Mastering E-Commerce: A Comprehensive Guide for Future Entrepreneurs

[Music] good day students you're all welcome to ENT

211 we started few weeks ago with the

introduction considered the concept of Entrepreneurship after that my colleague came to to

continue looking at the theories and rationale and relevance of Entrepreneurship after which we also

consider the characteristics of entrepreneurs that when somebody wants to be successful as an

entrepreneur what are the personality traits and the characteristics he ought to

possess thereafter we looked at entrepreneurial thinking that's what we call entrepreneurial mindset that what

typ of mindset to want process to be a successful entrepreneur then we moved on to

consider the forms of business ownership are you going to stand as a soul prator or you want to join hand

with somebody in Partnership or you want to incorporate your business and what are the factors

you should consider in determining the form of business ownership that is

appropriate again we consider the you of business registration uh forming alliances and

then joint ventures into detail that's a CLE to the study on forms of business

ownership then the basis of visibility boards and business plans fact that it is necessary to conduct a

research to know whether what you are going into this Venture is actually visible or not then come up with your

reports and through your results you can draw up a business plan that will Ser as a road map or a guide to running the

business successfully then another colleague came to take you on the issue of innovation

remember that one of the characteristics of the traits and part of the thing we talk

about under having an entrepreneur mindset is issue of creativity and Innovation so that was also properly uh

crashed with that you can achieve a Competitive Edge over the other entrepreneurs in the same industry

and uh after that you look at contemporary entrepreneurship skills

skills you should have in order to succeed if for instance if you are a manufacturing

organization uh the entrepreneur should have the knowledge the know how of that particular good you are producing or the

service you are rendering it's going to even if you are not uh personally involved in rending the

service or in the production of the good having personal knowledge as an entrepreneur is very essential to the

because it will assist your monitoring and supervision of the whole

process apart from that managerial skills are very necessary because we have the know how about producing that

or rendering that service but you don't have the managerial skills you may not be able to run the business successfully

because you are working with other people you need human skills you need conceptual skills you need you know

other skills that will assist you in managing people in managing finance managing time and other

resources so that's uh those all those ones are also treated then last week uh Pig also came to talk about

entrepreneurship in Nigeria how far entrepreneurship had gone the Practical aspect of it various types of

businesses people can go into even up till now now we are

rounding off the whole course for the semester

today with the basic uh principles of eCommerce so I want to look at the

aspect of e-commerce because we are living in a digital world and uh entrepreneurs to also

be uh not just computer lat but also be skilled in this aspect of e-commerce so we talk about

e-commerce as dealing with buying and selling of goods and

services through the internet internet is essential and because of the high rate

of competition every entrepreneur should strive

to be on top to see how to achieve Competitive Edge and one of the helpful areas is the issue

of being connected to the world operating globally and that is made possible to

through uh e-commerce uh when we talk about e-commerce variety of transactions can take place

online uh we have electronic Market places dig Services can uh rendered conducted through websites and online

platforms and other mobile applications you can even use your mobile devices uh Android

your iPhone iPad and so and and so forth and over the years eCommerce activities have been

growing and uh at the last count for last year last 2024 uh the e-commerce Market was valued

at approximately $6.39 trillion and know that a huge amount and

is a little bit here a little bit there you can also be part of those earning this uh if your own is not up to

billions at least maybe hundreds start hundreds of dollars, of doar that's why right from the Inception I emphasize the

Parra we not learning univers is not teaching you this just because you want to have an A or B you want to score high

my that's okay but most importantly for you to be able to make use of this knowledge in

Practical terms even uh right from now as a students I give you examples of those students are students who have uh

benefited from this course they have practical lied and be able to produce one thing or the some of them are also

engaged in buying and selling maybe Trading or producing most of them producing manufacturing maybe shoes

sandals engaging in rending of services and they have been able to uh take care of themselves that is the purpose most

important by the time you graduate and you're already a professional in the sense you can Market whatever knowledge

uh whatever field whether you are in arts or you are in Sciences or management Sciences medicine or any uh

field of study now if you are not online this generation uh you will not be able to do

as much or benefit As Much from the entrepreneurship knowledge you have so all those things you have learned by the

time you start rending the services or producing the use your presence online will assist to in uh you'll be visible

you improve your visibility apart from that you'll be able to Market your product or your good or your service

successfully that is it now with that's just brief introduction then we want to look at the categories of Ecommerce or

what some people call e-commerce business uh models we have different uh types

of U e-commerce activities or models that are designed to meet different Market needs the first one I'm going to

talk about is what we call B Toc B to C or business to Consumer so b2c is just an application for business

to consumer that's the most common uh model that's where you have business organizations rendering services or

selling Goods to Consumers online so everything we talk about will be online and this is done uh directly

without any intermediary coming in between the business and the consumer

uh we also also have B2B that's also an abbrevation you see B 3 B that is business to

business so as opposed to the earlier where businesses are selling to

Consumers businesses are selling to businesses and businesses are buying from business so the transactions are

taking place between one business or the other or between some businesses and other uh

businesses also online all this happens through various platforms number three you also have consumer to Consumer

that's what called C to C C Toc consumer to uh consumer in that case you see consumers selling uh directly to other

consumers but that is facilitated by uh third party platforms somebody will have a platform where individuals who want to

buy meet individuals who want to sell then uh number four you have consumer to business that is

C2 b c Tob consumer to business so you can have individual consumers to selling to

businesses that's also done through uh platforms you might be familiar

with up work where you see uh Freelancers offering their services to different uh

businesses so once they make thems available like that various businesses will contact them and then uh the owners

of the platform also will have their own percentage that they will collect then we have

b2g b2g that's business to uh government that's where you see businesses providing goods or services to

government agencies government uh uh entities for instance you can have a computer film that go

to develop or design softwares for the government agents maybe software that they can use

to for their salary payments to pay their staff or software for other uh purposes so business those businesses

are selling their services to the government that's why we say we call it B2 G then you can also have

g2b that's a government to uh business so in that case it is the government that

is uh rendering the service or providing the facility for those businesses for instance you know government has

uh regulator of business activities me open a portal for registration of businesses or obtaining

of licenses or for other purposes so those businesses that want

to relate with government or on that issue or maybe have any dealing with them on that issue will have to go to

that portal and filling the necessary information and then uh be able to comply with the

structures it have to do with obtaining of refenes or registration of businesses you know as opposed to what you used to

have those this where you have to do physically and then engage so many paperwork most of

these things are done online so the government can make uh Provisions for that for those businesses so when you

have online business or is an example of that G2 B then another business model is what

we call H mobile Commerce that's M Commerce it's a subset of e-commerce but you carry it out on your

mobile device whether your Android phone or iPad ipone or whatever once it is on a mobile device

it is regarded as a mobile Commerce and that is what refer to us m Commerce and in that case it encompasses B to C C to

C uh transactions there some we also have what refer to as a d2c that is direct to

Consumer direct to Consumer that's just emphasizing the fact that it is mobile marketing but it is

direct marketing it's done online but we are dealing away with the activities of any

form of intermediary so call it direct to consumer that to now why are we emphasizing or talking

about e-commerce is because of theart from fact that that's the in now that's trend business

world you also have some advantages which are visible number

one Global reach yes regard them as advantages but those are actually their characteristics ofici of any e comm

Global it has a global reach the business person the seller or the marketer the entrepreneur can reach any

part of the world at the same time at

once so all geographical barriers are eliminated in fact your customers are everywhere in the world you have a

worldwide consumer base so that makes your uh work or your activities easier because you able to

reach a larger number of people at the same time then uh the issue of uh interactivity that is the

e-commerce platforms facilitate direct communication between buyers and sellers so easily you can engage different

groups or types of consumers without much as once your presence is

felt online and you also feel the presence of those consumers you can once you make yourself

available you can provide your link to contact you and you begin to uh do business then is more convenience the

issue of convenience is there 24/7 access no closing time or opening hours you see but you cannot be sitting with

the computer all the time yes but these things may be automated so that even while you

are not here physically you have already programmed the thing so that people can still get

automated responses and when you come online I mean when you come to computer phally then you can uh do more follow up

and respond properly to those who are making inquiries uh other seing other things

then apart from that is issue of cost efficiency uh the amount of money spent is uh far

far lower than when you are talking about Big M type of businesses that is the normal physical businesses physical

interactions we are familiar with but because this one is online and then you are reaching out you are using your

website or other means by the time you look at the cost we see that it's far far cheaper than the conventional type

of business model but that's not to say that the e-commerce uh method doesn't have its

own challenges well especially in this part of the

world there will be some technical issues which may not uh which will not be present in the

developed World in terms of infrastructure uh network issues

electricity problems and so on that one but is in the develop part of the world where you have

247 electricity and you have good nwork that one may not be but we are talking of practical things now which uh apply

to our own environment then there's this uh cyber security threats that one is worldwide anywhere

you know you hear about scammers activities of frosters online and all that even though efforts have been made

to Checkmate this but still have reports of millions of

dollarss Nas that people are losing from time to time as a result of this cyber uh crimes so

we have that then the issue of logistics and the return management when you are

selling you have an online business you sell to people Del Goods to them they are associated

challenges number one as opposed to what you have in the physical Market where you go there you

see the good you hold it you can test you can check it and know that okay this is what I

want this one I don't want this and get it right there without paying but online sometimes

what is displayed may not be an exact replica of what you actually

need yes the specifications are there but at the same time by the time the GRS get to the consumers there are times

when you want to reject maybe the process of Transportation this might have been

damaged or it not exactly size or the the shape or the type the consumer wants and sometimes some of these Goods may

have to be returned so the issue of uh managing Logistics and such return uh issues may also be a

challenge then another challenge is due of competition because of the nature of the

internet on which Ecommerce you know that so many people have access to these online platforms so because

it's so crowded it has a higher level of competition than the normal physical business which uh geographical location

can sort of District but the online space is open to anybody from anywhere at any time so the issue of a high level

of competition the C markets is also uh a challenge then apart from that we are talking of technology and this

technological advancement doesn't stay at a point it keeps on improving and improving and advancing and because of

that if you want to succeed as an entreprene entrepreneur this online businesses

e-commerce uh platforms and activities then you have to keep on updating there something in business we

call environmental scanning so where the manager suspected to monitor goings on the environment to

see the implication or effect it has on it own business and how to respond or react to them the same thing

when it comes to the issue of operating through the internet so because of the dynamic

nature of the technological environment you have to keep on updating knowing the latest is that's why some of this your

apps on your uh Android from time to time you see another has arrived you have fixed this there's Improvement on

this area and that so if also want to make use of the online space there the need to keep on updating to keep our

breast of uh changes or uh involving uh Technologies another aspect we want to

consider this isue of online marketing and advertising uh there are so many

strategies that entrepreneurs can make use of uh in this digital digital

marketing uh activities we are talking about and when we talk of digital marketing that means the various online

uh marketing strategies that are aimed at promoting goods and services through

various digital uh channels some of these strategies include what we call content

marketing that's a developing putting up useful materials for people people that can

assist them uh to find solution to certain problems which you as an entrepreneur you are

trying to solve with your good or with your service so you may have your blogs where you post useful articles that help

people inform people educate people concerning solution to certain uh problems or meeting certain needs in

their lives it may be videos some I talk about podcast and podcast podcast audio streams that you

have recorded put on your website or BL here for people to click and listen to or watch and get certain information

that will attract them to uh patronize because when when they see the usefulness of this content they able to

want to ask for more so the goal in this H area of content and marketing is to build brand

awareness that's what we attract them to you and then you also want to establish yourself as an authority in

that industry then apart from that can talk about the email marketing so you send

targeted mails to uh individual businesses to communicate with customers so that you

can send newsletters produce newsletter send it to the uh emails you can design promotional offers sent into various

emails there can be personalized recommendations too that will attract them to you so in that case you are

trying to maintain uh good customer relationship and you also want to draw

people to yourself then there's this uh thing we call PPC that's a pay per click paper click

advertising where you make your presence or put your link on the uh maybe if you have your own website you can put it on

your own website or even somebody's else website so that as they click that uh maybe Google ads or other forms of media

ad for every click you uh that's what uh that is where advertisers pay a fee so

there's an amount of money you pay for each advertisement that is C so that's the purpose of that to generate traffic

to websites then we want to increase visibility then we can also talk about aate marketing

in that you are collaborating with other people collaborating with individuals or businesses that

promote uh your product in return for a commission so they sell they promote the goods and sell Goods on your behal and

pay percentage of the cost of that good or service so in that case you able to expand your

reach and then you are in also on the audience of this AFF Sometimes some of these AFF they

[Applause] have thousands of followers sometimes hundreds of thousands of followers so by

the time they assist you in sending your own information information about your product your

service to their followers on their various platforms you have a larger reach and more people be able to contact

your all these are done also e-commerce platform you also talk

about influencer marketing that is you partner with some people those people refer to as a influencers they also have

their followers they have their they can be bloggers they have their followers in social media personalities or industry

experts and they use their personality the name they have made the followers they have gathered to influence people

positively towards patronizing your product so that they can get your service so your aim in that

case is to uh tap into the influencers audience expertise or popularity for the benefit of your own

business then we can also talk about retargeting or the market there are when you discover that some people make

attempts click at one adver to the other to make attempt at product but they did not eventually make a

purchase but already they got information concerning product concerning the organization concerning

that business so you can also see and find a way of making them informing them and allowing them to make a return visit

so you are targeting those so that those who already have an idea they are not completely ignorant or unaware of a

product we now see how to make them enti them to make a trial so that we are able to convert them

to buyers not just people who are are of the existence of your brand now let's look

at the aspect of social media uh marketing uh you have so many social media platforms which people can

use to connect audiences can use to build your blood awareness or to promote your products or Services you're able to

engage directly with your customer and then uh build type of community around yourself and your

products uh we are all familiar with all the social media platforms each of them can be used for the purpose of

marketing and not just marketing of the product at least uh improving your visibility on the internet Facebook is

here it's a platform for uh advertising it's not just friends like or like that to te

your pictures and all that you can actually make use of it to get customers to publicize your goods engage our

customers share content and then uh do a lot of things that will help you to succeed at an as an

entrepreneur Instagram also is a visually driven platform where you can send your ideas your

brands in a passion that you make people to uh show interest it may be in the food industry passion

industry uh lify things that to do with health you can

promote different types of the and the businesses uh Twitter is also a social platform

that use off the Blogger to assist you link in it's not only

for academic people professionals people are now us it as advertising medium so a lot of business

to business business marketing goes on there that's talk about Tik Tok also is there all the social media platform that

can be useful for you as an entrepreneur and when you do that so you you create content uh you can engage or build

community of people around yourself you can engage in the page advertising and you can get people if you have your own

you have your own platform you can get people to also Place advertisements with you and

earn some money and a lot of monitoring of the traffic that goes on on on your own website or social media can be done

and when you get the statistics of people who are showing interest that are not making purchases gives you an idea

of how effective your advertisement and promotional activities have been and how much effort

you still need to push in order to win those who have not made up their minds to start making ords and then bring

fresh people too who uh they also want to be interested so that's how far we want to

go this semester I want to encourage every one of you because you still have all these things all these study

sessions on the YouTube go over them again and again from week one to week 11 and digest them and you can also get

more information on the test and references that G and prepare yourself to get the best of

entrepreneurial development don't forget it's not only to pass yourself understand that pass but at the

same time the major thing is the Practical aspect which you can start doing even as a student and then after

school you can continue to take care of yourself and even employ some other people wish you the best of luck in your

fure endear thank you and good bless [Music]