Why is eCommerce Important Now For Small Business More Than Ever

What is eCommerce?

eCommerce or electronic commerce is a business model where sellers offer goods or services using a website or a mobile app over the Internet and the buyer buys from those platforms with online payment. Physical products that are bought via an e-commerce website are usually delivered physically through a courier while services are executed through online bookings and actual on-site visit of the service provider. There’s also a business model where the seller offers digital products such as ebooks, online courses, etc, and these types of transactions happen purely via the Internet.

What are the benefits of eCommerce?

eCommerce is so important now for small businesses more than ever because of the unfortunate pandemic we are all experiencing as of this writing. A lot of small businesses were not prepared and don’t have any means to capture orders or transactions thus they were crippled now. Restaurants, for example, stopped operating especially those who were not registered to delivery service companies such as Grab Food or Food Panda.

So with this realization, enabling our businesses to eCommerce is a no-brainer and the way to go. It will take months or some predictions say years before things will go back to normal after this pandemic and so, if you are passionate about your business, then it is logical to go online.

Other than survival, here are the main benefits of eCommerce:

Wider reach. If you are a retail or restaurant in a certain city, then you can be able to expand your reach even outside your vicinity. This indirectly equates to a brand awareness boost.

Seamless transaction. Less hassle, less human interaction, and an increase in buyer convenience.

A decrease in operational overhead. You don’t have to focus your effort on your brick-and-mortar store which is heavy in maintenance costs.

Increase in revenue. Wider reach + extended operating hours means more revenue.

Here’s the checklist in enabling your small business to eCommerce:

1. Identify your eCommerce model.There are several business models in eCommerce.If you are in retail or a restaurant, then this falls under the business-to-consumer (B2C) category.
If you are a supplier or a service provider for a business, then you are considered under the business-to-business (B2B) category. One example is online software for small businesses similar to Hilsoft’s products.
If you are a solo entrepreneur and selling products/service to an individual then this is a C2C or consumer-to-consumer category. A platform such as Lazada, Amazon, Fiverr, or Upwork will be the way to go.
Another model is if you are an online influencer, then you can sell ads to businesses and this will fall under the consumer-to-business model.

2. Choose your platform. Now that you have identified your eCommerce business model., the next step is to choose your platform. You can either build the website yourselves if you have a technical background or hire someone to do it for you.For retail or distribution, there are a lot of options such as Shopify, Woocommerce, or Magento.
For food, then register yourselves to delivery services such as Grab Food or Food Panda or again hire a developer if you have a unique requirement.
For digital products, then you may consider a simple WordPress website with online payment, ClickFunnels, or a subscription platform.
For services with booking requirement, then the platforms such as Shopify or Woocommerce has plugins for online bookings such as Sesami or BookThatApp or you may need to again hire a developer if you have a unique or proprietary requirement.
For C2C, as mentioned above, you may register your accounts easily with those platforms.

3. Choose your payment method. This requires a little work because it varies per country. The entity who handles the payment of your eCommerce is called the payment gateway. They are a separate entity and their business model is they get a share from each transaction called a transaction or processing fee. The percentage share varies depending on the features offered by the payment gateway. The easiest way is to activate a payment method is thru PayPal account as a merchant. Most eCommerce platforms have ready integration with PayPal. But if you want a more competitive transaction fee, then you may consider other payment gateways such as Stripe, 2Checkout, Google Checkout, or ApplePay. In the Philippines, we have Paynamics, PesoPay, 2C2P, or Dragonpay. eCash or eWallets are also a trending option now such as GCash or Paymaya or what Hilsoft currently carries, MegaPay PH. They have unique offerings for merchants that make it more seamless and quick to implement.

4. Define Your Order Fulfillment Process. This is one of the most important aspects, the product or service delivery. There are several models of order fulfillment. The traditional way is to buy your stock inventory and fulfill the order through an in-house delivery process or outsourced. Another model is called dropshipping where you don’t need to keep products but executes the order through a third-party supplier who then ships the order to the customer. A service company with a booking app such as Airbnb, Uber, or Grab should have a way to manage the services through a seamless communication utility within the app and a rating system.

5. Manage Your Back-Office. Another important factor in making sure your eCommerce business has a strong ground, is to manage your back-office well. Having a good business process model from procurement, inventory management, HR, admin, and accounting will serve as the backbone of your operations. We will post another topic about business process automation soon. Lastly, don’t forget about your government compliance such as your business permits, tax filing, and labor. I believe the BIR has a separate policy about electronic invoicing for your eCommerce.

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