In 2012, B2C ecommerce sales grew 21.1% to top $1 trillion for the first time, according to new global estimates by eMarketer. This year, sales will grow 18.3% to $1.298 trillion worldwide, eMarketer estimates, as Asia-Pacific surpasses North America to become the world's No. 1 market for B2C ecommerce sales.
And Helen Thomas (not THE George Bush-hating Helen Thomas) of the Usability Geek, offers five things eMarketers should be doing in anticipation of this booming trend. She cites localization - Buy Local, she says. "With going local, we are referring to a totally localized user experience. Thus, expect to see more websites based on traditional design aesthetics including the use of local color preferences, local language, local offers and essentially local products and services."
Thomas also says that MCommerce is the new buzzword for 2013 and that means mobile. "Online businesses have realized the need for deeper mobile integration. Witness to this is the increased use of responsive web design that dominated 2012. From a user interface perspective, online businesses will continue to adapt to and make the most use of the available screen real estate of the device from which they are being accessed. As such, there will not be one e-commerce site for the desktop and another for the mobile device. Instead, thanks to Responsive Web Design, there will just be one website which will adapt itself to be viewed in an ideal manner for any screen size, be it a large 55-inch TV screen, a 24-inch monitor, a tablet, mobile or any device that users use to access websites. This essentially means that the user experience will also be the same across all these devices."
That's music to Louisville Web Group's ears. As leaders in Responsive Design, we've long been advocating this technique that (a) works beautifully and (b) saves etailers a FORTUNE!
The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown and continues to grow exponentially with widespread Internet usage and the huge increase in traffic from mobile and tablets. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction’s lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.
Quite a bit of e-commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, as when you pay a membership fee online to join AAA or AARP, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have an e-commerce presence on the World Wide Web.
Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com and ebay.
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.
Louisville Web Group, as professionals in the realm of ecommerce and mobile through responsive design, will continue to update our followers as to the newest trends, tips and techniques as they relate to ecommerce. So follow us today!
