E-commerce has been around for decades, but it’s reached a critical moment in the last months. Businesses have been forced to rapidly pivot and make sales online as a means of survival. While many companies have had an e-commerce model of some sort for years, others were reliant on in-person sales. No matter whether your previous business model was online or brick and mortar, e-commerce is taking center-stage for the foreseeable future. And it’s critical that your business has the right e-commerce strategy and execution to keep you at the top of your professional game. Could a customized e-commerce strategy be the right one for your business? Let’s dive in.
B to C vs B to B
Most businesses fall into a business to consumer or business to business category.
A small business to consumer operation is one that tends to be more “mom and pop shop” style with a lower number of sales, accounts and services.
Business to business or enterprise-scale business transactions generally deal with a far higher number of accounts (into the hundreds of thousands), and many more products and services than a small business. The inner workings of a large scale e-commerce business is its own ecosystem, built to scale with thousands of products, some of which may even be competing with one another, while others may complement one another.
So why does it matter if you’re a small business or an enterprise business? If you’re an enterprising business a customized e-commerce site could really help take your online sales to the next level as well as ensure that your business stands out from the competition in its user experience.
What Makes an E-Commerce Site Shine?
An e-commerce site is an online space that showcases and facilitates the sale of products and services. At their essence, e-commerce sites can be broken down into 4 components: digital marketing, content, user experience and engineering.
The digital marketing component of an e-commerce site includes promoting products on the site. The descriptions, photos, and pricing of the products all contribute to the site’s content. User experience is the overall experience a customer will have while shopping, from the initial entry into the site to the moment the package or product arrives in their hands. Behind the user experience is the engineering of a site. The engineering makes a site function well. It includes software, servers, code, infrastructure, data security and much more. It’s a bit like the foundation of the operation, if the engineering isn’t good, the whole thing could fall apart.
Building a Custom Site
Every good e-commerce site will have the above pieces in place. While there are lots of choices when it comes to selecting how you will manage your e-commerce, a custom e-commerce site can make the shopping experience go from mediocre to outstanding with personalized touches throughout.
Avantica has teams of engineers who can help create the best solution and software for your e-commerce goals. Avantica can develop custom software that is as unique as your business is. Together with partners such as Pixel506, we can build a completely custom site that incorporates Avantica’s tailor-made software and offers digital marketing solutions, content and outstanding user experience— translating into more sales.
Which Option Is Right for Your Business?
Regardless of your business size and ambitions, you’ll want to make an educated decision when it comes to selling your products or services online. At Avantica we can help determine the best solutions based on your e-commerce needs and future vision. There’s no one-size-fits-all model for e-commerce. We’re here to help.
