What is e-commerce in simple terms?
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2025 12:35 pm
The main idea of e-commerce is to provide the ability to conduct all transactions, operations, business processes, and communication between participants within the framework of online trading using the Internet and corporate networks.
It's a mistake to associate e-commerce exclusively with online stores. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the ivory coast cell phone database scenes, managing a product's journey from presentation to customer ordering and delivery, lies a whole army of providers who facilitate online transactions, including wire transfers, automated data collection and processing systems, and other areas of activity.
Thanks to these efforts, invisible to the uninitiated eye, anyone opening a store's website on a smartphone or computer can quickly, without leaving home:
E-commerce today
Given the enormous growth in demand for online retail services, the reputable market analysis company GlobalWebIndex is constantly conducting marketing research into the reasons behind the growing popularity of online shopping. Their findings show the following:
53% of respondents are attracted by free delivery;
41% of shoppers use online stores because of the opportunity to purchase promotional items at discounts;
For 35% of online shopping supporters, it is important that they can study reviews of real buyers about a product beforehand;
30% of people are attracted by the almost instant order processing.
China is the recognized global leader in online sales today. By 2025, the value of goods purchased on Chinese online marketplaces is expected to exceed $2 trillion. Compared to 2020, the growth rate of turnover is likely to be 50% or more.
The coronavirus pandemic also triggered a dramatic increase in e-commerce worldwide. Adapting to strict quarantine conditions, retailers migrated from offline to online stores.
E-Commerce in Russia in 2023:
What to Expect in the New Year
Russia is not standing aloof from global trends. Although trade volumes are far behind those in China, the growth rate of online shopping among our customers is no less rapid.
Subscribe to the FireSEO Telegram channel and stay up-to-date with new articles and posts on Telegram.
Domestic e-commerce handled over 830 million orders in 2020 alone. This figure is constantly growing. By 2025, researchers predict annual turnover in this segment will reach approximately 11 trillion rubles.
A distinctive feature of the Russian e-commerce landscape is the predominant use of marketplaces by merchants and buyers, whose turnover growth is 2.5 times higher than that of traditional online stores. This trend is likely to continue in 2023.
This is primarily due to the convenience and advantages this form of trade can offer small and medium-sized businesses interested in expanding their customer base. Marketplaces offer their clients and customers:
intensive, consistently high traffic and conversion;
a user-friendly interface for customers who can buy and pay for everything they need in one place;
security of the shopping process;
a variety of advertising tools that allow stores to promote their products (services);
the opportunity to train entrepreneurs to work on marketplaces
and many other tools that allow you to rapidly increase sales volumes.
How e-commerce works
The basic principle of E-commerce is to go through several stages in sequence.
The process begins when a customer visits an online store or marketplace website, selects the desired product or service, and adds it to their cart. The order is then processed in the following sequence:
Via an internet connection using a browser, information about the selected product is sent to the server of the online store selling the specified product.
The request is submitted to the seller's sales manager. Their job is to verify the availability of the requested item in the warehouse in the required quantity. If the item is unavailable, the manager typically contacts the supplier or manufacturer to confirm availability and delivery timeframes.
If the request is approved, the manager contacts the buyer to confirm the order's relevance and details. Whenever possible, the manager tries to increase the purchase price by offering related accessories.
The buyer typically has the option to choose a payment method, including paying for the item with a card by following a link from the store's website to the financial institution.
The financial system verifies the payer and ensures payment is possible (the card must have sufficient funds and be unblocked). If there are no obstacles, the bank processes the payment. Otherwise, the payment fails.
The order is processed after payment is confirmed. The buyer receives the relevant information, and the goods are shipped from the warehouse to their address. It is customary to inform the buyer about the parcel's progress via email and SMS.
Types of e-commerce
The variety of goods and services offered by e-commerce requires different approaches to organizing the turnover of goods and methods of communication with suppliers (manufacturers) and customers.
The specifics of the process required the identification of several separate areas of activity in the field of e-commerce.
It's a mistake to associate e-commerce exclusively with online stores. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the ivory coast cell phone database scenes, managing a product's journey from presentation to customer ordering and delivery, lies a whole army of providers who facilitate online transactions, including wire transfers, automated data collection and processing systems, and other areas of activity.
Thanks to these efforts, invisible to the uninitiated eye, anyone opening a store's website on a smartphone or computer can quickly, without leaving home:
E-commerce today
Given the enormous growth in demand for online retail services, the reputable market analysis company GlobalWebIndex is constantly conducting marketing research into the reasons behind the growing popularity of online shopping. Their findings show the following:
53% of respondents are attracted by free delivery;
41% of shoppers use online stores because of the opportunity to purchase promotional items at discounts;
For 35% of online shopping supporters, it is important that they can study reviews of real buyers about a product beforehand;
30% of people are attracted by the almost instant order processing.
China is the recognized global leader in online sales today. By 2025, the value of goods purchased on Chinese online marketplaces is expected to exceed $2 trillion. Compared to 2020, the growth rate of turnover is likely to be 50% or more.
The coronavirus pandemic also triggered a dramatic increase in e-commerce worldwide. Adapting to strict quarantine conditions, retailers migrated from offline to online stores.
E-Commerce in Russia in 2023:
What to Expect in the New Year
Russia is not standing aloof from global trends. Although trade volumes are far behind those in China, the growth rate of online shopping among our customers is no less rapid.
Subscribe to the FireSEO Telegram channel and stay up-to-date with new articles and posts on Telegram.
Domestic e-commerce handled over 830 million orders in 2020 alone. This figure is constantly growing. By 2025, researchers predict annual turnover in this segment will reach approximately 11 trillion rubles.
A distinctive feature of the Russian e-commerce landscape is the predominant use of marketplaces by merchants and buyers, whose turnover growth is 2.5 times higher than that of traditional online stores. This trend is likely to continue in 2023.
This is primarily due to the convenience and advantages this form of trade can offer small and medium-sized businesses interested in expanding their customer base. Marketplaces offer their clients and customers:
intensive, consistently high traffic and conversion;
a user-friendly interface for customers who can buy and pay for everything they need in one place;
security of the shopping process;
a variety of advertising tools that allow stores to promote their products (services);
the opportunity to train entrepreneurs to work on marketplaces
and many other tools that allow you to rapidly increase sales volumes.
How e-commerce works
The basic principle of E-commerce is to go through several stages in sequence.
The process begins when a customer visits an online store or marketplace website, selects the desired product or service, and adds it to their cart. The order is then processed in the following sequence:
Via an internet connection using a browser, information about the selected product is sent to the server of the online store selling the specified product.
The request is submitted to the seller's sales manager. Their job is to verify the availability of the requested item in the warehouse in the required quantity. If the item is unavailable, the manager typically contacts the supplier or manufacturer to confirm availability and delivery timeframes.
If the request is approved, the manager contacts the buyer to confirm the order's relevance and details. Whenever possible, the manager tries to increase the purchase price by offering related accessories.
The buyer typically has the option to choose a payment method, including paying for the item with a card by following a link from the store's website to the financial institution.
The financial system verifies the payer and ensures payment is possible (the card must have sufficient funds and be unblocked). If there are no obstacles, the bank processes the payment. Otherwise, the payment fails.
The order is processed after payment is confirmed. The buyer receives the relevant information, and the goods are shipped from the warehouse to their address. It is customary to inform the buyer about the parcel's progress via email and SMS.
Types of e-commerce
The variety of goods and services offered by e-commerce requires different approaches to organizing the turnover of goods and methods of communication with suppliers (manufacturers) and customers.
The specifics of the process required the identification of several separate areas of activity in the field of e-commerce.