Electronic Commerce, also known as e-commerce or simply EC, is a term used to describe any electronic transaction a business conducts online. Not every website needs e-commerce, but if your business is based on selling a product, you may want to seriously consider cataloging your inventory online for purchase.
A lot of businesses still don’t see how an e-commerce website can benefit them, instead only seeing the ways it can hinder them ─ either by becoming another unnecessary expense or paving the way for lawsuits due to credit card information being stolen.
In fact, e-commerce ─ when properly fortified ─ can quickly outweigh the cost of upkeep, and the possibility of security breaches can be reduced to slim to none. After making the transition to e-commerce enabled website, many businesses benefit from an increased customer base, especially if your business is limited to only a few or even one location.
As a result of a broadened customer base, businesses also experience a significant rise in sales. But customer base isn’t the only factor here, because of constant accessibility, consumers can still buy products at your online store even if your brick and mortar store is closed.
Security will always be the biggest issue that an e-commerce website will face, and the threat will always be there. Big well-established businesses get broken into every day in stores and online. It doesn’t matter how secure your website is, if a hacker really wants to steal your customers’ identification, there isn’t much that can stop them.
However, security is still a very important, very necessary measure. Having a secure e-commerce website helps protect your customer’s information and protects you from being sued if your customer’s information ever gets stolen.
If your website is WordPress-based, there are a few different plugins you can install to help protect your website. One of the biggest defenses against hackers is two-step authentication. Meaning you’ll have your normal login, as well as a code that is sent to your phone ─ usually through SMS. The most common plugins for this feature are Clef, Google Authenticator, and Duo Two-Factor Authentication.
E-commerce is a big step, but the profit is worth all of the trouble. We’ve only scratched the surface in this article, so if you still feel uncertain look forward to our future article which will go into depth about different types of e-commerce.
