Businesses established before the 1990s thrived in an offline world where business was largely conducted locally, but the recent explosion of e-commerce has brought with it a wealth of new opportunities. Existing businesses have adapted to changing behaviour and trends to reap the rewards of a borderless global economy, and new ones have put e-commerce at the forefront of their business strategies, with some operating solely online.
Older generations are increasingly tech-savvy, while millennials and Gen Z have grown up with digital technology making e-commerce their preferred shopping channel. With this in mind, we recently held an exclusive webinar with our friends at Maurice Lacroix to discuss the importance and challenges of controlling unauthorized sales.
Turning online
Today's retailers can sell online in two ways. The first is directly to the end consumer through the various channels and marketplaces. The second is indirect, where brand owners work with authorized croatia whatsapp data distributors who then sell to the end consumer. These indirect sales relationships are based on distribution agreements that depend on a set of conditions, often including the channels and marketplaces in which they can trade, to whom they can sell, and under what conditions.
This e-commerce environment includes numerous channels, such as websites that may be owned by the official brand, or by third parties that may sell products from a range of brands across a variety of sectors. We also have digital marketplaces, which are effectively online retail stores and which, in fact, account for 62% of e-commerce sales.
Next are social media platforms, originally designed to facilitate social contact between individuals, but which have since become important channels for businesses to promote and advertise their products, and have recently evolved to facilitate sales. This evolution means that consumers can now complete a purchase without leaving the social network. Social media as a sales channel is still in its infancy, but due to the global penetration of socially active consumers, it is already a very important player.
Last but not least, we have mobile commerce (m-commerce), a sales channel known as m-commerce. This channel is largest in Asia, where companies have developed strategies to build audiences through mobile devices and sell directly to them through mobile apps.
Control unauthorized sales through digital channels
As we heard in our exclusive webinar, 20% of global retail sales are now made through e-commerce platforms, driven by increasing global internet penetration, the introduction of high-speed fibre optic connections and device ownership (which has increased significantly in recent times across the developing world).
E-commerce channels are expected to attract a larger market share, in fact they are expected to grow by around 56% in the coming years, but it is not only official companies that have identified this online trend, nor the opportunities for those operating in these channels.