Picture this: you do a random Google search for a nice new pair of shoes. At the top of the results page you see a whole set of shoes, lined up along with their brand names and prices. Sometimes you can even see products with freebies or, say, a promo code or a buy-one-get-one deal. You click on a specific pair and are automatically directed to a shopping site. Once you've added the shoes to your cart and typed in your payment and shipping info, there is only one thing left to do: click the 'Check Out' button.

We may not always notice it but small ads like these constitute an effective e-commerce strategy. Gone are the days when entrepreneurs almost always needed to open a physical shop and hire sales agents to sell their goods. Almost everything can be done virtually now, more so when the pandemic hit as most consumers had to rely on online businesses to get their daily necessities.