The Importance of E-Marketing

Have an idea for an online business? Do you think it's good? well it is likely that someone is already working on it or has launched it. Just over 15 years ago e-commerce was a somewhat obscure concept that not many companies thought on following and consumers didn't trust. Back then e-commerce was difficult because we, as a society, just started grasping the concepts involved around it -buying without touching comes to mind. Furthermore, the technology and knowledge required was not as advanced as what we have today. Nonetheless e-commerce presented advantages over traditional establishments; some of these advantages are:

• Ubiquity and Globalization: e-commerce sites are available 24/7 and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
  
• Lower Start-up Costs: nowadays technology costs are low. Any individual or company could literally start an online business with a few thousand dollars and can start operating quite fast. Traditional businesses usually take more time and capital to start.
• Richness and Standardization: as with most technologies there are certain guidelines/standards that people follow when producing an e-commerce site. These standards make sure that the content can be accessed by people around the world using a plethora of devices like PCs or mobile devices. In addition standards push the technology to create richer experiences for customers; for instance HTML5 allows people to embed videos without the need of additional plug-ins. Videos and other rich media have potential to enhance the customer experience which could lead to higher customer satisfaction and/or revenues.

These advantages are more evident now that consumers have grown used to e-commerce. Nowadays most consumers will go online to check product specs and compare them against similar products before buying it a the store; that's if they don't decide to buy it online first. Some consumers have also found that online allows them to save time that would otherwise be spend driving and in line at stores. Consumer online spending has been increasing year to year since it all started and the marketspace is getting crowded, this is where good marketing can make or break an online business.

E-marketing is basically applying marketing concept to the online world. However one needs to understand that not everything translates directly, and the flexibility that exists in the online world provides allows unlimited possibilities. Therefore e-marketers should be able to evolve or adapt their knowledge to target and fully utilize the opportunities available online.