Many people keep wondering why some colleges and business schools introduced e-Commerce as a separate course. To begin with, as eMarketer reported in 2016, retail e-commerce sales are about to skyrocket to $4.058 trillion in 2020. It will constitute almost 15% of total retail spending in 2020. It is quite an impressive number!
Moreover, experts name three main reasons to join students who study this modern art of business:
- e-Commerce business runs on the web platform. Thanks to the technological progress and constant internet access in most regions of the world, one can increase customer base without leaving home or physical office. It is way more effective than trying to expand the traditional business.
- With the help of e-Commerce, it is possible to erase the destination and language barriers. It is possible to optimize the websites anyway you want it. Now, a customer can purchase any product or service with a few clicks of a mouse and determine the exact parameters of the good without having to look for them in traditional/physical stores for hours. It saves plenty of time and nerves.
- In contrast to the traditional stores, the costs of running an e-Commerce website are low. There I no need to rent a premise, recruit labor power, pay the peripheral costs (meaning various communal services), etc. Online ads are also much cheaper than traditional, outdoor or TV commercials. It is a perfect way to save some money!
Before we move on, you should also know e-Commerce requires a great package of IT and marketing related skills only in case you plan to run business all alone or with a partner. Then, you will have to study everything: from management and business law to search engine optimization and the art of copywriting. Anyway, such skills will pay you back very soon!
So, here is the list of recommended online courses for people who are interested in e-Commerce.
University of the People
Absolutely free of charge, the first course on our list offers a great variety of subjects to cover. All you need to do is register and pick the preferred topics. The two most popular options students like you choose are social media (for potential SMMs) and marketing (for future marketing specialists and product managers). Even though the range of e-Commerce disciplines is a bit restricted today, the company promises to expand those options.
By the way, do you know why is it important to study social media marketing in-depth to understand e-Commerce better? Well, BigCommerce answered that question in 2017 by explaining that 23% of online shoppers are affected by social media suggestions.
The SBA Learning Center
Small businesses and startups occupy the greatest share of the market today. The Small Business Association understand the desire of many modern, business-oriented students to succeed in the field of entrepreneurship. Thus, they offer free yet valuable resources to help you with your intentions and goals. Its video lessons are simply irresistible! A student has an opportunity to place classes for taking the product or service to market. The source will help to define the target audience and create a buyer’s portrait. The source will also be useful for those already involved in some kind of business by establishing ways to expand the business of any type.
The Khan Academy
It is one of the most known and well-researched options for the young entrepreneurs on the web. With the growing popularity of online businesses, the academy offers corresponding options for the students and young professionals. It provides plenty of free courses: from science and humanities to business. The best option is get enrolled in its entrepreneurship classes with their focus on remote business building. Those who study social media marketing and business cycles will find valuable information and assistance here as well.
If you find the offered information insufficient, you can also order term papers for sale related to e-Commerce from the trusted writing services. They will also help to pass the courses you are enrolled in with ease.
e-Commerce Training Academy
From SMM to the way platforms like Amazon and eBay work, one may absorb precious skills from this online academy. It is possible to find out the best methods used to promote yourself and your business on the most popular social media networks like Facebook or LinkedIn, create successful blogs, increase website traffic for any sort of business, etc. taking into account 40 million of small businesses have their Facebook accounts (Dream Grow report of 2017), it is a great idea to explore this particular network closer.
Some of the resources offered by this platform are free of charge.
MIT OpenCourseWare
Thank God, this website has a special search field where a user can simply type the course name or specific topic of interest. Otherwise, you may get lost in these bushes as the website offers many different disciplines and issues. Social media marketing and e-Commerce sources are the most popular search queries on this platform. Students have an opportunity to learn marketing and supply chain management better too.
WordPress as the Best Starter Choice
In fact, this service is not performed by the WordPress itself. Most probably you know that WordPress is the most world-known publishing platform. Therefore, most of the e-Commerce organizations launch their stores on this service. From time to time, they may use more confusing options like PrestaShop Themes and Magento Themes. It depends on the number of goods a company plans to sell. Anyway, starting with WordPress development is the smartest option a dummy may do. However, even this platform requires some of the advanced skills like the knowledge of CSS+ or even JavaScript. If you know HTML, you are half the way! Anyway, go to the recommended online resource, Udemy, and explore almost 80 lectures associated with the art of building a website on WordPress. It also includes email marketing lectures, social profile development, and other useful tips to help you with the first store. You may even reach the tutors via Skype for more details and features.
The Ultimate Guide to Business Plans
Your business idea is worth nothing without a well-planned business plan no matter how profitable and successful it sounds. Unlike Udemy, this course is more focused towards the Shopify platform. People who do not plan to apply Shopify to meet their business goals will benefit from this resource as well. They will find out how to create and implement a business plan. The extras include developing financial, operations, and marketing plans.
Foundations of e-Commerce
As one can guess by its name, the course is entirely dedicated to the principles of e-Commerce. You can learn everything about remote business in one place: from disruptive technologies and e-Commerce apps to the way businesses tap into the plentiful resource called SMM.
