What Is E-Commerce? How to Start Selling Online

1What Is E-Commerce?

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is buying and selling products and services over the internet. The customer finds the product on a website, a marketplace or a social media account and orders it online; payment and delivery follow.

E-commerce isn't just for big online stores. A business that shares product photos on Instagram and takes orders by message is selling online too. For a business with a physical store, e-commerce isn't a separate business but another sales channel: the same products, the same stock, new customers.

2Types of E-Commerce

• Business to consumer (B2C). A business sells to the end customer; the best-known type.
• Business to business (B2B). A manufacturer or wholesaler sells to other businesses; orders are usually larger and regular.
• Consumer to consumer (C2C). People sell to each other, mostly second-hand goods.
• Social commerce. Products are promoted on social media and orders come in by message or through a shared link.

3Where Does E-Commerce Happen?

• Your own website. You own the brand, the prices and the customer relationship; bringing visitors to the site is also up to you.
• A marketplace. You sell to a ready audience; in return you pay a commission and follow the platform's rules.
• Social media and messaging. You talk to customers directly; keeping orders, payments and stock in order gets harder.
• A store page. Your store's products online, opened with a single link; an easy way to sell to the customers and followers you already have.

Most businesses use more than one channel: they sell on a marketplace, send regulars a link and keep selling in the store. The more channels you have, the more it matters to keep stock and orders in one place.

4How Do You Start Selling Online?

• Decide what to sell. Start with products that photograph well, ship easily and whose stock you can track.
• Get the legal side ready. Selling online regularly is a business activity; go over your tax registration and how you'll issue invoices with your accountant, and check whether online sellers need to register anywhere where you operate.
• Choose your channel. Your own site, a marketplace, social media or a store page; you can use several together.
• Prepare your products. Good photos, the right price, a clear description and up-to-date stock.
• Decide on payment and delivery. Online card payment, bank transfer or cash on delivery; shipping or pickup in store.
• Write your terms of sale. Delivery time, shipping cost, returns and exchanges. In the EU, the UK and Turkey, people who buy online can usually cancel within 14 days of receiving the goods, with some exceptions.
• Keep stock in one place. If you sell the same product in the store and online, keep a single stock record for it.

5Running In-Store and Online Sales Together

The most common online problem for a business with a store is keeping separate stock for each channel: the last item sells in the store but stays on sale online, and the customer finds out after ordering that it's gone. When an order comes off the same stock as sales at the register, the problem never starts.

An order has its own flow too: it's confirmed, paid, shipped or handed over in the store. Seeing which step every order is at on one screen saves you from searching message threads for orders.

6Selling Online With PratikKasa

The store page that comes with PratikKasa 2.2.0 brings your products together with their images, prices and stock status in a single link. You share the link on WhatsApp, Instagram or with a QR code, and your customer orders without signing up. During the trial your page opens at shop.pratikkasa.com; once your subscription starts, you can connect your own domain.

With PratikKasa Sipariş, orders land on the Orders screen in your app; you confirm, prepare, ship or hand them over in your store. The customer pays by bank transfer straight to your account or in your store on pickup; the page doesn't take online card payments. An order that becomes a sale comes off your stock and is recorded in your till and reports. PratikKasa isn't a marketplace: the page is your store, and the customers are yours.

The drawings in this post are based on the screens of PratikKasa 2.2.0; the store page and PratikKasa Sipariş come with 2.2.0.