E-Commerce & Web
E-Commerce
Websites
Online Shops
Web Applications
Welcome to the starting point of our digital expedition E-Commerce & Web. Together we discover the many possibilities in the field of e-commerce & web on this expedition. All information about digital purchasing processes and benefits in e-commerce, the creation of websites and online shops and how to work more efficiently with flexible web applications can be found on respective service pages.
All things packed and snowshoes strapped on? Then we’re off!
E-Commerce refers to the launching, completion and processing of digital purchasing processes. This includes not only the purchase process itself, but also the related topics, such as customer service, ordering processes or payment processes. E-Commerce therefore encompasses all areas of e-commerce, both B2B and B2C.
Basically, there are two ways to become active in e-Commerce. Variant one involves the creation of your own online shop, which is expanded to become the core element of your own e-Commerce activities and your position within the market. Variant two, the so-called marketplace model, provides for the company‘s products to be sold via already established marketplace platforms such as eBay or Amazon. The latter offers the advantage of being able to access a very large customer base, which can lead to sales quite quickly. However, the marketplace operator earns money with every product sold and makes essential decisions with regard to conditions and sales processing.
In the classic sense of the term, the website is a web document in HTML form, which is accessible on the Internet and can be accessed with a browser by specifying a specific URL. A website may consist of a subpage, a so-called OnePager, or of several subpages. Often, simple OnePager is used when creating websites. In the area of search engine optimization (SEO), however, this is quite critical, because a OnePager can only be listed meaningfully for a certain number of keywords on Google, since it is only a single content page.
The creation of a website usually starts with the conception and strategy. This means that a user journey is developed with the help of personas, i.e. fictitious potential customers of a company and their expectations when they call up the website are identified. The tasks of the target groups can range from a simple search for information to the actual establishment of contact. To create websites, it is therefore also highly recommended to involve experts from the UX field in order to create an optimal user experience for the website.
In an online shop, goods, services or digital products are offered for sale. From the product presentation to the ordering and purchase process, this takes place mostly via the Internet. For manufacturers, retailers and companies, this results in numerous potentials that can be exploited in terms of company positioning and brand development. This is because the online shop has a number of advantages to offer compared to the classic shop. These include unrestricted accessibility, convenient ordering from home, individually configured products and global findability.
Basically, there are three options to create an online shop. First, you use a rented online store (e.g. Strata, Jimdo etc.). Second, one relies on a self-hosted open source solution (e.g. Shopware) or thirdly, one invests in an in-house development (e.g. via Pimcore). Which solution is the most effective here, depends strongly on the respective conditions of a company. For this, it makes sense to clarify the individual requirements in advance and to compare them with the necessary features. In addition, for the choice of a suitable shop system, both the own target group and the right merchandise management should be considered. Especially the latter is often neglected at the beginning of an online shop creation, because accounting and CRM are still manageable at the beginning.
Web applications are browser-based application programs that can be used directly via an Internet browser without prior download. Unlike a traditional website, web applications are much more about user interaction and less about information. Examples of web applications include B2B portals, shop systems, online banking apps as well as webmail or online computers.
Most web applications are based on a client-server architecture, where the user initiates a request to the web server via the Internet (e.g. via web browser or via user interface of an application). This forwards the request to a web application server, which executes the task, generates an appropriate result and sends it back to the web server. The latter responds to the client, which displays the required information on the user’s display. Web applications can provide almost the same functionality as locally installed software. However, because documents and data are stored in the cloud, they can be accessed flexibly, regardless of location or device.
