eCommerce can broadly be defined as the buying and selling of goods and services electronically. eCommerce continues to grow and many have suggested that online retailing is contributing to the slow demise of traditional brick and mortar retailing.
By extension, an eCommerce ecosystem is a network of interconnected systems or services that make up an eCommerce business. In other words, the eCommerce firm does not only focus on offering one particular service but a network of services.
Since eCommerce became a popular trend all over the world, a good number of businesses have scaled their services in order to reach more customers and keep them within their ecosystem. This has somewhat ensured that a business is not entirely dependent on one particular product even though it is thriving.
Jumia is a well-known ecosystem in Africa. Over the years, the eCommerce company has built one integrated, inter-connected ecosystem that captures most of the simple day to day needs that people could do on the same platform rather than multiple platforms.
This model has really helped in scaling the business, building one brand across the continent and building the same experience for consumers across the continent.
If you have followed Jumia over the years, it kicked off its business in Nigeria as a marketplace where you can shop. However, today it has grown that you can shop for everything you want on Jumia without visiting other platforms.
Rather than just focusing on shopping, Jumia included the other things people would normally do, including ordering food, booking flights and hotels. This has enabled Jumia to build a sustainable business through the years.
Indeed, Jumia has proven that the eCommerce ecosystem is working. Regardless, some businesses are yet to embrace the eCommerce ecosystem even though they have the capability to do so.
Expectedly, there are so many challenges eCommerce ecosystem poses, but the benefits far outweigh these shortcomings.
Internationally, companies like Amazon, Alibaba, Google, Microsoft and Apple among others have also grown and have been able to meet their profit target thanks to being an eCommerce ecosystem.
Benefits of an eCommerce Ecosystem
One of the benefits of an eCommerce ecosystem is that your business won’t struggle nor will your business liquidate or be bought over. This is as a result of not being over-dependent on a particular product or service. The dependency on one product or service has led to quite a lot of companies in a country like Nigeria to fold up
Another advantage of the eCommerce ecosystem is that it guarantees long-term business growth. An average business has a lot of responsibilities. Responsibility to the government, employees, suppliers, vendors among others. Sometimes a one-product offering won’t let you meet these responsibilities. However, since you have different products, you have different streams of revenue. In the long run, you will achieve growth and of course, be able to meet your business responsibilities.
Finally, you will win the loyalty of your customers because when they think about buying or booking anything online, it is your brand that pops into their head.