What is e-commerce? Definition and types (2024)

E-commerce means selling products online. These can be physical or digital goods. They can also be services if you work remotely. Many companies and independent professionals sell their products exclusively online. This article will teach you the benefits of doing so.

What is an e-commerce website?

It’s an online shop. It’s a website where you can sell your products. But you can build other pages, like one telling your business’ mission and history. You could also create a blog where you write valuable content for your clients. You can use a blog to make more money.

To create an online shop, you can use our website builder. You can start by choosing from many plans, including “Business + e-commerce.” It’s perfect if you want to create your online shop from scratch. It includes the following features:

• Desktop and mobile page editor
• Unlimited published pages
• Premium templates
• Faster load times
• Free images
• HD image support
• Backup and Restore
• Google Analytics & FB Pixel
• Online shop

What are the types of e-commerce?

e-commerce reached 199 billion dollars in revenue in the UK in 2022. But this figure didn’t come only from people selling online goods to others. There are many e-commerce types, and you can choose the one that suits you the most. Read some examples below.

B2C e-commerce

It’s when a company sells products or services to individual consumers. It’s the most popular e-commerce type.

B2B e-commerce

A business sells services or products to other businesses.

C2C e-commerce

It’s a system where customers can sell to other customers. Its most typical form is a marketplace like eBay, where users can buy and sell goods from each other.

C2B e-commerce

A company can open an account in a marketplace and use it to buy products or services directly from people. You often see this approach in freelance work platforms, where freelancers offer services to businesses.

B2G e-commerce

It happens when a business sells services or products to governments. For example, a city hall may need to buy Christmas ornaments to decorate the streets during holidays. It needs to buy them from a supplier. If they do so online, this transaction would be B2G e-commerce.

What are the benefits of e-commerce?

Opening an online store offers many benefits, such as the comfort of working from home. But it has many more upsides. Read about them below:

Global reach

You can sell to anyone, anywhere. This reality significantly increases your online store’s target audience. You can even create different versions for different markets. In addition to changing the language, you could also change the Top Level Domain (TLD).

A TLD is the last part of your online shop’s URL. For example, in one.com, the TLD is .com. You can register several domains for your online shop with a different TLD to ensure your audience knows it’s targeting their specific market.

Rapid expansion

The e-commerce market is growing with no signs of slowing down. Opening an online shop allows you to ride that wave of growth. But beware that many people are trying to do the same, so it’s crucial to ensure you’re ahead of the curve. The following articles will help you:

• How to improve your website’s user experience
• How to decrease your shopping cart abandonment rate
• How to optimize your checkout process

Lowers operational costs

Instead of renting a physical store, hiring staff, and stockpiling products, you can open an online store. The result is lower costs and a higher profit margin.

Facilitates things for your costumers

An online shop allows people to buy a product with a button click. The result? More sales! But what is a good sales number? You can determine it based on a metric called “conversion rate,” which is the percentage of people who enter your page and buy something.

What is a good conversion rate for e-commerce?

The average conversion rate for e-commerce is 3.65%. But this figure can vary based on your industry. So, it’s best to check your sector’s average conversion rate to understand the numbers you should try to reach.

Why build your e-commerce business with one.com?

You can create your perfect online shop with our website builder. You don’t need to know coding or design. An intuitive drag-and-drop interface ensures that anyone can turn their online dream into a reality. We also offer the following benefits:

Responsive design

76% of people buy products online on their phones. So, you must ensure your website looks good on these devices. one.com’s responsive design automatically adapts your webpage to any device people may use to access your online shop.

Marketing tools

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. one.com helps you with both. Our website builder features various tools to fine-tune your website, ensuring it attracts clicks and converts them into sales.

No transaction fee

What you sell is 100% yours. We don’t take any cut from your sales, ensuring that you’ll have even higher profit margins.

Security

When you open your online shop, you’ll receive a lot of sensitive data from your clients, like their credit card and bank information. You must ensure these won’t leak, so protecting yourself from hackers is critical. one.com has got you covered.

Our website builder automatically installs an SSL certificate in your online shop. It also features an HTTPS protocol. These are two leading cybersecurity features that prevent third parties from accessing your website unauthorized. These are only two of many others.

Payment methods

You can enable all the most popular options, including credit cards and PayPal. This feature ensures that customers can easily buy your products, increasing sales.

Support

Our customer support team is available to you 24/7. They’re always ready to answer your questions.