Posted on 08.24.2017

The Rise of E-Commerce

The rise of e-commerce has had powerful ripple effects throughout our increasingly digital society. Let’s take a quick look at the growth of e-commerce, and what it means for your business.

Current e-commerce statistics are eye-popping. According to Big Commerce, almost all Americans (95%) shop online at least once yearly– but 80% of us do so every single month. What’s more, 51% would rather shop online than in person. We’re shopping on the go more and more, too. In 2015, only 40% of all online purchases were made via a mobile phone, a share that will increase to 70% this year.

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores are suffering as a result – several famous chains have closed in the relatively recent past, and many more have downsized dramatically. This has had a profound effect on real estate market as well, as you might imagine. In 2010, there were 35 million visits to malls, according to the real-estate research firm Cushman and Wakefield. By 2013, there were just 17 million visits. Obviously, it’s significantly more expensive to maintain a physical store than a virtual one — and further, people often shop at physical stores, and then order the item online wherever they can get the best deal.

Some stores, like Macy’s, J.C. Penney’s (which both recently shuttered multiple locations), Kohl’s, Target, and even Walmart saw double-digit percentage growth in online sales last Christmas. But it remains to be seen whether these retail giants can keep pace with e-commerce giants.

A side beneficiary of all this e-commerce activity is shipping companies, including the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx. Amazon is exploring ways to circumvent these companies with drone delivery service, which is capable of delivering packages weighing five pounds or less to a customer in 30 minutes or faster. However, regulatory changes would have to occur for large-scale drone delivery to be feasible — currently, drones must remain in sight of the operator, and there are privacy issues related to flying drones over private property. But the prospect is tantalizing, and it will be fascinating to see if drone delivery becomes commonplace.

Further innovations in the world of e-commerce could be related to the Internet of Things, and autonomous agents and things. Connected IoT objects could provide information that then enables businesses to give you personalized offers, while autonomous, self-driving cars deliver the parcels! But warehouse robots are already automating order fulfillment in e-commerce warehouses, increasing efficiency considerably.

E-commerce is growing 23% per year, so it’s somewhat surprising that 46% of American businesses still don’t have an e-commerce website. If your business is planning to get into e-commerce, there are many different platforms, depending on your needs – everything from internet bazaars like eBay and Etsy designed for individuals to sell a few items, all the way up to enterprise solutions.

If you sell items in a physical store and want to sell a few of them online, Amazon can list your products even if you don’t have your own e-commerce site. But if you’re ready to invest in your own e-commerce site, a variety of different platforms are available, depending on the size and scale of what you have in mind. Shopify, Big Cartel, 3D Cart, and Woo Commerce are a few of the most common for small to mid-size businesses. Enterprise-level solutions include Intershop, IBM Websphere, and Oracle’s ATG.

In addition to delivering a superior user experience, an online store must be carefully marketed, integrated with Amazon and Google Shop, and the SEO must be effective. It’s a major challenge to get the word out about a new store – for most, e-commerce is not an “if you build it, they will come” proposition.

Many factors influence where a customer will choose to shop online. But the three top influencers are price (87%), shipping cost and speed (80%) and discount offers (71%). To be successful, e-commerce sites must feature intuitive navigation, good photography, and ease of checkout with multiple payment options.

Further, e-commerce sites require significantly more bandwidth than content-only sites. DQE can help by providing scalable bandwidth that keeps your site operating cleanly and quickly, which has a direct impact on sales – site slowness is a top reason shoppers say they would abandon a purchase.

Reliability is critical. If your site is down, you’re missing potential new customers and turning off returning customers – they will shop somewhere else instead, and won’t return. Count on DQE for scalable, reliable bandwidth solutions to support your growing e-commerce business needs.

Tags: autonomous agents and things, bandwidth, E-commerce, IoT