The e-commerce industry has seen an exponential rise in recent years. According to a 2018 report released by The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce, total e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2018 were estimated at $127.3 billion, an increase of 15.2% from the second quarter of 2017. Retail e-commerce sales in North America are expected to see consistent double-digit growth by 2020.

While Amazon is the most popular portal for online shopping in the U.S., e-commerce in most parts of Asia is owned by homegrown players such as Alibaba and JD.com in China and Flipkart in India.

Brands and businesses that are adapting to e-commerce are most likely to see maximum growth in the near future. Reacting to early trends and visualizing business in the coming few years is what successful entrepreneurs do. But, focusing on the right steps is critical to the success of any industry, and the same goes for the success of e-commerce businesses.

Strategy is about making the right choices. It provides a road map to stay on track and achieve short-term and long-term goals.

Answering basic questions about the service or products you want to offer, the market you want to serve, and the capabilities you have or need to serve your chosen market will help you develop and execute the vision and mission of your organization.

Start by answering the five Ws (what, why, where, when, whom). These basic but important questions will help you get clear on the reason you are creating the business in the first place.

With adequate understanding of markets, competitors and customer preferences, companies can define the value their innovation brings to the market. Describing your target buyer, the problem you solve, and the reason you’re better than your competitors is the first step to an effective market opportunity assessment.

Having a compelling value proposition is the primary reason a prospect buys from you. A business cultivates when it is unique. The business may be mostly overlapping with many others already out there, but it should stand out in terms of product quality, product delivery, costs, packaging, variety of products offered, etc.

A good example is the service that Amazon provides. Though it came later than FlipKart in India, their service, customer relations and quality of products changed the dynamics of the market significantly, thereby eliminating the dominance of other e-commerce-based companies in India.

Once a company has its strategy in place and knows what it needs to do, the next step is execution or action -- making things happen. Clear organizational goals for all team members, a means of measuring progress toward those goals, and clear accountability are the basic requirements for good execution.

A successful culture of execution that can govern itself is created when everyone has a clear sense of their duties, timelines and next steps, and is working as a team to achieve the company's overall vision.

Setting short-term goals that continually add value is essential for any business. For example, assigning the market research team weekly or monthly goals of monitoring the market, trends, competitors and understanding the changes in customer demands will help the company provide better services. The more data you can analyze, the better decisions you can make.

Establishing a clear, strategic direction that’s truly motivating, communicating frequently and openly, staying humble and grounded, listening carefully and empathetically, and providing a supportive work environment that’s open, transparent, non-political, and fully meritocratic are some qualities that leadership should possess to keep employees motivated and working for the company’s best interest. Giving freedom, establishing transparency between teams and leaders, acknowledging peer-to-peer relations, and eliminating room for politics are powerful strategies for leaders to keep their employees motivated.

Fair leadership brings along respect and a sense of belonging among the people -- the key element of success for any business. A group of people may create a business, but a group of people led by good leaders creates a valuable business clients trust.

E-commerce technology, customer tastes, the industry and the economy are always evolving. To stay on top and stand out from the competition, it’s important for companies to be adaptive to change and focus on learning and improving their skills to succeed in this variable market.

For example, there are many elite universities like Harvard and MIT that offer short-term corporate training programs to enable employees to contribute to the company in a more meaningful way. There are even online courses that offer various personal and professional development programs and can easily be taken without sending employees offsite for additional costs.

Creating a learning environment, making hours flexible so employees could attend classes, or inviting experts to provide specialized training to the company will keep the employees motivated and educated about the latest industry trends.

In a nutshell, e-commerce can be one of the hardest businesses to scale and requires a real team effort, for which everyone has to be fully aligned, excited and capable. However, with the right know-how, one can easily launch and scale a successful e-commerce business.