How eCommerce marketplace are changing dynamics of businesses?

The eCommerce platform is redefining the business dynamics around the globe and proving that change is indeed a powerful force you can’t simply escape by ignorance. You can’t undermine the fact that E-commerce is destined to capture a huge stake in the future. Developing economies are providing increasingly high growth in the eCommerce marketplace. The eCommerce marketplace platforms are going from strength to strength and redefining the dynamics of business like never before.

Survival of the Fittest is a popular concept of evolution that Sir Charles Darwin proposed during the latter half of the 1800s.  According to this theory, change is the name of the ‘game of survival’. Only those who can adapt & evolve with the circumstances shall strive and survive, others won’t last long once the environment gets unfavorable for their life. It is not a theory applicable to biology. 

Change is a universal truth of this world. You can see the world around you change with time. This can be quintessentially applicable everywhere including the market & its business dynamics. A business needs to stay relevant in the contemporary market ecosystem. So if in this post we will discuss the impact of eCommerce marketplace on the business dynamics and how your business can adapt and ensure your business is immune to these changes.

Factors of eCommerce Marketplace That are Changing Business Dynamics

Source – Statista

eCommerce marketplace has opened a Pandora’s box of sorts. Online shopping platforms transcend and trespass all physical barriers to find, interact and impress the target audience. This is an evolution of the traditional market system and explores new horizons. It has obviously given business unexplored user-friendly platform. This was never imagined by the market to draw a parallel business rendition.

“A study by the World Bank on eCommerce Platforms concludes that it will capture nearly 40% of market share by 2027. Not taking eCommerce seriously yet? You better consider.“

This essentially broke the distance barrier which then led to a new age of business. The market dynamics have changed a lot since the arrival of online shopping platforms and it is not likely slowing down anytime soon. As per the market analysts, the eCommerce growth rate is destined to grow exponentially for the next few years. To be a successful eCommerce platform in the future, you need a better strategy in the present.

Growing Outreach of Technology

Source – Statista

The access to technology has increased manifolds and this has had a high impact on the online shopping platforms. The eCommerce has pounced on technology and used it to its own advantage. It has been able to capture a significant portion of the market which is constantly growing at an incomprehensible rate.

The other vital aspect which can not be undermined is that online shopping platforms are not restricted by physical constraints. The technology is a valuable asset for your business as it gives you access to many different kinds of data relevant for targeting their prospects.

With online shopping platforms, you can easily explore markets beyond conventional boundaries which you would never reach otherwise.

eCommerce marketplace models of Singapore can sell products of the local vendors to its US-based customers without any hurdles. eCommerce platforms possibly expose a global opportunity for the most isolated shops. There are no boundaries anymore as far as the market threshold is concerned.

Internet Accessibility & Mobile eCommerce

Source – Accenture

The number of mobile phone and tablet users has become twice the number of desktop and laptop users now. Today, high-speed internet connection along with multitasking smartphones are available to every person on the planet allowing him access to the online world at any time, even while on the move. These two things combined served a very strong eCommerce platform to build itself upon.

Online Platforms & Social Media

Source – Brizfeel

Social Media has been a propellant that has surely given more fuel to the eCommerce marketplace models. The number of social media users is increasing each day. The majority of social media users come from the younger generation aged between 18-40 years. 

More than 70% of buyers of online shopping platforms also belong to the same age group of 18-40 years. Thus social media plug-ins play a very influential role in pushing the consumers towards eCommerce marketplace models.

Smarter Branding and Better Value Proposition

Online Shopping Platforms are certainly reaping massive rewards from digital campaigns of late. The online presence is a necessity for branding and promotion these days and any business, small or big, can’t carve a successful future without registering its presence online. The success of a branding campaign is truly determined by the value proposition offered by the business. 

What Actually Makes an eCommerce marketplace successful?

Source –Accenture

The eCommerce marketplaces are blooming each and every day. But successful eCommerce platform black and white to begin with. You need to make your eCommerce platforms in cognizance with the user’s interest. Consumers are always looking for an element of uniqueness that distinguishes your business niche. It is giving inspiring results that even the most respected and established brands are magnetized to break out of their traditional molds and invest in enhanced tools for an eCommerce platform.

User-friendly shopping experience

How many times do you have to visit more than one shopping store to find your desired product? Or have you ever compromised to buy a product which was your second choice just because your first choice was not available? How often do you get stressed and/or exhausted after a shopping trip? 

If you take a look at these questions, you would notice they are directly or indirectly associated with user experience. Shopping at physical stores can be ruthless and tiresome at times. From the aspect of a business, it is an opportunity to grab advantage by simply creating a better user experience. eCommerce marketplaces are aimed to leverage the same.

When a user is frivolous about the shopping experience, it is obvious that he would be more than happy to try an alternative. eCommerce platforms provide the same alternative to users. The users often find it more satisfying to shop on online shopping platforms after getting over the hesitation to buy online for the first time. Any eCommerce platform needs to ensure a seamless and swift user experience leaving no hurdles anyhow possible.

Understand the user Intent

User analytics data gives online shopping platforms a much-needed advantage. If you know what your visitors are looking for, it certainly guides you to approach your target audience in a much better way. You can easily evaluate the user’s interest prior to interaction and employ a perfect problem-to-solution strategy.

This basically means eCommerce platforms can easily engage with their target audience. This gives them the luxury to plan according to their target audience. The chances of user engagement also increase substantially when you interact with only those who have shown interest in purchasing a similar product or service. You can find out whether the user is interested in your product when you target them. This helps your business as it eliminates wastage of time on non-productive efforts. On the other hand, you can strategize your approach to engage interested users with more proximity.

The online conversation rates can, therefore, be managed to provide the visitor seeking a solution for their problem. Such engagement increases the productivity of your promotional campaigns while obviously enhancing the efficiency of the sales process by a commendable margin.

Easy-to-reach and access technology

The selective targeting essentially enables online shopping platforms to devise their marketing strategy with precision and attract just those who have been genuinely interested in a purchase lately. 

Thereby, leads obtained through such a strategic ploy are usually healthier and more easy-to-convert. This eventually reduces the excessive stress from the sales process and increases sales. 

While e-commerce itself, is a platform for selling products and services, yet some businesses try to leverage it to garner healthier leads and get increased online conversion rates from their sales process.

This is the reason why the eCommerce marketplace is a very viable and convenient option for smaller businesses that could sell their products effectively as eCommerce.

Change in business dynamics – priorities for success

Source – Nielsen

But with the growing number of ventures turning to an eCommerce marketplace model, the competition has increased and it is becoming more and more important for the shopping platforms to focus on certain areas with high priority. 

These are a few of the significant aspects that businesses must strive for to succeed amid the cut-throat competition which is going to get even worse in the coming years.

Improving the Online Conversion Rate

Source – Statista

Many times, consumers visit a website and check out the products for getting information or comparing it to the market competitors. These users don’t intend to make a purchase then & there. 

Online shopping platforms should not let their potential buyer slip away just like that. You can strategically convert those prospects into leads and try to convert them later when the lead intends to purchase a product or service. 

This surely helps in extracting a better online conversion rate even if a user is not intending to buy at the time of his visit.

Offering users a solution, not a product

Many eCommerce shopping platforms invest a hefty portion of their profits to find new customers by incorporating paid advertising campaigns. It backfires once they end up gaining no significant gain in a number of sales. 

The root of this problem is the poor online conversion rate. You can’t afford to give away a hefty sum just for attracting visitors when you are failing to capitalize on that traffic. 

The traffic garnered by spending a significant amount of money must produce a high rate of conversion for a profitable process. A healthy online conversion rate is not possible unless you engage the traffic with an appropriate product that satisfies their intent.

Establishing a Loyal Customer Base

Security remains a major concern among e-commerce consumers but businesses often undermine it. E-commerce vendors usually emphasize on lower pricing as their go-to strategy. 

While you can not deny that this strategy does work for the first time buyer but it is also true that this can end up performing poorly after a while. The trick for any eCommerce marketplace model, more specifically during the developmental phase, is to serve users to their satisfaction.

Consumers look for trust and reliability which can be achieved only when the brand assures the same without attaching disguised terms & conditions along with it. The personal information provided by the users also tends to make them skeptical about privacy. Any online business must address these concerns equivocally. 

For long term success, every business needs to develop a loyal consumer base that returns over and over again. It is much more rewarding to invest and focus on customer retention programs. It is essentially a way to retain as many first time consumers as you can possibly manage and gradually make every sale count in the longer run.

Creating Interactive ways for engagement

Nobody would ever want to waste my time at a shop just for the sake of finding their desired product from a disorganized mess. It is a big turn off for any buyer, at least as far as I am concerned.

As an evolving eCommerce Marketplace Platform, you have to care for the ease of your user and more appropriately, guide them to their desired product with ease to navigate the interface. 

You also need to focus on arranging different kinds of products in a well established hierarchical order. If you end up irritating the user with a bunch of unnecessary messed up product lines, you can rest assured that he is going to jump off your platform to never return anytime soon. Will you revisit a shop that feels like a mess? 

Make your platform simple and intuitive one that provides convenience during a purchase without going over the top with the gimmicks. User Satisfaction is a key that increases the chances of conversion by multiple times as proven by the content marketer’s world over. Commit to serving a pleasant user experience and the business will grow on its own.

To Provide Mode of Payment of Customer’s Choice

eCommerce Marketplace needs to address a very critical issue related to the modes of payments. If an online shopping platform limits online payment option reduces sales by a significant margin. A survey done by the Nielsen Group reported that 36% of online shoppers skip online shopping platforms when they don’t find Cash on Delivery payment option. 

So businesses also need to ensure that their customers are given the option to pay the way they like. You can favor a payment method for the transaction as a business but it must not be forced on buyers. 

The businesses need to develop multiple modes of payment to ensure the customer pays them for a purchase. At the end of the payment is all that matters, not the mode by which it has been made and eCommerce Marketplace Platform doesn’t have any reason to downplay the importance of it.

Conclusion

If you want to flourish as a business in today’s market, you have to adapt and evolve with the changing dynamics of the ecosystem. Unless you were sleeping through the last decade, you must have realized the changing business dynamics in the market. To be honest, eCommerce platforms aren’t halting at a specific point anytime in the near future.

In fact, the market is going through a transitional phase right now. It is upon your presence of mind to strive to succeed or to sink to the bottom amidst the changing market dynamics. For any sensible business, embracing E-commerce is a more sensible way forward. Either stay ahead of the curve to thrive or you get pulled down one way or the other.