The Know-how Of The Workings Of An E-Commerce Website

Buying and selling has changed a lot over the years, thanks to technological advancement. Previously, trading was simply a barter system among individuals, but with the introduction of metal coins, this system was upgraded, and new rules set in place. As civilization and economy grew, the trading system grew with it, and today money has become the universally accepted mode of payment for all kinds of trading.

As we transcend into a cashless economy, e-commerce makes most of this and has grown tremendously in the last few years. The realization that one does not need physical money to make purchases but can buy and sell things over the Internet by using digital payment modes, has made the life of consumers very easy and convenient.

If you’re wondering how these e-commerce websites work, and how to choose an e-commerce builder, you’re at the right place! Let us look into how buying and selling is done online. Essentially, the e-commerce business functions on the same principles as an offline store; there are three main components to online trading, and they are:

Receiving orders

The first step happens when the consumer purchases a product that is available on the website. The seller is informed of this purchase.

Processing the order information

The seller now sources the product, processes the information that is given by the consumer, and readies the product for delivery.

Shipping the order

This last step is when the seller sends out the product to the delivery address for a prompt delivery.

In between these three main components, some smaller common steps make sure all the process runs smoothly:

• The customer browses through the website, which they find either by direct search or paid advertisements, or referrals.
• To browse through smoothly, the e-commerce website connects to its database which contains all the data that is needed for the website – categories, products, product details like dimensions, weight. There is other data like content, articles, images and so on.
• The customer goes through all the products on the website to select what they want and adds it to their cart.
• Once they have added the required items to their cart, the customer then moves on to the check-out step where they finalize the transaction.
• The customer puts in their card information, which is sent in an encrypted format to a payment gateway which is responsible for handling the process securely and remotely.
• The merchant system might make some extra checks with the customer’s bank computer to make sure there are enough funds, even though the funds won’t be transferred until several days later.
• The merchant authorizes the transaction and informs the customer that the order has been processed and the transaction is complete.
• Once this is complete, the website then provides an estimated shipping time, a unique transaction number, a tracking number for your order, and often, an email confirmation.

These order details are stored under the customer’s profile on the website and the order is sent to the order fulfillment team. This can either be their in-house team, or they could also hire a third-party service to make sure the order reaches the customer on time.

E-commerce websites have become the bridge between brands and customers, building the gap by providing a convenient platform for a transaction. Not only that, they have increased the market reach by reaching a global consumer base, and because of this, many brands work on competitive pricing to attract customers from all over the globe to their product. Another pro of e-commerce websites is that they work on secure and encrypted transactions which makes it a reliable platform for both brands, as well as the consumer. Thanks to technology, it is also possible to shorten the shopping time by filtering out the products needed specifically by the customer. This also helps in targeted advertising for potential new customers from the same demographic, and helps get more traffic to the website, possibly increasing sales. Know how to build an e-commerce website.

While e-commerce works pretty much like an offline retail store, there are some limitations that one cannot overlook. As it is completely online-based, it already filters out the consumers who are not tech-savvy and do not understand how the Internet functions. Some still prefer to touch and feel their product before making a purchase, and the online world deprives them of this. The idea of window shopping is somewhat not as satisfying as there is no personal shopping experience. While all e-commerce websites work on a secure network, there is still a slight possibility of potential fraud, or data privacy issue. Having said that, considering that everything today is being transferred to the online world, this issue is constantly looked at, and worked at to avoid any mishaps. The future is online, and with time we will only embrace this change that makes trading easy, fast, and efficient.