What is an Ecommerce Website?

While there is much speculation around the origins of ecommerce, it is generally agreed the first true ecommerce transaction took place on August 11, 1994. The American retail site Net Market sold a copy of the Sting CD “Ten Summoner’s Tales” to Phil Brandenberger of Philadelphia—marking the first retail sale on the internet.

This, in turn makes Net Market the producer of the first ecommerce site.

So, what is an ecommerce website? Shopify, one of the leading providers of online stores says ecommerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet. This includes the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions.

The term is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online. But it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction facilitated through the internet.

How an Ecommerce Site Works

Technically, an ecommerce site is an amalgam of website code, an associated database and appurtenant third-party applications. These usually include payment processing or payment gateways.

Ecommerce websites also rely upon SSL certificates to secure data transferred between the consumer and the site, as well as the site and the owner’s financial institution of choice. The best ecommerce sites avoid storing important data—such as credit card numbers—unless they have the proper PCI compliance. Visitors come to these sites either directly, from search activities or by referral from other sites.

Types of Sites

While most often thought of in terms of online presences like Amazon, eBay, or Zappos; ecommerce sites take a number of different forms. These include retail activities sure, but there are also wholesale, drop shipping, crowd funding, subscriptions, services and digital products. Further, ecommerce transactions can be business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B).

Primary Components

Breaking an ecommerce site down into its constituent parts, we find the basic aspects include (at minimum) product pages, a shopping cart, a checkout procedure and a secure payment process.

• Product pages: Dedicated to outlining the attributes of an offering, key information usually includes photographs of the product along with a description, sizing information (where appropriate), color choices and any other details a shopper might find useful.
• Shopping carts: These afford site visitors a place to “store” an item they’re considering for purchase, while looking at other products. This saves them the trouble of having to go back to every page of the site they visited to find their purchases when they decide to buy.
• Checkout page: The prices of items selected during the shopping session are totaled here. Taxes, shipping charges and associated fees are added to the purchase, affording the shopper an opportunity to know how much they’re spending before providing payment information.
• Payment page: Also, sometimes referred to as payment gateways, this is where credit card or other payment information is provided and transmitted to the appropriate financial institution for approval of the transaction.

Security Measures

Secure Sockets Layers technology is one of the primary tools used to ensure the security of transactions on ecommerce sites. SSL encrypts information transmitted to and from the site to prevent the interception of financial information. Trust seals provided by companies such as Norton and McAfee also fall into this category.

Online shopping has evolved considerably since Mr. Brandenberger bought that CD. So has the nature of ecommerce sites. Where a web presence incorporating all of the features above had to be built from scratch back in 1994, providers like Shopify now offer turnkey sites—many of which are based upon free templates. This makes it easy for anyone with a good idea and marketing savvy to have a shot at making money selling goods and services on the internet.