Running an eCommerce business by yourself is a time-consuming affair. You have to set up a website, make sure it runs smoothly, run marketing campaigns, and sell your products and services to customers or clients. However, you can commission eCommerce services from providers to get assistance for any area of your online enterprise.
But there are dozens of different quality agencies to choose from. It can be tough to know how to vet the best eCommerce services if you have never employed any of them before.
Today, let’s break down the different areas of electronic commerce, the roles eCommerce services providers can play, and how to find the best service provider for your needs.
There are eCommerce services for practically all types of eCommerce businesses. Different services are specialized for those businesses’ unique needs, goals, and limitations.
Before we go over how you can find a top eCommerce service for your brand, let’s break down the different types of eCommerce. You’ll be able to identify which your business belongs to easily.
Business-to-business or B2B eCommerce focuses on transactions between two different businesses, rather than one business providing products and services to customers or end-users. B2B eCommerce is any electronic transactions for goods and services conducted between two enterprises.
Some of the most common practitioners of B2B eCommerce businesses are wholesalers. For instance, wholesalers either produce or come into possession of large quantities of a valuable product. They purchase the product for relatively cheap since they get it in bulk.
Then they sell the product to another company for wholesale prices. These are cheaper than the end prices that consumers will pay for the same products. In this way, a B2C (see more below) company pays less for the products than the prices they plan to charge to consumers, so they make a profit in the long run.
Meanwhile, the B2B company makes money from selling those products to other organizations. Many eCommerce services for B2B eCommerce businesses offer tools or services like:
Business-to-consumer or B2C eCommerce is likely the most common type of eCommerce. With this eCommerce business model, the organization in question sells products or services directly to consumers.
For example, an online store that sells homemade jewelry is a B2C business. They sell their products to people who will wear them. They don’t sell products to other businesses (at least directly). Amazon or other big store apps are also great examples.
However, many B2C businesses purchase the raw materials or goods they need to create their products from B2B businesses. B2C businesses have more dynamic relationships with their consumers than B2B businesses, though these relationships can also be more random or sporadic.
Essentially, relationships with end consumers are always a little dicier and less stable than relationships with other businesses. Still, eCommerce B2C businesses have flourished over the Internet. There are now hundreds of thousands of high-quality stores and malls on the Internet that sell consumer goods ranging from computers to books to cars to financial products and more.
B2C eCommerce businesses oftentimes need tools that will help them connect with consumers and keep those consumers over the long term. Online marketing and online sales eCommerce solutions are especially important for small businesses.
They also need eCommerce services that can help them develop high-quality websites, shopping experiences, and advertisements. Customer service is the name of the game for long-term customer retention for B2C businesses.
Then there are business-to-administration eCommerce businesses and transactions. Also called B2A businesses, these organizations have transactions between their company and public administrations or organizations.
For example, a company that sells software to a government entity for the protection of public records is a B2A business. Such eCommerce businesses are involved in all kinds of organizations and administrative industries, including legal documents and registration, Social Security, employment, and fiscal services.
Since e-government investments have increased in recent years, B2A businesses are more common than they were before. Notably, B2A businesses don’t sell to end-users in the government. For example, a B2A business does not sell holsters to law enforcement officers individually.
Instead, they always sell their goods and services to broader administrative organizations. Like B2B eCommerce companies, B2A companies often need eCommerce services that can help them with optimizing workflows, vendor scheduling and management, and analyzing data.
Consumer-to-consumer eCommerce, also called C2C eCommerce, is an online business where two end-users or consumers of products trade.
These transactions are frequently conducted through third parties. eBay is a good example of these types of eCommerce sales, which function as marketplaces similar to certain brick and mortar stores.
For example, cryptocurrency exchanges are examples of consumer-to-consumer eCommerce businesses. That’s because the exchanges just provide the facilitating medium for the transactions to take place. They usually take fees or small cuts of the transferred money in order to cover their operational expenses.
A cryptocurrency exchange allows two different crypto token users to trade coins with each other or make purchases. The coins pass through the exchange, but the exchange itself does not sell anything to users in the form of a product.
Consumer-to-consumer eCommerce businesses frequently need high-quality eCommerce platforms and excellent online advertising. They may also need very good digital security in order to maintain the trust of their user bases. Therefore, they frequently look for eCommerce services that offer these benefits and similar tools.
Consumer-to-business eCommerce or C2B eCommerce occurs when a customer or end-user provides a business with funds or goods. It’s essentially a reversal of the traditional market model, where a business provides end-users with goods instead.
eCommerce businesses such as crowdfunding platforms are the most common types of C2B eCommerce organizations. With these platforms, individuals pool their resources or money together so a business can then create a product or experience. Typically, the business promises a reward in exchange for donations.
However, C2B eCommerce can also occur on a smaller scale. For example, a popular company may have its designers present different proposals for a new company logo. They hold a vote where consumers can spend a dollar to vote (or simply vote for free), and the company adopts the logo design that wins the most public support.
C2B companies may need lots of different eCommerce services and tools, including communication forums, high-quality websites with easy navigability, and more.
Consumer-to-administration businesses involve electronic transactions between individuals and public administrative organizations, like state governments, police stations, etc.
However, the applications of C2A eCommerce extend far beyond the basic examples. Some instances of C2A eCommerce include:
In each of these examples, the C2A eCommerce focuses on efficiency, stability, and security.
After all, these transactions or businesses deal with important topics like personal healthcare, tax payments, etc. Therefore, eCommerce consumer-to-administration transactions frequently require security services, smooth and stable platforms that can’t be crashed easily, and more.
eCommerce services for this type of business prioritize stability, navigability, and safe resource access.
“eCommerce service providers” are technology companies that offer various eCommerce tech and development solutions. Depending on the service provider you contact, they may offer services like:
Other eCommerce services can provide more specific work and assistance. These services may be particularly useful if you have a very small workforce. Or, if you have a lot of products you need to post on your shop but not a lot of time to do so. Some more specific work eCommerce services can provide include:
As you can see, there are eCommerce service providers that can do practically anything you need. You can and should use eCommerce service providers if you have a small team and can’t employ someone to do the job in-house.
Say that you want to launch a new online store, but you don’t have any web development experience. You have a great business plan and an idea for a stellar product, but you need a place to sell it.
An eCommerce service provider can build the website for you, including setting up a great UX and UI for your future online marketplace. However, if you want to make sure that an eCommerce service provider is right for your needs, you’ll want to keep the below tips in mind.
Only choose a user-friendly online retail eCommerce service. This is important both for you and for any future customers and clients.
After all, you don’t want an eCommerce service that is tough to deal with or talk to. You need to be able to break down your goals and objectives and your resource limitations.
An eCommerce service provider should listen to your needs and work to deliver them perfectly.
User-friendliness is even more important if you need eCommerce services for web development or store design. A great eCommerce store is easy for customers to navigate through, doesn’t glitch or crash, and doesn’t make it difficult for a customer to check out quickly.
Therefore, do yourself a favor and check out an eCommerce service’s portfolio or testimonials page. Check for any signs that they are hard to work with or that they don’t create user-friendly pages/storefronts.
Next, prioritize eCommerce services that accept cryptocurrencies. This is important both in case:
Note that the service provider doesn’t have to offer crypto payment gateways. CoinPayments can help with that. But you’ll save yourself a lot of time and money if your eCommerce service can set up crypto acceptance functionality right off the bat.
Of course, you should also make sure that your eCommerce service provider can set up your store to accept other forms of payment. These include credit or debit card payments, PayPal payments, and so on.
Lastly, if you already have an eCommerce website or store, make sure the service provider you choose can integrate with that site. Say that you don’t need eCommerce services for creating a new storefront. Instead, you need eCommerce services for data analytics, security patches, and other back-end work.
An eCommerce service won’t be able to do those vital jobs unless it can integrate fully with your platform. This is easier if you have your eCommerce website on a platform like WordPress, which is by far the most common CMS platform overall.
However, you’ll also have an easier time with integration if you have an online store using a popular platform like Shopify. Bottom line: always investigate to see what websites an eCommerce service can integrate with before contracting them for any work.
Ultimately, the best e-commerce services will be accessible, offer what you need for your e-commerce business, and deliver tangible goods for your operations. That’s why it’s such a good idea to sign up for CoinPayments starting today.
As a dedicated crypto payment gateway provider, we can offer your e-commerce platform the ability to accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and more. Plus, we offer a whole host of merchant tools to help you run your e-commerce business successfully. If that wasn’t enough, we even allow you to host your own unique crypto token if you have a dedicated community that would use such an asset.
Want to know more or sign up in just a few minutes? Contact us today or visit our website to begin!
