EC - Doing Business Online [LESSON]
Doing Business Online
There are many types of online businesses. Doing business online is called e-business, which stands for electronic business. This includes all business activities a business may engage in online and is usually referring to a business whose main presence is online. A subset of e-business is e-commerce. E-commerce is trading goods and services online. In this module, we're learning about e-commerce, which is basically an online store. There are many variations of this from Amazon to Walmart to Etsy to eBay. Some of these are online retail stores; the business owns the products that are sold to the customer. However, some of these are marketspaces, where third parties can sell on the site to the customer. For instance, eBay is a marketspace, it doesn't really sell anything itself, it provides a space for others to come and sell products. Amazon is a hybrid, many of the products sold on Amazon are bought, warehoused, sold, and sometimes delivered by Amazon, like a traditional retailer. However, Amazon also allows third parties to sell through their site to their customers.
E-Commerce's Impact on Web Design
The Occupational Outlook Handbook projects that job opportunities for web designers will increase through 2030. The demand for this line of work is largely due to the rise of e-commerce (also referred to as electronic business and e-business). As businesses market their services and items to consumers in the future, mobile devices will be used to obtain information. The Pew Research Center published an article on April 7, 2021, indicating that 85% of Americans own a smartphone. Because of this fact, many consumers will use their smartphones to access business websites and make purchases. It is vital that web designers understand how to construct websites that are responsive.
E-Commerce Website Elements
Regardless of the business model utilized, e-commerce websites should include basic elements to support transactions on the website. The image below details the basic elements found on e-commerce websites.
As you meet with clients to discuss web construction for e-commerce, you will discover that some have the funds, resources, and technical staff to create an online product catalog, open a merchant account, connect to a payment processor, and meet the requirements for order fulfillment and customer support. There will be times however, when you consult with a business owner that does not have the funds and resources needed to undertake the basic elements needed on an e-commerce website. Referring the client to a web hosting agency that can meet these needs will benefit the owner since many customers will have questions about the security of their personal information.
Building an Online Presence
It is important for businesses to build a strong online presence. This is the perception your potential customers have about your business based on their interaction with your website and your online marketing. From the beginning, you must think about what your website design choices communicate to your customer. When you build the site, you need to think about the domain name, what it tells your customer, and how easy it will be for the customer to find your business. The domain name is the web address of your company. It needs to be easy for your potential customers to remember and find. The name also needs to reflect your business name and brand. Let's say you have a business named "Sam's Tutoring", you need a domain name that reflects your business and isn't confusing. You couldn't have "Sams.com" because this is already a business web address. You wouldn't want to go through your internet service provider and have something like: spectrum.com/samstutoring, because that isn't very professional and would make potential customers wonder if you are a real business. You will buy a domain name like "samstutoring.com". The ".com" tells viewers that this is a business. Finally, you will need to consider how people will find you online. This is through a strategy called "Search Engine Optimization" or SEO. SEO is extremely important to businesses because there are so many businesses online that your website will never be found without using SEO. With search engine optimization, you use a variety of methods to direct online traffic to your website. It is how websites get to the front page when you search something. Leading search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, use spiders or crawlers to find pages when someone searches something. You influence the spiders with information you put into your site, such as the title inside the title tag in the head, description wording that the spiders use to determine if your site fits the search terms, and other metadata you can code into your page to make it come up on searches.
Business Models
There are several types of e-commerce business models. See the infographic and table below for the main ones:
Government Business Models
|
Business Model |
Explanation |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|---|
|
B2G |
Business to Government |
Businesses sell products to government agencies that have procurement needs. |
Bidmain.com |
|
G2B |
Government to Business |
Government agencies transact with businesses to provide services like electronic incorporation forms, online meetings, eLearning, and procurement marketplaces. |
Georgia Secretary of State |
|
G2C |
Government to Consumer |
Government agencies that transact with consumers to provide services or sell vehicles and machinery. |
Georgia Department of Public Health |
Try the E-Commerce Business Model learning activity below. Match the example to the correct type of business, then click the check mark to check your answers.
Social Media in E-Commerce
In recent years social media has become vital to the success of online businesses. Not only is social media used to advertise, but it is now also used to engage customers, and to sell products.
CC0-Public Domain https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulapiccard/42157757660 Links to an external site. Author: Paula Piccard
Since the 2020 Covid pandemic, the use of social media and e-commerce has exploded. The percentages in this graphic will most likely only increase with time. Most businesses now have people that work as social media content creators, or they hire a firm to do this for them. It is highly important to be a presence on social media, to respond to people about your business, and to post content regularly.
Accessibility – Mobile Standards
Most people now access the internet on mobile devices, so you must follow the mobile accessibility standards when building your e-commerce websites. As has been discussed throughout this course, it is extremely important to make sure you are following all accessibility guidelines when creating a business website. Your business could easily get sued if you aren't following ADA guidelines, including having alternative text for all images, having scripts for audio and video, making sure you are creating content that is easy to be viewed by people with all types of disabilities. Follow the WCAG guidelines discussed earlier in the course.
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