Components of E-commerce: Key Elements for Online Business Success

Indian consumers are becoming increasingly digitally savvy year by year, and so is the e-commerce space, as they buy more online, with projections showing it will reach ₹12-14 lakh crore by 2030.

But this growth is causing ecommerce companies a tough time as they move to catch up with customer’s speed and expectations.

Your brand’s online platform’s success now depends heavily on how well it serves and fulfils their changing buying behaviour. 

The below guide talks about the right components of e-commerce you must deploy to ensure you don’t miss out on India’s e-commerce growth story.

Key Components of an E-commerce Framework

All e-commerce platforms have several components working together to deliver perfect online shopping experiences. 

E-commerce Platforms in India

E-commerce platforms are the technological foundation that supports everything from system integrations to payment processing. 

API-first approach: With India's e-commerce market growing at 18 %+ annually, brands would need proper APIs that enable integration with domestic services like UPI payments, region-specific logistics providers, and marketplace connectors.

Headless commerce capabilities: It separates frontend and backend functions, allowing you to update the brand's website content without affecting system operations.

Product Information Management (PIM) Systems

PIM systems help centralise all your product-related information into an easy-to-access single source of truth using

• Data orchestration: Solutions like Akeneo and Pimcore unify your product data from multiple sources to help you maintain data integrity across channels
• Content enrichment workflows: Implementing approval processes through content creators, technical specialists, and marketing teams
• Catalogue localisation: For merchants selling in pan-India, PIMs help you manage multilingual product information easily 

Shopping Cart and Checkout Systems for D2C E-commerce Brands

The checkout is where the actual conversion takes place. It is also the stage that determines whether the customer proceeds or drops off.

To ensure your shoppers complete their purchase, consider implementing the following steps.

Mobile-first experience: Your checkout systems must excel on mobile devices since over 70% of e-commerce traffic in India comes from mobile devices.  

Offer SSO (single sign-on) to customers to make the app experience less clicky. 

The less touch a customer is asked to make, the higher will their chances of completing the order placing.

Address intelligence: Integrate with local address databases to validate, auto-complete shipping details, and avoid delivery failures.

Secondly, when a customer places an order, forward them a confirmation message with the address and other details.

WhatsApp or SMS are the go to choice of platform for most brands, given their higher open rate and penetrations in the Indian market.

This way, you avoid getting trapped in NDR and save valuable time and effort on potential fraudulent orders.

Payment Gateways for E-commerce

Payment processing demands particular attention to Indian market specifics:

Local payment method support: Preference for UPI payments (90% of Gen Z digital transactors prefer UPI) alongside cash-on-delivery options is growing strongly among Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. 

Tax compliance: Choose a payment tool with built-in support for GST requirements, including generating compliant invoices with appropriate GSTIN and HSN codes.

Fraud detection: AI-powered tools help you identify potentially fraudulent transactions based on customers’ transaction patterns, history and behaviours.

Order Management Systems (OMS) for D2C E-commerce

The right order management tool helps address the complexity of logistics through

Distributed inventory: Managing stock in multiple warehouses, for quicker order routing to locations closest to the customer, which reduces both delivery times and shipping costs.

Pin code serviceability: Your OMS must solve the challenge of including serviceability constraints across the metro, Tier-2, and Tier-3 cities, where delivery timelines often vary significantly due to various issues.

Returns management: With e-commerce logistics continuing to grow from metro areas (60% of new shoppers since 2020 come from Tier-3 and smaller cities), proper returns processing is equally becoming essential for building long-lasting customer trust.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems for E-commerce Businesses

A CRM system provides you with the intricacies required for building detailed customer profiles using

Regional behaviour tracking: It helps you understand the differences in shopping behaviour in diverse regions, from North India's preference for branded fashion to Southern shopper's focus on electronics quality.

Trait-specific engagement: CRMs help segment and target consumers based on certain shopping patterns, such as mobile-first and social media-influenced cohorts.

Maturity-based strategies: It also enables you to tailor your marketing based on the customer’s digital maturity, as data shows mature metro cities like Coimbatore and Vadodara show 40% higher spending per shopper compared to nascent markets.

Security Measures Built into E-commerce Services

Security infrastructure is needed to protect both your customers and the company's data from leaking or getting manipulated in the wrong way.

Data localisation compliance: Choose an architecture that keeps your customer data within national boundaries, as required under our data protection regulations.

Multi-layer authentication: This component of e-commerce helps balance strong protection with user experience, as brands expand to new user segments with varying digital literacy levels.

DDoS protection: Defence mechanisms help secure and maintain site availability during attack attempts, or high-traffic sales events like festive seasons.

Supporting Technologies in E-commerce

Besides the basic features of e-commerce, various other tools also play an important role in the overall customer journey.

Pre-purchase customer journey in E-commerce

In this stage, merchants use social media advertising, influencer marketing, SEO, pop-ups, email marketing, etc, to capture potential customers looking for a product to solve their problems.

‍

These captured leads are then sent offers like first-purchase discounts, loyalty points or cash-back rewards to encourage consumers to make a purchase.

Once captured, the second step is to get as much data from these customers as possible, so you can perform analysis to create groups focusing on certain characteristics.

With this you will be able to drive these first time subscribers into your funnel through data backed retention marketing.

Once the customer places an order, you then begin the process of maximising the order value through appropriate upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

Post-purchase customer journey in E-commerce

Once the customer places an order, you then begin the process of maximising the order value through appropriate upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

Here, you recommend a product based on the customer’s browsing history, that they're likely to purchase. 

Besides, recommendations providing multiple trusted payment options and a simpler checkout process help improve the shopping experience, which is required to retain these customers.

Build a consistent connection with users with the intent of becoming their go-to brand over time. To achieve this, make them feel part of your community through personalised combos, discounts, limited time offers, and early access to new launches are also proven to be effective in retaining customers.

Post-delivery customer journey in E-commerce

The last stage starts when the customer receives their order. This is where your brand's customer support is tested the most.

Some people might want to return the order or exchange it, whatever there is they must be given responsive and quick help.

Best is to offer support through different mediums like phone, email, chatbot or live chat for the first line of help. So you don't leave customers waiting for long.

Secondly, in the post-delivery phase make use of technologies like push notifications, SMS, WhatsApp marketing, loyalty and referral programs to retain and convert one-time buyers into regular ones.

Pragma and D2C E-commerce in India

With Pragma, managing different features of e-commerce becomes easy, since you don't have to use multiple tools for each aspect.

Here is how Pragma helps you operate the most difficult areas of any e-commerce business with industry-leading back-end processes.

1Checkout System: Speed your checkout time from 8-9 minutes to under 10 seconds with automatic address fill and PIN code validation, supporting all domestic payment methods such as UPI, BNPL, cards, and net banking at negligible gateway charges.

Faces Canada, a leading beauty brand benefits from using Pragma 1Checkout, which allows their customers to complete their order placement without having to type in their details over and again.

RTO Prevention Suite: Identifies high-risk orders by analysing over 300 parameters within 200ms of order placement, to prevent returns-to-origin by up to 60% through real-time risk assessment and automated verification.

Abandoned Cart Recovery: Trigger customised recovery sequences, order related communications and tailored offers via WhatsApp, and achieve conversion rates up to 10% higher than industry standards.

Glamrs (now part of Purplle), for example extensively uses our WhatsApp bot to reaffirm every touchpoint in the customer buying journey, to ensure every cart brings you revenue.

Omnichannel Customer Support: Unify your customer communication across WhatsApp, Instagram, Email, and other channels in a single interface, and save 80% on manual support along with multilingual assistance in 16+ languages.

Return Management System: Manage your returns without any burnout with fully automated processing, branded return pages, and direct integration with all prominent courier services for reverse logistics.

Neemans, a popular men's footwear brand, implemented the Pragma return management system and now handles returns and exchanges at scale while keeping customer experience a priority.

Urban Monkey, another growing youth fashion company, had this to say about us.

To Wrap It Up 

As new cities and diverse customer segments continue to gain importance in the e-commerce landscape, brands that properly integrate above listed technical components will be better equipped to serve India's emerging class of consumers.

‍

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions On Components of E-commerce)

What are the e-commerce components that brands usually miss?

Many brands overlook address intelligence tools, multilingual product catalogs, and returns management systems that are critical for Indian market penetration.

What is the cost estimation for major E-commerce components?

E-commerce platform costs vary from ₹20,000-₹5 lakh monthly, depending on features. PIM systems range from ₹50,000-₹2 lakh, while payment gateways charge 1-3% per transaction.

What are some lesser-known e-commerce components for D2C India?

Retention marketing, omnichannel marketing, live chat tools, social media integrations, etc. are some of the less popular e-commerce components.