers’ purchasing patterns and make changes accordingly.

- Reach globally: You can reach millions of customers globally through an eCommerce platform.

- Better digital promotion: Promotion and marketing of your products become easy online.

- Amazon has over crores of customers that expand globally including America, Europe, and the Middle East. You can always get the benefit of its large customer base.

- You can also get the benefits of Amazon’s seller support that will help you with everything you need to launch, manage and grow your business on the e-commerce platform.

- Amazon also provides warehouse for its sellers to store their products. All you need is to send your products to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre and we will take care of the rest. However, you can also send your products to the customers by taking a nominal shipping charge.

- We are completely ignoring making profits & timely payment cycles which is a big pull factor for potential sellers

Excited to take your business online? We are too! If you are planning to sell your products online then you can start your business by opting for Amazon seller to get the benefits of reaching crores of customers worldwide along with shipping assistance, secure payment, finding new customers with targeted ads, and dedicated seller support. Make sure you register on Amazon sellers to sell your products and make the best out of it.