Culture
Technology
The Digital Transformation of E-Commerce Markets
by Millie Hai
20/10/2021
You are browsing through the online catalogue of your favourite shopping website listing various products. Filtering through multiple reviews, you search for the cheapest shipping costs and the latest purchasing deals of the year.
This is the collective online shopping experience integrated into our modern consumer habits. With the significant change of technology interwoven into our modern businesses, our consumer experiences have progressively transitioned from physical stores to online ‘electronic markets’ (e-commerce markets). These digital spaces have integrated into our daily lives with the collective use of mobile applications and the emphasis on convenience and choice in today’s business models. But how have these markets changed our consumer habits?
Three types of e-commerce transactions:
- Business to Business (B2B) refers to businesses selling to another business that does not involve the consumers. These transactions commonly involve products such as raw materials between manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.
- Business to Consumer (B2C) is the most popular e-commerce model where the online transaction is directly between a business and a consumer. Familiar examples we hear in our day-to-day lives include Amazon and Walmart.
- Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) is the transaction of a good or service to another consumer with such occurrences in eBay and Etsy website platforms.
The progression of shoppers buying goods online has gained popularity over recent years where the terms of ‘online reviews’, ‘delivery shipping’ and ‘flash sales’ have become prevalent in our consumer experience. These terms have now impacted our consumer behaviour where online e-commerce markets can help grow the physical presence of businesses. In the norm of our shopping experiences, these terms have been ingrained into the industry. This has changed the direction of businesses to adopt new technology to interact with their consumer base in creating personalised and convenient user experiences. This includes online global reviews to describe the quality of products and collaboration with multiple brands to expand catalogues.
The priorities of the online shopping experience lie in immediate delivery shipping, low delivery costs and flash discounts especially in trends of Generation Z consumers. Engagement with brands via social media has become a significant marketing strategy over the few years, revolutionising the way we use technology in our daily lives. This includes enhancing brand loyalty to drive traffic to business sites and innovating purchasing experiences for customers. The online platforms have benefited businesses in selling products to consumers through a convenient, personalised user experience.
E-commerce platforms have allowed customers to access a global marketplace of products, locating consumers with the emerging technology. Businesses have focused on improving the digital customer service for online shopping consumers in partnership with other businesses.
The influential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to a surge of growth in e-commerce markets, where households have converted to online transactions to continue shopping. This has pushed multiple brands and small businesses to develop products to be marketed online and prioritise improvements on the online shopping user experiences. As businesses take their steps into e-commerce to adapt to the pandemic, consumers reach a globalized range of products through online services.
With just a click of the mouse, shopping products arrive at the doorstep as our modern society welcomes the virtual world of shopping.