Worldwide e-commerce sales in 2019 amounted to $3.53 trillion USD, which is approximately $4.7 trillion CAD. The growth of e-commerce has been huge in recent years and it continues to reshape the retail landscape.
Whether you are building a small business or promoting a global brand, business leaders of today must be well versed in the area of e-commerce to ensure success. The technological advances of the past twenty years have greatly affected the way business is conducted. There is almost no part of business left untouched by the digital world. With this in mind, here are a few specific ways in which e-commerce will be an integral component of your business studies and career.
E-Commerce for Today’s Business Management Courses
Storefronts are no longer a requirement to start or maintain a retail business and many businesses now have employees work remotely. As you may find out from your business management courses, overhead costs can be hard on a new business, but e-commerce minimizes these costs and allows for more small businesses to get in on the game. Today, a business can operate from almost anywhere as long as it has an online presence.
Also, e-commerce gives a business access to more markets, effectively allowing it to run twenty-four hours a day and reach more people through its web presence. This way of doing business also refers to administration, procuring raw materials and other Business to Business (B2B) transactions, online marketing campaigns, and other activities. E-Business is now simply business as usual.
Social Media Is Integral to E-Commerce
For individuals seeking business management careers, a strong understanding of how e-commerce interacts with social media platforms is required. Research has shown that 55% of online shoppers have purchased products by clicking through a business’s social media posts. As companies like Instagram develop shopping apps, it is likely that this number will increase.
Additionally, more and more people are interacting with businesses through social media. There is an opportunity to provide excellent, responsive customer support through these platforms and benefit from the data collected. Interactions with clients through social media can help build up a business’s brand by demonstrating reliability and relevance. Information gathered about these interactions as well as current and prospective customers can then be harnessed to improve service and marketing efforts. This integration of digital media with e-commerce is precisely why e-commerce is also taught in our Marketing and Digital Media program.
E-Commerce is More Efficient
Whether your career is in Human Resource Management, Marketing, or Sales, all of these activities are more efficient under the e-commerce umbrella. As described above, online presence is essential for growth and provides opportunities for quality interactions with clients and other businesses.
Further, e-commerce can make your business run more efficiently. Customers do not have to wait for you to open your physical store in order to buy something. Certain communications can be automated, such as a confirmation email after a purchase. Accounts payable and receivable can be managed online making processing time shorter. Employees can communicate with each other more easily and the list goes on. E-commerce saves time and money so you can focus on growing your business.
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