E-Commerce
E-commerce website that allows people to buy and sell physical goods, services, and digital products over the internet rather than at a brick-and-mortar location. The term “e-commerce” simply means the sale of goods or services on the internet.
It is conducted over computers, tablets, smartphones, and other smart devices. Almost anything can be purchased through ecommerce today. It can be a substitute for brick-and-mortar stores, though some businesses choose to maintain both.
Following are the most traditional types of e-commerce models:
- Business to Consumer (B2C): B2C e-commerce is the most popular e-commerce model. Business to consumer means that the sale is taking place between a business and a consumer, like when you buy a rug from an online retailer.
- Business to Business (B2B): B2B e-commerce refers to a business selling a good or service to another business, like a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. Business to business e-commerce isn’t consumer-facing, and usually involves products like raw materials, software, or products that are combined. Manufacturers also sell directly to retailers via B2B ecommerce.
- Direct to Consumer (D2C): Direct to consumer e-commerce is the newest model of ecommerce, and trends within this category are continually changing. D2C means that a brand is selling directly to their end customer without going through a retailer, distributor, or wholesaler. Subscriptions are a popular D2C item, and social selling via platforms like InstaGram, Pinterest, Facebook, SnapChat, etc. are popular platforms for direct to consumer sales.
- Consumer to Consumer (C2C): C2C e-commerce refers to the sale of a good or service to another consumer. Consumer to consumer sales take place on platforms like eBay, Etsy, Fiver, etc.
- Consumer to Business (C2B): Consumer to business is when an individual sells their services or products to a business organization. C2B encompasses influencers offering exposure, photographers, consultants, freelance writers, etc.
The Best ecommerce platforms
- Shopify for getting up and running quickly
- Square for selling in person and online
- Ecwid for starting with a free plan—then growing
- BigCommerce for large-volume sellers
- WooCommerce for adding a shopping cart to an existing WordPress site
- Wix for building a complete site
eCommerce platform fees: There are three kinds of fees you may have to pay for an eCommerce website builder:
- Monthly fee. This is anything from free to a few hundred dollars and goes straight to the platform. For most of the options on this list, expect to pay around $30 for a basic plan.
- Payment gateway fees. These are the fees you pay when you process a credit card charge. The normal fee is around 2.9% plus an additional $0.30, although this goes down with volume and higher upfront payments. Some platforms, like Wix and Shopify, operate their own payment gateways that you can choose to use, while others rely on Stripe, PayPal, and similar services.
- Transaction fees. These are another percentage-based fee that’s on top of any gateway fees. A lot of services bill themselves as having 0% transaction fees, but this merely means there’s no extra charge. Other services charge a 1% or 2% transaction fee if you don’t use their gateway.