E-commerce in Sri Lanka: Benefits and Strategies

What precisely is electronic commerce?
E-commerce, often known as electronic commerce, is the exchange of products and services as
well as the sending of money and data through an electronic network, most commonly the
internet. These commercial dealings can be either B2B (business-to-business), B2C (business-to-
consumer), C2C (consumer-to-consumer), or C2B.
E-business and e-commerce are frequently used interchangeably. The transactional procedures
that make up online retail purchasing are also referred to as e-tail.
How has Sri Lanka profited from it?
And as time goes on, Sri Lanka, a developing country, has started to catch up to new technical
developments, leading many enterprises and government agencies to start implementing
networking and e-commerce into their daily operations.
And how can your company use it?
Various governmental and private companies, as well as consumers, have benefited from the
adoption of e-commerce by way of a variety of possibilities and competitive advantages:-
 Social networking: The social networking component of e-commerce enables
companies to interact with their customers more effectively. Many of Sri Lanka's most
well-known brands, including softlogic, keels and Dialog, all have active social media
profiles where they advertise their own products as well as those of other related
companies.
 Third-party delivery system:
A thirdparty delivery system was needed in the Sri Lankan food market to deliver food fr
om nearby restaurants, particularly from eateries that couldn't handle their own deliver
y. Uber recognized this market need and developed a plan to participate in the Uber Eat
s e-commerce scheme, using online delivery to give the workforce much
needed jobs and even serve people with transportation storages.
 E-Banking: When it comes to rapidly and effectively carrying out these online
transactions from the comfort of our location, without the need for ATMs or going to
the bank, another part of e-commerce known as e-banking, such as for example
Commercial Bank's Combank Digital, is of utmost significance.
 Advertising:
Ecommerce also includes websites that receive advertising payments to advertise a com
pany's name or item. This also occurs in Sri Lanka, as evidenced by the presence of
advertisements on a few pages of websites like Daraz.

How can I create my own ecommerce website?
1. Create your brand. Making decisions is necessary for brand building in an e-
commerce setting. Are you running a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-
consumer (B2C) website, first of all? Your e-commerce project should be
customized to your target audience's wants and preferences, from the picture
style to the degree of information in the product descriptions. Finally, you should
think of a catchy company name something distinctive and memorable that
accurately conveys the goals of your brand.
2. Purchase a domain name. When deciding on a name for your e-commerce
company, you might also want to take domain name availability into account.
Although purchasing a name is simple, popular domains occasionally sell out
quickly. If the domain you want is still available, attempt to secure it as soon as
you can (you may choose a short-term contract of a year or two in case you're
not entirely committed). You might want to look to see what URLs are available
before deciding on a company name in order to improve brand awareness and
generate traffic to your e-commerce site.
3. Select a hosting system. After acquiring your domain, you may launch your
website by selecting a web host (ideally one that has an e-commerce platform)
to host it. Others provide pre-built website designs that are suitable for both
desktop and mobile viewing, while some hosting services are more basic and
need you to design and develop the website yourself.
4. Design your website. Beyond a recognizable logo and striking color scheme, your
website design should clearly convey the objectives of your company. Due to the
fact that this is the primary operation of your e-commerce website, take great
care while building an intuitive online shop with simple search and filtering
options. Sales may be lost as a result of an unorganized website layout or a
difficult checkout process, and brand reputation may suffer.
5. build and publish your website. Using a platform like Shopify to create your own
website using a prefab approach dropping pre-coded content blocks and picture
placeholders into a site-building interface could help you save money on web
development expenditures. If you have a little more money to spend, you can
still design your website individually with a developer, then move the site over
using a hosting platform like Shopify.
6. Establish the order fulfillment process. Which method of e-commerce fulfillment
will you choose? Dropshipping (buying products directly from suppliers on behalf
of clients), in-house fulfillment, or third-party logistics (completely outsourcing
fulfillment processing)? These will influence your site's look and your ability to
accept orders. Make sure your ad content sufficiently informs clients of when
they may expect to get their package, for example, if you depend on a third-
party logistics firm and they have a normal delivery time range.