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5 best E-Commerce books for potential entrepreneurs

From the book collection of few extraordinary and potential E-Commerce founders, I have picked up five best books for those entrepreneurs who want to give wings to their business on the internet to reach great heights. Let’s have a glimpse on each of them.

Amisha Jain 6 Stories

Friday August 25, 2017 , 5 min Read

He said, “if your business is not on the internet then your business will be out of business”. These are the verses of one of the richest man in the world and the best-known entrepreneur of all times. Yes! You got it correct; he is none other than Bills Gates, claiming the top post on the list of Forbes World’s Billionaires consecutively for 16 years.

Truly said, Sir! At this existing moment in the realm of digitalization, if you are not online, you are incompetent to survive in market competition.

E-Commerce? What’s that?

Internet is like that magic lamp which fulfills the wishes of hungry customers by connecting them with passionate sellers owning a kaleidoscopic range of products and services delivered at your doorstep in just a wink. Well, this whole ‘lamp wish thing’ encounters the introduction of a virtual ‘ginee’ called E-commerce which serves customers and sellers to buy and sell things online respectively.

E-commerce can be considered as an infinite tunnel with cash flowing in it in order to make sales and purchases such that business transactions are made to float on the internet massively.

Well, setting an E-Commerce business is not a child’s play. You need to go through a series of steps heading you down in the depth of market roots where you slip your business idea there and caress it every day with business tactics and wait till it emerges, rises and outgrows itself in the market competition, surviving all the trials and tribulations to grow strong someday and bear monetary profit as fruits in the long business run.

Thus, from the book collection of few extraordinary and potential E-Commerce founders, I have picked up five best books for those entrepreneurs who want to give wings to their business on the internet to reach great heights. Let’s have a glimpse on each of them.

1. The 4 Hour Work Week

Without even wasting a second, the first name struck my mind is ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’. It has been converting its readers into brilliant entrepreneurs for years and if you aspire to be one of them, go get it right now. The classic writing of Tim Ferriss is surely going to open your eyes to a new world of possibilities. Although you should be warned that many entrepreneurs propel with this book and then never look for more. It not only circumscribes E-Commerce but a lot more if you are looking for building a real business.

2. Zero To One

Another book to breakthrough is Peter Thiel’s popular work ‘Zero To One’. The book contains everything that he has encountered in his journey. However this book is not as actionable as his previous three books, I’ve included it here because it emphasizes the importance of being innovative, creating defensible market positions and finding unique opportunities to gain an edge in your business.

3. One-click

Since 1995, something has been remarkable about Amazon's success that has brainstormed the mind of every E-Commerce entrepreneur mind and triggered them to peep into the company's path to prosperity. Richard Brandt, the author of One-Click escalates the evolution of Amazon since its initial days, insights from their business model into why and how it grew like it did. One-click not only shows how Amazon’s business model draws sales-driven and practicable approach of running your online store but also enlightens the colossal character of Jeff Bezos, starring his prominent managerial skills and vision which lead Amazon on the wheels of success.

4. The Lean Startup

The Lean Startup - by Eric Ries is another instant hit and is bringing revolution in the startup world. This is because it deals with the hottest topic of the era i.e. how today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses.

If you are confused what you should do - design a perfect product and then launch it or launch it midway and change it based on feedback?

If you are really suffering from this dilemma then this book is perfect for you. It will help you go through the solutions to all the troubles in your mind that are stopping you to start-up, that too in well tested systematic ways.

5. VyaparShastra

Well, this book has nothing to do on this list, still, it deserves to be here proudly. If you are an India based entrepreneur and looking to penetrate hard Indian market with your E-Commerce or whatever type of business idea, you should go through this book once in your lifetime. VyaparShastra is a renowned work of Vishal Shivhare which perfectly epitomises his ecstatic business philosophies giving the reader an insight of kaleidoscopic nature of the business. From barter systems to global start-ups, it utterly describes both the ancient and modern Business Practices employed throughout the Indian trade history. Its plot is woven around the lives of local merchants and urban businessmen of India. Also, the book reveals about the persisting inheritance of the business legacies, persevered and passed from generations to generations as a tradition.

If you are an Indian struggler, this book is perfect to chase away all your insecurities about stepping into the reign of Vyapar (Business) giving you insights of each and every niche of Indian market then and now.