Even though digital marketing is a crucial element of eCommerce. There is a deep correlation between them, as the success of eCommerce is strongly influenced by the results of digital marketing. However, eCommerce and digital marketing are distinct activities.
In this article, we will analyze the differences between eCommerce vs digital marketing.
1. The eCommerce overview
1.1. What is eCommerce?
eCommerce, or electronic commerce, is the purchase and sale of products or services over the Internet, as well as the transmission of money and data to complete these transactions. eCommerce is commonly used to refer to the selling of things or services online, but it may also apply to any commercial transaction enabled over the Internet.
There are 4 types of eCommerce, based on the identities of buyers and sellers, including business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-business (C2B), and consumer-to-consumer (C2C).
1.2. Benefits of eCommerce
There are remarkable advantages of eCommerce:
- Lower budget: Merchants don’t have to pay for renting a physical store and hiring a large number of employees.
- Scalability: eCommerce allows your website and store to grow alongside your business, and you won’t have to spend a lot of money moving to a new physical location.
- Large customer base: merchants can reach customers in different countries without limitation of distance or language.
- Avoid overstocks: merchants can choose suitable eCommerce methods like dropshipping or print-on-demand to reduce the risks of overstock.
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2. The digital marketing overview
2.1. What is a digital marketing?
The term “digital marketing” refers to the marketing element that promotes products and services via the Internet and digital technology. The marketers will use various digital platforms and marketing tools to promote their products or services. There are some effective digital strategies merchants can use, including social media, email marketing, Google search, Facebook ads, or affiliate networks.
2.2 Benefits of digital marketing
- Timeliness: It enables companies to contact their target audience with the appropriate message at the correct moment.
- Specific targeting: Targeted advertising increases brand recognition and consumer engagement.
- Develop brand loyalty: By posting relevant information to your audience more regularly, your brand will be able to grow faster.
- Widespread: It provides an excellent opportunity to promote your business and services to a potentially limitless audience.
- Improve customer loyalty: It allows you to communicate the most recent trends and news with your audience via social media and email.
3. What are the differences between eCommerce vs digital marketing?
3.1. Scope
3.2. Objective
The first goal of digital marketing is increasing brand awareness and reaching potential customers through various digital platforms and channels. Not only that, digital marketing strategies focus on enhancing conversion rates which could be sales, sign-ups, downloads, and more.
In contrast, the main objective of eCommerce is facilitating commercial transactions online. Online businesses focus on converting website visitors into paying customers, processing these transactions smoothly, handling shipping and return activities, and customer services.
3.3. Activities
Based on scopes and objectives, there are some differences between digital marketing vs eCommerce activities. Digital marketing relating to content creation on digital channels, website analytics, email marketing, optimizing search engines for online stores, social media marketing, running digital ads, and affiliate marketing. That is why digital marketing success is measured by website traffic, lead generation, and engagement metrics.
On the contrary, eCommerce focuses on directly facilitating online transactions. Its results are measured by sales, revenue, and conversion rates. The eCommerce activities include building and managing online stores, inventory management, order processing and fulfillment, marketing and promotion, and customer service.
3.4. Applicability
Digital marketing is used in various sectors and industries outside of eCommerce, like services, education, entertainment, technology, and more. This is the component of marketing in any business. However, eCommerce refers to a business model that enables the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. It might be part of a bigger company plan that includes physical storefronts or run entirely online.
4. Conclusion
eCommerce and digital marketing relate together. Without effective digital marketing strategies, eCommerce merchants cannot achieve success. To allocate resources efficiently and solve issues as they emerge, it is critical to understand the difference between eCommerce vs digital marketing.
