We live in an interconnected world where dependencies matter; however, we often ignore the dependent nature of our environment that prevents us from reaching the full potential of our endeavors or, even worse, brings failure. The ecommerce world is no different; therefore, its success is not limited to the efforts of online stores but to a whole ecosystem that makes ecommerce trade possible; the elements of the ecommerce ecosystem can be described as its complementors (any service or product that ensure the functioning of ecommerce businesses). As an ecommerce business, it’s crucial you understand the critical players and their roles in the ecommerce ecosystem.
Logistics & shipping
Unlike the traditional shopping experience, products need to travel miles before they reach customers, that too in a reasonable timeframe; this puts much importance on the transportation of these products. Without a reliable logistic infrastructure, the link between the products and the customer will become frail, paving a path for ecommerce failure.
Many shipping services are available for customers and online businesses with different shipping times and rates; some even provide special discounts to ecommerce sites. Collaborating with shipping services, many online stores have integrated order trackers on their stores to help customers inquire about delivery status directly on the webstore. Furthermore, many shipping & logistic services offer services, especially catering to ecommerce needs by storing, packaging, shipping the product, and handling returns on behalf of the webstore; this facilitates online businesses by alleviating the burden of warehousing and ensuring faster delivery times.
Payment processing facilitators
Payment processing is the most crucial part of any business because, at this stage, the ownership of goods is considered transferred from seller to buyer. However, since there is no physical interaction between the seller and buyer online, alternate payment methods are required for a successful transaction. There are many online payment processing facilitators that enable customers to safely transfer money to businesses’ accounts using cards, mobile wallet apps, gift cards, and credits. Moreover, to facilitate both the business and customers innovative payment options have been introduced by various services such as Cash On Delivery by shipping patterns and Buy Now Pay Later by payment processing companies.
Ecommerce platforms
Building, managing, and hosting an online store is a consuming task; many comprehensive ecommerce tools enable business owners to establish and run their webstore using their framework in a customized manner. Such platforms not only lower the technical skill stack required to set up an ecommerce store from scratch but also provides integration with other useful ecommerce tools and add-ons. Furthermore, these platforms lower set-up time and maintenance hassles since most of the common features are in-built in the framework, and many such platforms also provide hosting and domain services. Thus the availability of such infrastructure in the form of these platforms has laid a foundation for ecommerce business owners to set up webstores and start their businesses with ease.
Conclusion
The world of ecommerce is vast, involving these and many other players working together to achieve the true value proposition of ecommerce – dependencies matter significantly here; no matter how much effort you put into your ecommerce business, if it weren’t for these complementors, that are outside the realm of your control, and support your ecommerce operations, you cannot succeed. Therefore, one must carefully choose services that complement their ecommerce business.
The x2x team can set up an ecommerce store for you and integrate it with your existing business solutions. Reach out to the x2x team for any query or a free demo.
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