One of the things that motivate our team at The Hair Society is to see hair restoration/ replacement salons as well as hair salons succeed. When we have the privilege to help you achieve your goals and dreams, we are fulfilling our purpose. The past four to five months have been challenging for our entire world. Between the health crisis, businesses being shuttered, people out of work, and the recent civil unrest in our society, everyone is doing whatever they can to keep their heads above water. We would love to help you not only survive, but thrive!

The Hair Society would like to introduce you to the world of e-commerce (if you aren’t already familiar with it). For many businesses and individuals, innovative e-commerce has transformed not only how we do business, but how we shop as consumers and business owners. 

In a nutshell, e-commerce (short for electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods or services on the internet. E-commerce ranges from mobile shopping to online payments and beyond. With an e-commerce presence, many businesses will obtain an e-commerce storefront and/or an e-commerce platform to conduct sales and marketing activities, as well as having oversight of logistics and fulfillment.

Many will be surprised to learn that the history of e-commerce, in its earliest form, dates back about 40 years ago with the introduction of CompuServe.

E-commerce retail sales in the U.S., over the past decade, have increased from 3.3% to 9.7%. That is an increase of almost 300%! In the U.S., we have just begun to tap into the online market. Growth projections by 2022 suggest that e-commerce revenues will exceed $638 billion. Who wouldn’t want to have a piece of that pie?

E-commerce has literally transformed the way we shop today. Would you have ever imagined ordering a new mattress online and receiving it by mail delivery? How about choosing your next vehicle online and having it delivered to your home? No more spending hours at the vehicle dealership having to meet with several layers of sales management. We can now shop for almost anything from the comfort of our home, simply using our mobile telephone, devices, or computers.

It’s easier than ever to increase your online presence and open an e-commerce storefront. The “way we’ve always done it” may be comfortable for some, but in order to increase your market share, and step out of your comfort zone, you will have to be open to thinking outside of the box. 

As a potential e-commerce business, you’ll likely fall into at least one of these four general categories. It is not unusual to operate within more than one of these categories at the same time.

Business to Consumer

1. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) – transactions made between a business and a consumer. This is one of the most commonly used sales models in e-commerce. When someone buys hair care products from an online salon, it is a business-to-consumer transaction.