Chances are very good that you’ve purchased something online. Maybe you’ve bought a pair of shoes or booked a family vacation. Whatever the case, you’ve taken part in ecommerce. That means you should have digital footprint awareness and you should also consider your online presence.
As Carol Dunn expressed in her blog post Digital Citizenship: Are You a Practitioner?, there is much more to online etiquette than just saying please and thank you in an email.
Velsoft’s course Digital Citizenship: Conducting Yourself in a Digital World is valuable for gaining cybersecurity awareness and developing skills to maximize the value of being online. We’ll briefly look at digital commerce here.
Digital Commerce
These days, almost every facet of everyday life is touched by digital commerce. From an etransfer of funds to pay your dog walker to doing all your business banking electronically, your ecommerce focus has likely never been wider.
eCommerce Statistics
Did you know that there are more than two billion online shoppers globally, with each one spending more than $2,300 per capita?
Global ecommerce activity grew by double digits due to the Covid-19 pandemic and predictions say that these ecommerce trends will continue in 2024.
B2B and B2C online commerce is expected to grow by at least 12 per cent up to 2026.
As with anything in life, ecommerce has both positives and negatives:
Pros:
- Shop from many sources and compare prices
- Much more choice online
- Shop any time from home
Cons:
- Goods may conflict with local laws or morals
- Risk of scams or fraud
eCommerce, eLearning, and You
As a trainer or eLearning professional, you are tied — directly and indirectly — to the eCommerce world.
Ecommerce touches everyone in some fashion. Here are a few examples:
- Making or receiving payments online is practically unavoidable, for instance.
- Most individuals get their income from direct deposit and never see an actual paycheck.
- Most people have engaged in making transactions through online subscriptions and/or cybershopping.
So how does all of this mesh with the world of eLearning and training?
Simply consider how you personally interact with ecommerce and then think about an individual, business team, or company that can benefit from training. Digital literacy is important on all levels, but even more so when it involves finances and fiscal security. Velsoft’s course Digital Citizenship Conducting Yourself in a Digital World provides a look at how to keep oneself and one’s business dealings free from the worry of scams and pitfalls. It allows learners to be educated and prepared with valuable cybersecurity insights and knowledge.
What about from a purely transactional aspect? How does ecommerce affect your professional training organization?
Those are good questions. The answers can be considered as two sides of the same coin.
For starters, you want to have a secure system for accepting payments and protecting your customers’ private financial information. This is vitally important as they trust you and it’s a bond you want to keep strong. You don’t want your business to fall prey to online criminals who could access your customer information and exploit it.
On the other side of the coin, it’s essential to maintain your company’s vigilance against spammers and fraud. Being prepared and aware will help prevent your company from falling victim to the very activities that are discussed in your training. This can be seen as a matter of ‘practice what you preach’ in which your company puts into place and follows the security methods covered in your course.
