Marketplaces and online stores

The purchase of goods in online stores has become an everyday part of our life.
As the number of Internet users grows, e-commerce becomes an increasingly powerful business tool, a means of selling goods and services. The situation has changed significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has radically changed the online sales market in a few months, increasing it several times.

What is an online store

An online store is one of the varieties of e-commerce. In most cases, this is an interactive website where the seller and the buyer are given the opportunity to make transactions for the purchase and sale of goods and services remotely. The online store is an intermediary between the buyer and the manufacturer's warehouse, which is enough to have a resource on the Internet and a phone. The purchased items are delivered to the consumer directly from the manufacturer's warehouse.

Types of online stores

1
Model of business
- Online store;
- Marketplace. With this type of online store, you yourself are not directly engaged in receiving, delivering, storing and completing orders, but outsource them to a third-party company;
- Combining an offline business with an online one (when an online store was created on the basis of an existing real trading structure). This type of online store is characterized by the distinctive features of a classic business: a warehouse, purchased lots of goods, employees, an accountant, a lawyer, etc.;
- Sale by dropshipping system - when there is no product of its own, and the store's website "sells" the products of suppliers, ordering goods from the supplier based on orders from the online store or buying from him on behalf of his buyer.
2
Volume of sales
- retail sale (from one unit of goods)
- wholesale (from several units or batches)
3
By type of sales
- B2C-sale or provision of services to the end user
- B2B-sale or provision of services to various enterprises
4
By sales functionality
- online stores
- online storefronts
Online showcase is a demo catalog site with an application form. The information about the products, the description, sometimes the cost and the feedback form are posted on the showcase. A potential buyer, after visiting the showcase, should call or leave a request. The manager will contact him, clarify the conditions and place an order. Therefore, an online showcase is justified in cases where the buyer needs to be introduced to complex products with individual pricing, or in cases where it is impossible to unify the process of selling and/or delivering goods.

The catalog of an online store is a multi-level logical tree of sections and subsections, inside which there are lists with product cards. It should be well structured and logical, so that visitors quickly find what they need. The end point of moving through the catalog should be a product card containing its description, characteristics, a sign of availability and price.

The list in the catalog is sorted by various criteria: by new products, promotions, stock availability, price, color, size, materials, brand, etc. Modern online stores contain a variety of filters, both end-to-end and unique for each section, for example, a list of brands for each type of product. Also, online stores can contain convenient functionality for comparing different products with each other, which is very important for large expensive products that are carefully selected by buyers, comparing them according to various parameters.

Features of the development of an online store

The main feature of the online store is that the main interaction between the seller and the buyer takes place online. This is a great advantage. But at the same time, this is exactly one of the difficulties that any online store needs to overcome - to inspire confidence in the visitor and arrange him to make a purchase.

The logic of the online store:

The visitor goes to the site and types a basket of goods, after which the order is placed. If the user has already bought goods on this site, it is enough to enter a username, password and specify the delivery address. If you did not buy it, you will need to additionally enter your contact details. Then the delivery method and parameters are selected, the final cost of the order is formed (goods + delivery).

The next step is to choose the form of payment. As a rule, there is a transition to the website of the payment system, where the user logs in and pays for the purchase. Depending on the chosen delivery method, the order arrives - by mail, at the pick-up point or at the specified address. In the case of delivery by courier, you can sometimes specify convenient days and delivery time.