Commerce is not a new word or concept. Right from yesteryears, the concept has been made use of in business activities. Commerce refers to the buying and selling activities done to earn a profit. As the activities belong to trading, any business types whether small, medium or large will have to do these activities to earn a better income. Sales are a one-time activity. The movement the payment is received from the sale; the transaction gets closed. But a business cannot run with one single transaction. To remain on the market, it has to deal with various marketing activities. The businessman has to ensure that people don’t forget him or his product after it is being used. Even there is no proper sale; awareness plays a major role. Once awareness is created, it remains in the minds of the people, and when they decide to purchase a certain product, they will definitely consider the product for which marketing has been done.
Since the time the internet has been innovated, there is a revolution even in the commercial activities of a business. The businessman now has an opportunity to expand his business worldwide. When activities of buying and selling are done electronically, it is called e-commerce. The introduction of E-commerce has simplified the process of trade. Things have started happening fast. The biggest advantage of using the internet is that both the businessman and the consumer are benefitted. The businessman gets a wide range of market, and the consumer gets a big choice of products.
Challenges faced by an e-commerce website
An e-commerce website helps many people in business in promoting their products. Some of the challenges faced are enlisted below:
- Good marketing team: Normally marketing is itself a challenging job. To retain the interest of the consumer, the businessman should hire a good team of marketers. The team has to do their job right from studying the market trends to making the consumer buy the products. Every promotional activity should be planned properly and implemented according to the market situations. To start a trend, you need a lot of guts, because the idea may or may not be liked by consumers. Whatever it is, when you promote and place your products on an e-commerce website, it should be done in a good manner. The presentation is very important. Of course, when you approach the e-commerce website, their staff will do the necessary as your publicity and sale of products will benefit even their website.
Remember every businessperson has a good marketing team. So, underestimating or overestimating any person is wrong and has to be avoided. Always have confidence in yourself and work hard until you succeed in placing your product. Sometimes you may have to bear some additional expenses which are incurred in marketing activities. Don’t worry and continue in your trials to establish yourself. In case you are overburdened with debt, always approach a suitable debt settler like who always works in the interest of its client.Just because sales and marketing is the backbone of any business, other departments should not be ignored. A business can run smoothly only with the coordination of all departments.
- Awareness: An e-commerce website will have a number of products related to yours. One point to be observed is that in an e-commerce website, all products that are displayed are given equal opportunity to earn good revenue. It depends on the consumer who is the final selector of products. So, to create an interest in him/her, the marketing team has chosen various other modes of promotions and creates the required awareness. The e-commerce also promotes itself regarding the availability of products, but as a product owner, it is your interest to improve your sales.
- Costing: Whenever you are promoting your product, always disclose the cost of the product. In an e-commerce website, all the products are grouped based on their usage irrespective of brands. So, the pricing will definitely differ, but ensure that there is not much difference in your product’s cost and other’s. If it is too less then, you will be incurring a loss, and if it is too high, then your competitor will get the benefit, so maintain the balance between the extremes.
- Online payment: The actual problem is experienced when the payment part comes. Normally any e-commerce website accepts orders only when the end-user states the payment option. If it is debit or credit card, the action will be taken by the e-commerce website team immediately, and the goods are dispatched soon. When the option of cash on delivery opts, even then the action is taken, but there is some delay. The reason behind this is when payment on debit or credit card is made; the payment gets transferred immediately, so the website team concentrates only on dispatch of the product. But when cash on delivery option is selected, they have to take extra care in sending the product. And after collecting the cash, the staff member has to get it deposited immediately in the website account. Whatever it is, online payments have its own benefits and hurdles.
Whenever the end-user is paying the amount online, he/she does it having confidence on the e-commerce website. They make payments thinking that e-commerce website won’t cheat them. Now it is the e-commerce website owners to maintain this trust. A business can run smoothly on the basis of trust. The end-user has the confidence that e-commerce website will dispatch the quality product and the e-commerce website will have confidence in the end-user that his payment is genuine and he is not trying to cheat them.
The points mentioned above are applicable in case of e-commerce website because there is cut-throat competition even from e-commerce websites. So, necessary actions have to be taken to retain in the market. One more challenge faced by an e-commerce website is that it has to have a good relationship with the businessman who is placing his products on the website for sale. With each sale, he can receive a commission.
John Bell has been writing articles on Social Media, skilled business consultant and Financial advisor for the last few years. In this post, he has written about the benefits of Social Media Marketing, Business, Finance as well as the features related to the same.