Put in simple terms, websites are e-commerce shops for companies in the business of selling goods and services over an electronic medium (the Internet) and involving the electronic transfer of data and funds between the parties involved.
Actually, these sites are the online portals which facilitate these online transactions of goods and services and the transfer of information and funds over the Internet. In earlier days, e-commerce was done partially through emails and phone calls.
With a single website today, anything and everything that a transaction needs is now simply done online.
Sites
These days, through natural growth and demand, there are now many different e-commerce sites, and Brisbane web design in almost every field. The most common and familiar are those in retail selling. The other common ones include auction sites, business-to-business services, music portals, consultancy sites, finance management and more.
To be technical about it, the other types include the business-to-business (B2B) electronic transactions of goods and services between companies. The biggest groups are the business-to-consumer (B2C) where the transaction is with the companies and the consumers.
There is also the consumer to consumer transaction (C2C), mostly through a third party. The consumer-to-business (C2B) has individuals offering products and services to companies.
The last two are the business-to-administration (B2A) transaction between companies and public administration and C2A, the transaction between individuals and public administrations.
All these are the electronic versions of all the types of trade agreements between people through the ages like what we knew through the centuries. These include the many types of transactions that developed along the way since its invention.
Development
Experts said electronic transactions began in the 60s when organizations started using EDI (electronic data interchange) to transfer documents of their business back and forth. In the 90s, online shopping businesses cropped up and grew to what they are today.
The popularity of the medium is perhaps mostly due to its convenience and ease of use. Anyone can shop anything right from his living room and in just a few clicks with the computer.
The evolution has spread across the field that now includes smart phone owners. More and more phone owners now shop from anywhere at any time. The innovation is that it a wireless device is now connected to the wired Internet.
This technological advancement both benefited the sellers and buyers.
Broadening the brand
For sellers, it is now a reality of doing business in your site that enables your brand from the old brick-and-mortar store to a well-loved brand today. With your site, you no longer have a singular store.
Your site is the home of your products and the general home of your business. You can even expand your product ranges without the worry of moving to a bigger location.
Opportunities
For the sellers again, your site is one of the best marketing tools your business has. In addition, you can use SEO and a number of other marketing techniques to improve your chances of getting found.
Today, there is the social media, the pay per click, email marketing, and others that can include links back to your site.
Scalability
When your business grows, you would also want to grow your product range and your audience as you develop your business for consumer demands.
You can now scale your business accordingly with more lines, more payment options, and where to ship to, without the worry of changing your location like a regular store.
Convenience
For both sellers and buyers, sites are now available 24/7 for the simple reason that customers need not be physically present when they shop now, a thoroughly fine convenience for them.
Your site is also accessible to millions of people all over the world, viewing your site for what they want. There simply is no comparison to the olden days with the number of people visiting your brick-and-mortar store in some street and to those who visit your site now.
Worldwide reach
The biggest advantage now is that sites have a world-wide reach now, with a global choice of consumers, a short product service distribution chain and lower costs and pricing.
With mobile devices taking over the planet, quite literally everyone uses their mobile devices more often than their laptops or desktops in browsing the internet.
There has been a huge increase in transactions done via mobile devices in the last few years.
Marketing
The importance of a website to marketing includes all aspects of the digital marketing strategy. Every type of communications, every piece of content, or advertisement that you put online will drive back the consumer to your site.
The site needs to give consumers a clear idea of what the brand is about and the type of products and services you offer.
Social media
Even if you’re using third party social media sites in reaching your consumer, you need to have a place to send these consumers’ to when they want to learn more about your business.
A company’s site is the “home base” for the customers to go to when making purchases or learning more about the product, or the company.
Content
Often overlooked, content marketing for a website is just as important as the others. Your content needs a place. Blog posts or product descriptions – you need a place to display that kind of information for customers to find.
The site is the perfect place to house all the great content that our business had created to inform and engage your target audience.
The site also plays a significant role in your email marketing. If you are using such to engage your customers, you need someplace to send them to.
Your site is the perfect place to guide your email subscribers when you want them to learn something more about the product or make a purchase.
PPC
Your pay-per-click ads also need a place to bring customers to. PPC advertising is one great way in reaching more of the consumers who are most likely interested in your products.
However, you need to have a site that you can lead these consumers to when they click on your PPC ad. It can either be a tailored landing page or a specific product page, the ad needs to have a destination on your site.
Your website is the total domain of your business supporting all of your digital marketing offers.