Tag: e-commerce

Common E-Commerce Challenges Businesses Face | businessnewsdaily.com

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The e-commerce industry has grown exponentially, with total e-commerce sales for Q3 alone reaching $284 billion and expectations of sales passing $1 trillion in total for 2023. As an e-commerce business owner, you have unique challenges compared to brick-and-mortar shop owners. E-commerce businesses have unique rules and regulations to follow, and cybersecurity is a top priority to ensure all data stored online is protected.

We spoke with industry experts about the challenges e-commerce small businesses must contend with and how to overcome these hurdles. Here are 12 of the most prevalent challenges e-commerce business owners face today.

What are the top e-commerce challenges for SMBs?

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Ready to Get Back to Business? Now Is the Perfect Time to Up Your E-Commerce Game | AllBusiness.com

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As many years as I’ve been out of school, September still feels like a time of renewal. An opportunity to start anew, to reinvent some aspect of your life or your business, to refocus on tasks that got forgotten in the heat and lazy days of summer.

This year has been tough for most of the country, with so many of us trying to live and work under safer-at-home policies. It’s been a rough year for retailers, in particular, with so many stores closed for months due to the coronavirus. In fact, eMarketer has adjusted its 2020 retail sales forecast from its original projection of a 2.8% sales increase to $5.6 trillion in total retail sales to a 10.5% sales decline to $4.9 trillion in sales.

But there is a brighter side to that forecast, and it’s e-commerce. Online sales are, according to eMarketer, expected to rise 18% this year to $710 billion. This represents 14.5% of total retail sales, which eMarketer says is “both an all-time high and the biggest share increase in a single year.”

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8 Steps to Starting a Business on Etsy | AllBusiness.com

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8 Steps to Starting a Business on Etsy

making handmade jewelry

Since its launch date in 2005, Etsy has become a well-known, respected, and hugely popular platform for creatives to share their handmade or vintage items with the world. Accommodating products that range from clothing, accessories, and jewelry to craft supplies and tools, Etsy enables freelance crafters to pursue their dreams and also make a living. If you want to start an Etsy shop that stands out from the crowd follow these tips:

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What Today’s Small Businesses Can Do to Beat Giant Competitors | PROFITguide.com

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Retail used to be about shelf space. Own those precious inches, and you controlled the consumer relationships. But the multitude of new buying channels enabled by e-commerce platforms has exponentially widened the shelf. Small brands now have far more control over who sees and has access to their products, as well as where and how.

The decision between two products no longer comes down to how they look side by side in-store, but how well the mission and vision of the companies producing them are communicated through a screen. Consumers are hungry for information on which to base their choices, so it’s imperative that small businesses tell their stories. That’s creating a new class of “craft” brands, which thrive on their uniqueness and connection to their customers.

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What Does the Google Buy Button Mean for Your E-Commerce Business? | All Business

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It takes a lot to run a successful e-commerce business these days,and there are plenty of resources to help you when it comes to looking for strong business advice. But with all of this advice, comes more obstacles, like how to convert customers.

If you want customers, then you need Google’s help; Google essentially controls what traffic goes to which site. So when Google changes how it operates, it puts a lot of strain on businesses in order to comply. The Google “buy button” is next up in the queue of things changing, and e-commerce store owners are worried it will impact their businesses.

Why Are E-Commerce Stores Worried About the Google Buy Button?

The fear for e-commerce business owners is that Google will be more than a search engine, instead becoming a reseller or middleman. This obviously robs e-commerce stores of important relationships with their customers. The fear is that this will lead to an Amazon-style situation, where customers often believe that they are doing business with Amazon as opposed to third-party sellers, and any customer service and returns processing will be handled without the control of the e-commerce store operator.

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Five Trends Driving Traditional Retail Towards Extinction | Forbes

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The e-commerce behemoth is coming, but that’s no longer news. Amazon is nearly 20 years old now, eBay just a year younger.

What is news? The behemoth is arming itself. New tactics, new friends and a hefty war chest mean that the old defenses insulating traditional retailers are no longer enough. Venture funds dished out $242 million to online retail startups in the last quarter alone, more than any other period since 2000. E-commerce, meanwhile, is now a $200 billion-plus industry in the U.S., set to ratchet up 15% a year as consumers realize there’s no reason to trek out to the local strip mall anymore.

In the retail arms race, e-commerce is winning. Here are five trends driving traditional retail towards the grave:

Read the Trends.