Today, I want to go to various e-commerce sites out there and extract some information from there like the business models, UI, the sign-in process, and many more. So sit tight and let me take you through all e-commerce giants.
Prerequities📖
I expect you to know what e-commerce means and the types of e-commerce business models. If you don't know then let me provide a short description.
E-commerce in its literal sense is just the trade(the process of buying and selling) of goods online. Just like a grocery store or a fashion store situated far from you and you have access to the items at your fingertips.
There are 6 types of e-commerce business models. And they are:
Business to Business
Business to Consumer
Consumer to Business
Consumer to Consumer
Consumer to Government
Business to Government
If you want to get detailed information about each of them then I recommend you to visit a blog on the medium by Techi Khusi.
Let the fun begin
Ok, these are the few companies that I am going to explore today.
Ebay.com
Flipkart.com
Snapdeal.com
daraz.com.np
sastodeal.com
hamrobazaar.com
Amazon.com
khalti.com.np
One thing to note here is that I already have accounts on few of them. So I might miss some process or get biased about them.
eBay
We are starting with eBay. I know it as an online marketplace where one user can list a product and another user can view and order the product if they like it. Let's do some research.
I am already greeted with a list of products on the home screen. I haven't used it yet so first I am going to create an account. These are basically the steps that I followed to sign up, buy an item and sell an item.
I know the sign-up flow was pretty smooth and straightforward forward but the buying process was a little bit tedious. I was greeted with one page after another even though I selected a specific product. Simply put, there were a lot of products.
Since eBay is C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer) e-commerce site. So I tried buying up the item. It wasn't much different from any other sites and I even tried to list a product on sale. A lot of fields are to be filled when an item has to be listed. So you need to separate a good amount of time for it, probably more information helps consumers find their actual needs.
And now coming to the UI. It wasn't totally revolutionary. It was good, satisfactory but not excellent to be praisable. Pretty old-school UI is there but with significantly great page load time.
Till now, I think somewhere in your mind you were thinking, I am going to rate the websites but no, I am not going to do that.
Flipkart
Oh boy here comes the neighbor with the never-ending offers on their websites. I have used this website pretty much a lot. No no not for ordering any items but for the learning process. I really admire the UI of this e-commerce site. Just have a look, it is far better than old-fashioned eBay.
I know it is not completely revolutionary and at the same time, I cannot also say it is worse than eBay. Yes, I might be biased on this as I have already built a price tracker for Flipkart. Do you want to check it out? Well, here it is.
I am quite familiar with the colors and UI but I have never actually tried being a part/member of Flipkart. Today, I want to sign-up on Flipkart.
I tried only creating an account but was unsuccessful because I am just a neighbor. I mean I am in a neighboring country where Flipkart is registered i.e. India. And I wasn't able to change the country code on the mobile number.
Flipkart follows a B2C(Business-to-Consumer) e-commerce model. It is one the most popular model out there in the market and the most used one also.
And the ordering process is also pretty smooth. Although I was unable to go through the process as I can't make an account but looking from the outside, it isn't really a pain.
Snapdeal
I don't know what it is actually for. But as far as I know from some social media posts and videos, it is the same as eBay.
Ok, there is always a first time for doing all things. Here is my first time knowing snap deal and being a member of it.
My genuine first reaction after visiting snapdeal.com was
I am really impressed with the simple user interface. I mean just look at this, it is simple to use, and just feels good to use it.
Alright, let's try to use the platform by creating an actual account. That is an actual way to know better about an app.
Yet another only for India product. I can't use my phone number from outside India. Alright, I think it is made only for India. Made in India and only for India product. Good for them.
Moving on, it follows a C2C(Consumer-to-Consumer) e-commerce model. So I can actually sell the products in theory but first I have to get an Indian SIM. And the process of selling an item involves slightly different steps than eBay. It is only for India e-commerce sites so to sell the product, you need to have a GST number.
Because I am not an Indian. So, let's check out more e-commerce sites.
Daraz.com.np
Alright, I used to think that it is an e-commerce model founded and used in Nepal. But no, it was founded in another country, used in different other countries, and registered in another country.
The e-commerce site I will be visiting is only for my country as it has a specific domain name. It was founded in Pakistan way back in 2012 and is now acquired by one of the e-commerce giants Alibaba a few years ago. Daraz is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in most south Asian developing countries. Actually, it is now in operation in four countries: Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
I already have an account on daraz.com.np. So, I am not going to register it again. I can explain the login flow. I was first asked for my email and password and then I filled up more details like the phone number, address, etc. I can be a little biased about it😅
I tried buying one item but this time I faced some issues during the checkout. Overall, the buying process was pretty smooth when I used it in past. I hope it hasn't changed much.
Daraz follows B2C(Business-to-Consumer) business model just like Flipkart and amazon. I find the UI of this website quite good except for the hero section, the images, popups, and nav all look like spam to me. And also inner me feels like the loading time of daraz is pretty high compared to the same type of e-commerce sites.
That's it
Alright, we explored a few of the e-commerce sites and will be exploring more in the future. Overall, all of the e-commerce sites basically have the same buying process. And the UI is similar, the only difference there is the color and a little bit of tweaking of elements here and there. And we also realized that some sites are still national and haven't expanded to wide international audiences.
A little later I got this message from eBay:
"We wanted to let you know that your eBay account has been permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk. We understand that this must be frustrating, but this decision was not made lightly and it’s important that we keep our marketplace safe for everyone. Learn more about how and why accounts can be suspended"
Oh gosh, I was just testing out the site. There was absolute no need to ban me premanently.
