According to a recent study, in 2020 alone, nearly 5.4 million students took at least one class on the Internet. The practice has gotten so popular that about 10% of all postsecondary institutions now offer online courses of some kind, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
But the key thing to understand is that online courses aren’t solely changing the world of education, but are also having a major impact on business industries, like eCommerce and digital product sales. These Internet-driven educational opportunities are shaping the way digital products are sold thanks to the fact that they bring with them benefits to both businesses and consumers alike. This reigns true in a range of ways, all of which are worth a closer look.
1. Online Education is Making New Opportunities Accessible to All
Thanks to online education, gone are the days when you had to attend one of a handful of specialized schools in order to pick up a particular or niche skill set. Now, it’s possible to get a robust education in practically anything if you know where to look, all from the comfort of your own home.
Case in point: wholesale real estate investing. As individuals are now pursuing this real estate investing method at a higher rate, they need specialized knowledge and insight on top of their existing real estate education.
Now, thanks to online courses including educational mentorship programs, leaders like Real Estate Skills are getting more people successfully into the wholesale mix. It has quickly ballooned into a popular investment strategy, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when record demand met low inventory and the types of low interest rates the market hadn’t seen in decades.
2. Preparing the Next Generation of Workers
By far, one of the biggest ways that online courses are changing eCommerce and digital sales has to do with how they’re adequately preparing the next generation of workers for the shifts that are about to happen in these industries.
The use of concepts like artificial intelligence and cloud computing were already present in eCommerce, but the COVID-19 pandemic acted as an accelerant that supercharged trends like these. They’re big, structural changes that are going to eliminate some jobs and create entirely new ones, the latter of which it has already started to do.
This type of disruption always requires people to learn new skills, be it by way of up-skilling, re-skilling, or something else entirely. Online courses are already helping enormously to that end, teaching people how to coexist with things like automation and teaching them what they need to know to function in the more technical roles that have already started to appear.
Another recent study indicated that in 2021 alone, more than 20 million new users registered for at least one online course from Coursera. That is equal to the growth in online education for the three full years prior to the pandemic. Reasons like this go a long way towards explaining “why”.
3. Online Courses are Leveling the Playing Field
The rise of eCommerce giants left many smaller, often local businesses and suppliers at a disadvantage. Now, thanks to online courses and education, the pendulum is finally swinging back in the opposite direction. For a (relatively) low up-front cost, smaller businesses can pick up the skills they need to adequately compete with their larger counterparts. They don’t have to outspend them, but rather outthink them.
With the right education it is possible for even individuals to generate 24/7/365 income, all without worrying about opening up a physical store in their area. Anyone can build a brand and sell to customers globally, while still pricing and shipping their products in a competitive way.
But most importantly, online courses give people the opportunity to embrace one of the most important trends of the modern era: a truly personalized customer experience. No business is too small to offer the personalized level of care and attention-to-detail that the modern consumer demands. You just have to leverage the right technology and have the skills and education necessary to make it happen.
That is perhaps the single biggest benefit that online courses provide to both consumers and entrepreneurs working in the world of eCommerce and digital product sales today.
Online Courses are Changing the Way We Think About eCommerce
In an overwhelming number of sectors and spaces, online courses are changing the way we think about eCommerce and digital product sales The education that you can pick up quickly and efficiently is invaluable, to the point where both businesses and individuals can leverage it to grow their sales and reach the largest possible audience at the exact same time.