Features of E-commerce.

 Seven Unique Features of E-commerce

Ubiquity- A traditional business market is a physical place, with access to treatment through document circulation. For example, clothes and shoes are usually directed to encourage customers to go somewhere to buy. E-commerce is ubiquitous meaning that it can be everywhere. E-commerce is the world's reduced cognitive energy required to complete a task.

Global Reach- E-commerce allows business transactions on cross-country bound and can be more convenient and more effective as compared with traditional commerce. In e-commerce businesses, the potential market scale is roughly equivalent to the network size of the world’s population.

Universal Standards- E-commerce technologies are an unusual feature, is the technical standard of the Internet, so to carry out the technical standard of e-commerce is shared by all countries around the world standard. Standard can greatly affect the market entry cost and considering the cost of the goods on the market. The standard can make technology business existing become more easily, which can reduce the cost, the technique of indirect costs, in addition, can set the electronic commerce website 10$ / month.

Richness- Advertising and branding are important parts of commerce. E-commerce can deliver video, audio, animation, billboards, signs and etc. However, it’s about as rich as television technology.

Interactivity- Twentieth Century electronic commerce business technology is called interactive, so they allow for two-way communication between businesses and consumers.

Information Density- The density of information on the Internet has greatly improved, as long as the total amount and all markets, consumers, and businesses have quality information. Electronic commerce technology, reduces information collection, storage, communication, and processing cost. At the same time, the accuracy and timeliness of information technology have increased greatly, and information is more useful and more important than ever.

Personalization- E-commerce technology allows for personalization. Business can be adjusted for a name, a person’s interests and past purchase message objects, and a marketing message to a specific individual. The technology also allows for custom. Merchants can change the product or service based on user preferences or previous behavior.

                                     

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Features of E-Commerce 

1. Ubiquitous in nature

• The customer limit of a real business is limited to the city where it is located, whereas the reach of an eCommerce business is global. Ecommerce encourages customers to buy things from any corner of the world.

• Because of the ubiquitous nature of the eCommerce business, the working hours and geographical boundaries of catering have increase. People can connect to an eCommerce business in the availability of the internet.

2. Large customer reach

• Ecommerce businesses have reached customers living all around the world. Internet reaches national boundaries. Ecommerce provides an opportunity for businessmen to cater to customers seamlessly without being limited by cultural and national boundaries.

• The e-commerce marketplace has the potential to reach millions of worldwide customers.

3. Universal Standard

• One of the most essential features of an eCommerce business is the universal acceptability of the website. An eCommerce website must work upon universally accepted systems and methods. Maintaining global standards helps the users of an eCommerce website to use the website efficiently.

4. Interactive platform

• Another important feature of an eCommerce business is its interactivity. Interactivity means two-way communication between the users of the eCommerce website and businesses. Customers feel easy to purchase from websites where they can interact before, after, and even during the purchase.

• For example, when a student wants to buy an online course, he would need the assistance of the experts on the website to help him to choose a suitable level of course for him.

• In addition to this, businesses can know about the problem faced by the users of their eCommerce platform and can fix them to reduce losses.

5. Rich in content and information

• The richness of content and information means the content and information can be provided in the form of audio, video, and images on the website.

• For example, a customer will be impressed more if there is a video available on the website containing information about the features of the products and information about how to use it or a hyperlink to the blog post explaining the uses of the product.

• Educated and conscious customers always seek such information before making a purchase decision. In addition to this, such content makes the eCommerce website attractive to consumers.

6. Information density

• With the help of technology, the cost of collecting information has been reduced drastically.

• It has become very easy to process the information about a customer and to pass it to the destined department to use it in the future. This not only has become easy but also has become quite inexpensive to do so.

• Besides this, the accuracy and timeliness of the information have also improved. Using information density, a merchant can sell the same product to a different group of people at different prices.

7. Personalization

• The one feature of eCommerce businesses that sets them apart from physical businesses is their ability to provide personalized services to each customer. With the help of technology and browsing and past purchases history of a customer, businesses can recommend personalized products and offer them to an individual.

• The same platform will contain different offers and recommendations for different people. The services and products can be changed according to the customer’s preference.

8. Easy to use the checkout

• Internet connectivity has made the eCommerce platform easy for people to access anytime and anywhere in the world. 80% of the time people browse through your website either when they have nothing to do or just to look for something.

• To convert this type of user into a buyer, you need to have easy to use eCommerce platform and an even more easy-to-use check-out portal.

• If it requires too much hassle to go through the final checkout, then they might lose interest in buying the product, and you will lose business. Therefore, one of the important features of an eCommerce business is multiple payment options such as payment through credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, cash on delivery, etc.

9. Reporting tool

• The reporting tool is not an essential feature of an eCommerce business, but you can certainly use it to enhance the user experience on the eCommerce platform.

• The reporting tool will help you to know about the problems faced by your users immediately, and you can fix them earliest before it causes any more problems to the other users of your eCommerce platform.

• Reporting tool also increases the reliability of your users when they know that they will get help in case something goes wrong with their transaction.

10. Promotional and discount code tool

• Another less common feature of an eCommerce platform is the promotional and discount code tool. Take the example of Zomato, Swiggy, and UberEATS. They always provide a discount and promotional code on the food ordered by the people.

• People tend to buy more if they are given discounts on their purchases.

11. Integrated Blog and articles section

• Nowadays, people have become aware, and they make intelligent purchases only. Integrating blogs and articles section in the eCommerce platform is another method to attract such customers. The image of your business will improve when they can learn great things from you.

• The blogs and articles can be relevant to the products that you sell, or they can provide knowledge about any other topic which is not directly related to the products that are being sold on the eCommerce platform. It is an excellent way to increase traffic on your eCommerce website.

                                  

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Features of E-Commerce 

a) Provide Ubiquity to Increase Sales

• Ubiquity means that the commercial transaction or activity is available at any time from anywhere in the world. Today consumers rely heavily on their cell phones and tablets to access the internet. So make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Having a responsive website that intuitively adapts to whatever device is accessing it provides a user-friendly experience.

b) Ensure Global Reach and Security

E-commerce allows your company to reach consumers anywhere in the world. Global reach, or worldwide access, is the highest number of potential consumers a business can reach. Of course, when working globally, security is key. You must protect your customers’ information and ensure their privacy with a secure e-commerce platform. Security features should include a Secure Sockets Layer certificate that establishes secure connectivity, two-factor authentication, a firewall, and a privacy policy.

c)  Have Universal Standards

Universal standards mean that your website operates on standard platforms with agreed-upon methods and systems. This includes ease of use of your e-commerce site and ensuring that you’re keeping it simple in design and content. One study showed that 76 percent of consumers say the most important characteristic of a website is its ease of use. The objective is to help shoppers get to what they want fast and without running into unnecessary obstacles that can hinder their path to purchase.

d) Don’t Skimp on Richness

Richness refers to the amount of content on your website and how it’s used by consumers. To ensure richness on your site, provide a variety of messages and means to enhance the shopper’s experience. Videos, text, pictures, sound, and links can all enhance the customer experience. Make sure you have high-resolution photos and videos. Feature multiple images to help customers get a better feel for your products. Images make the sale, not text. Also, make sure that all images load quickly to the page.

e) Think About Interactivity

Interactivity is the relationship a consumer has with your site. It corresponds to face-to-face customer meetings in traditional business transactions. Increasing the amount of interactivity you have with a consumer lies, in part, in your ability to connect with them on an emotional level. This creates brand trust and loyalty. Make sure your social marketing efforts are linked to your e-commerce site. Engage with your customers. It shows authenticity and they won’t feel like they are just being sold to all the time.

f). Strike an Information Density Balance

Information density is the amount of digestible material in a unit of a computer screen, like a square inch. There is no right or wrong amount of information density to have on your website. How much you have will depend on several factors like the product you’re selling and your target market for it. While you want your website to grab shoppers’ attention, too much text, pictures and videos can overwhelm them. One way to strike the right balance is to navigate your website as if you are a customer. You might also ask a friend to do this and give you feedback.

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Features of E-Commerce 

a)  Non-Cash Payment: E-Commerce enables the use of credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, electronic fund transfers via bank's website, and other modes of electronic payment. 

b) 24x7 Service availability: E-commerce automates the business of enterprises and services provided by them to customers is available anytime, anywhere. Here 24x7 refers to 24 hours of each seven days of a week. 

c) Advertising / Marketing: E-commerce increases the reach of advertising products and services of businesses. It helps in better marketing management of products/services

d) Improved Sales: Using E-Commerce, orders for the products can be generated anytime, anywhere without any human intervention. In this way, dependencies to buy a product reduce at large and sales increase.

e) Support: E-Commerce provides various ways to provide pre-sales and post-sales assistance to provide better services to customers. 

e) Inventory Management: Using E-Commerce, inventory management of products becomes automated. Reports get generated instantly when required. Product inventory management becomes very efficient and easy to maintain. 

Communication improvement: E-Commerce provides ways for faster, more efficient, and reliable communication with customers and partners.