E-commerce is a platform that facilitates you to run your online business in a developed manner. This medium allows you to monitor and control your business activities at your fingertips.
It has become so common today that every person who starts their business considers it. It is an essential part of the business and is playing an essential role in increasing the sales of enterprises across the globe.
In today’s world, if your business is offline and has no online channel, you may also consider setting it up. It’s evident that millions of people across the globe prefer to shop online, and it is increasing rapidly.
The digital revolution has made e-commerce the need of today’s business, but before you take any step toward it, you must know some essential facts about e-commerce.
Millions of websites are running on the internet, so how do you ensure that people will prefer your newly developed website to those existing sites for their needs? Or whether starting an e-commerce business or running your existing business on e-commerce platforms will work for you or not.
Many people want to get into e-commerce, and they have a lot of expectations about its results for their business. Still, the majority of these people have misconceptions regarding it. When they started their business in the e-commerce sector, they quit because of their expectations built on fantasies.
We will discuss this article regarding top myths about e-commerce, and on the other hand, you will also get to know the facts about it.
Expectation: E-commerce business will boost my sales automatically
When people hear the phrase “set up a website,” the first thing that comes to mind is the site of their dreams, a fully functioning website that can get massive amounts of traffic, bring in loads of revenue, and become a success.
While all these fantastic things are charming, most people have this perception that all they have to do is set up a website for their business once or put their product on any digital platform, and that would be all.
They think that people will automatically get to their products and buy them, and their sales will be at their peak.
Reality: The benefits of e-commerce business come over a long period of hard work and effort
Starting your online business may be a stimulating experience, but it can also be challenging. Setting up an online business is just as complex as setting up an offline one. The online world is filled with many tasks to complete and many challenges.
The fact is that thousands of companies are generating revenues from e-commerce. This does not include small e-commerce enterprises, so the point is that the competition rate is high. If you want to stand in this crowded market, it requires your efforts, time, and hard work.
It starts from a beautiful website design and development and continues down to S.E.O (search engine optimization), advertising, promotions, target audience, etc.
Organic traffic doesn’t come for at least 7 to 8 months, and even then, it will only happen if you’ve done the SEO work. You have to work hard to make organic traffic come gradually. While writing a blog post, adding links, or doing anything else for SEO won’t yield immediate results.
Understandably, many website owners are tempted when they see organic traffic growing. But the traffic there doesn’t mean that those visitors are making purchases. While it could be tempting to jump onto the bandwagon and take organic traffic as a sign that your website is profitable, the truth is that organic traffic takes time.
But the fact thing is that it’s a lot like being on a rollercoaster ride at the beginning. You’re going up and down, excited and terrified and doing everything right, but things still don’t seem to work out. And then, suddenly, things start going your way, and you realize you’ve been through this whole crazy ride and will still have a long way to go.
Expectation: My product is on eBay/Amazon; I don’t need to set up my website
Most people feel that once they have put their product on Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba, or any other platform, they don’t need to set up their website other than this. It is a good short-term approach, but you must use a long-term strategy when starting an online (e-commerce) business.
Reality: Brands that don’t invest in their independent presence suffer from difficulties
Putting your product on Amazon or other platforms will give you access to many users. Many of them will become your customers. Still, for the growth of your business, you need to customize your online shop and require the analytics to which these platforms do not provide access. These platforms also change their policies occasionally, which will disturb your business activities, and you will be unable to come out of these hurdles.
Setting up a business website is essential for building your brand presence online. A brand presence online differs from a traditional marketing strategy. It’s about ranking highly in the search engines or pumping out tons of content about your business. A brand presence online is more about establishing yourself in the marketplace and building trust with your target audience. 
Expectation: Marketing campaigns through social media are enough
Social media is a valuable source for marketing campaigns and has become essential to every business strategy. Many entrepreneurs are using social media platforms for their business campaigns. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are entrepreneurs’ most common social media platforms for marketing campaigns.
There is no dought that this marketing strategy is effective. Still, many think conducting their business campaigns from social media platforms would be enough for their business growth. But this is their misunderstanding.
Reality: The best marketing success plans include a wide variety of strategies
Marketing success plans differ quite a bit among marketers. Some professionals focus on a single tactic or channel to attract new business, while others maintain a diverse portfolio for success. No matter the type of plan you develop, it should include a variety of strategies and tactics for penetrating your target market.
The best marketing strategy consists of two major components:
1) Organic Sourced Traffic
2) Paid Sourced Traffic
Organic Sourced Traffic
Organic traffic refers to those users/visitors that come to your website without paying for ads. Organic traffic is considered more valuable than traffic from search engines. People are more likely to click on organic search results. So, search engines like Google prefer that websites drive traffic to their pages.
It can be hard to get, but if you’ve got it, it keeps on giving once you’ve got it. Organic traffic comes from search engines, social networks, and other websites.
Optimizing your site for search engines is the best way to enjoy organic traffic. It includes SEO-optimized web content, social media posting and their sharing, SEO-friendly blogs on your content/product/service that you sell on different blog sites, email marketing, SMS marketing, etc.
Paid Sourced Traffic
You bring traffic or audience to your business or directly to your product/services, paying for them in a paid traffic source. Approximately every e-commerce platform provides paid promotion services to their users/clients. The most popular platforms for paid traffic are Google, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This strategy is also a primary component of marketing strategy. Most of the leading enterprises use these paid sources to grow their business. 
Expectation: The platform that is to be chosen for the e-commerce business is not important
There are various platforms for developing websites of different natures, like WooCommerce, Shopify, etc. Most people who are not programmers don’t know the disparity between various e-commerce platforms. Most of these people want to join e-commerce but do not know whether choosing the right platform for their site matters to them.
Reality: Always choose the right platform according to your requirement
If you’re getting serious about starting an e-commerce business, there’s one decision you’ll have to make: which platform to use. The options for an e-commerce platform differ from site to site, but some of the most popular are Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, WordPress’s e-commerce plugin. Each option has pros and cons (and any differences can be significant), so it’s essential to consider what you want from the site you’re building.
Make sure to choose the right platform for your website development because once you have gotten your business website developed, then you will run & control it by yourself. Always select a platform that is easy to use and is according to your needs.
Following are two examples of platforms with their different nature and use.
1) Shopify
2) WordPress
Shopify
Shopify is a platform that allows business owners to create an online store and then sell products to customers worldwide. Shopify is a fast and easy medium to set up your online store. It’s one of the most popular platforms to use. It is the best easy e-commerce store for use. It is for those who do not plan to scale up or customize the platform too much.
WordPress
It allows you to build beautiful, functional websites quickly. It has also been adopted as an e-commerce platform, allowing you to add e-commerce functionality to your website. It is the best platform for those who want customization and scaling up their sites; its interface is also human-friendly and is best for an e-commerce website.
Expectation: The majority of customers are not willing to experience shopping online
Many people have physical stores with regular customers, so they think adding an online channel to their business will not benefit them.
Reality: People are shifting to online markets
Online shopping is the fastest-growing retail industry sector. Over 50% of customers prefer online shopping over traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Since the online shopping industry constantly expands, new companies are always trying to offer better services than their competitors. Online retailers now focus on providing a seamless shopping experience for their customers. A seamless shopping experience means offering the customer a hassle-free and easy checkout process, good customer service, and various payment options that suit the consumer’s needs.
Conclusion
We hope this article informs you of the facts about e-commerce to be on the right track if you consider joining the e-commerce industry.
You may contact us for web development services and consultancy. We build various websites, including e-commerce sites, blogging sites, etc., and provide web-hosting and domain services.
Disclaimer
The information given in this article is best to our knowledge, but it may vary according to the needs of the time.
