E-commerce, the world of online shopping

E-commerce (Internet business or online business) refers to the use of an electronic means to carry out commercial transactions. That is, it consists of the purchase and sale of products or services through the Internet or other computer networks.

The e-commerce is not limited to online sales, but also covers the following points:

• The preparation of budgets online.
• The consultations of the users.
• The supply of electronic catalogs.

Customers who buy on the Internet are called cyber consumers; the online shopping index of each year is increasing from 10.81 billion in 2015 to 12.81 billion in 2016, positioning Spain in the fourth position in online sales.

The growth of e-commerce

According to the report of the company Digital Strategy Consulting, the responsibility for this growth falls, to a great extent, on the merchants themselves, since the investment of the retailers in improving the online shopping experience and in making a more sophisticated segmentation of their customers is generating clear benefits.

Consumers buy through the network more and more frequently and for higher amounts, so that they greatly affect the increase in profits and the market share of retailers with virtual presence.

Every time we buy less in traditional establishments producing a strong rise in online sales.

The expected growth in Spain was in 2016 above the European average, a figure that remains on the rise in the coming years.

Also Read How to buy cheaper on Amazon

Advantages of electronic commerce

In relation to the figures said in the previous lines, Alexander S. Fonseca in his book Foundation of e-commerce shows us the main advantages of doing electronic commerce among which we find:

• It is a continuous activity.
• Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• There are no barriers of any kind so the flow of information is continuous.
• Access to multiple products that are not in our region or country of residence.

Let’s take an example, I’m a resident user in Barcelona and the only type of cheese I would like to eat is La Serena cheese, if La Serena does not have stores that do electronic commerce I only have two options left or I travel to Extremadura or not as that cheese

Another benefit of e-commerce lies in obtaining a greater number of customers (both online and offline) thanks to the increased visibility that the Internet allows, in turn the seller can show the product without subjecting the consumer to the pressure that it can be generated with a physical sale.

We can also find cheaper products, because the existence of a global competition, direct sales to the consumer, the reduction of margins, among others, are factors that affect the price of products on the Internet, allowing it to decrease with respect to its value in traditional commerce

The electronic commerce allows offering a personalized product offer and avoiding the consumer to make queues and displacements out of their home; all this brings comfort and agility in the purchases.

How to be present on the Internet

But how many people can economically afford to make and position a web page?

The existence of OpenSource software, that is, does not have any product cost because the license is free, allows us to enter more easily into the world of online sales.

However, not only with a site on the web we solve the problem, we have to make our space attractive and for that we must dedicate time to the project or supervise those other experts (in disciplines such as design, layout, programming, usability, and marketing) from our page a good space for the sale of our products.

From there, we will pay more to leave the store ready to sell or we have to do it at the expense of dedicating many hours and some taste. This will end up taking us to the well-known case of Juan Palomo, I’ll stew it and I’ll eat it.

But once we have the page ready it is not enough to upload the products to the network, they will not sell themselves.

It will be necessary to create an online store capable of attracting traffic, create current campaigns to promote products or capable of supporting loyalty and agile returns tools.

Positioning of the web in search engines

Attracting traffic and increasing the number of clients is the most important part and for which we do the whole project, and for this we must obtain the best positioning in search engines.

This is achieved using tricks such as social networks that also allow us to maintain two-way communication with our customers. We must describe the product that is intended to be sold, as this, in addition to convincing the client, helps position it in the search engines. In this way we contribute to the SEO On Page of the page and highlight the benefits of the product.

It is essential to include the keywords that we are interested in positioning, both in the descriptions of products and categories, and in the titles and goals.

Getting quality links following a Link-Building strategy, from other websites, is very important; the links are still one of the most important SEO factors in the Google algorithm.

These among many other tips can make our online store one of the best positioned on the Internet.

In conclusion, the increase in benefits through the network is increasing. The availability and convenience of buying products with a single click is on the rise and we should be able to get on the train of innovation and technology to keep walking, as the consumer will increasingly be more demanding.

Currently we have multiple platforms that make us cheaper to establish on the Internet, we just have to get rid of our fears and renew before letting us die.