Benefits of E-Commerce Over Traditional Retail
Overcome geographical boundaries
If you have a physical store, you are limited by geographical area that you can serve. With an e-commerce platform, the whole world is your playground. Additionally, the advent of e-commerce on m-commerce, i.e., mobile devices, has dissolved every remaining boundary of geography.
Get new customers with search engine visibility
Physical retail is driven by branding and relationships. Apart from these two drivers, online retail is also driven by traffic from search engines. It is not uncommon for customers to follow links in search engine results and land on an e-commerce website they have never heard of. This additional source of traffic may be the tipping point for some e-commerce businesses.
Lower costs
One of the most tangible positives of e-commerce is low cost. A portion of these reduced costs can be passed on to customers in the form of discounted prices. Here are some ways that the cost of e-commerce can be reduced:
Advertising and marketing: Organic search engine traffic, pay-per-click and social media traffic are some of the advertising channels that can be cost-effective.
Personnel: Automation of checkout, billing, payment, inventory management and other operational processes reduce the number of employees required to run an e-commerce setup.
Real estate: This one is not a brain. An e-commerce merchant does not need a major physical location.
Locate product
It is not about pushing the shopping cart into the right aisle or scouting for the desired product. On an e-commerce website, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to quickly narrow down their product search. Some websites repeatedly recall customer picks and shopping lists to make shopping easier.
Eliminate travel time and cost
It is not uncommon for customers to travel long distances to reach their favorite physical store. E-commerce allows them to visit only one store, with just a few mouse clicks.
Provide comparison shopping
E-commerce facilitates comparative shopping. There are many online services that allow customers to browse many e-commerce merchants and find the best prices.
Enable Deals, Deals, Coupons and Group Buying
Although there are physical equivalents for buying deals, deals, coupons and groups, online shopping makes it more convenient. For example, if a customer has a physical shop and a deep discount coupon for turkey on toilet paper, he can take advantage of both discounts. But the customer can do this online with a few mouse clicks.
Provide abundant information
There are limitations to the amount of information to be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who require information about product lines. E-commerce websites can easily provide additional information to customers. This information is provided by most vendors and costs nothing to build or maintain.
Create targeted communication
Using the information provided by the customer in the registration form, and placing cookies on the customer's computer, an e-commerce merchant can obtain a lot of information about their customers. This, in turn, can be used to communicate relevant messages. An example: If you are searching for a certain product on Amazon.com, you will automatically be shown a list of other similar products. In addition, Amazon.com can email you about related products.
Be open all the time
Store hours are now 24/7/365. E-commerce websites can run all the time. From the merchant's point of view, this increases the number of orders they receive. From the customer's point of view, the "always open" store is more convenient.
Create a market for niche products
Buyers and sellers of niche products can find it difficult to locate each other in the physical world. Online, it is simply a matter of searching for the product in the search engine for the customer. An example may be the purchase of obsolete parts. Instead of treading old equipment for lack of parts, today we can explore parts online with great ease.
If you have a physical store, you are limited by geographical area that you can serve. With an e-commerce platform, the whole world is your playground. Additionally, the advent of e-commerce on m-commerce, i.e., mobile devices, has dissolved every remaining boundary of geography.
Get new customers with search engine visibility
Physical retail is driven by branding and relationships. Apart from these two drivers, online retail is also driven by traffic from search engines. It is not uncommon for customers to follow links in search engine results and land on an e-commerce website they have never heard of. This additional source of traffic may be the tipping point for some e-commerce businesses.
Lower costs
One of the most tangible positives of e-commerce is low cost. A portion of these reduced costs can be passed on to customers in the form of discounted prices. Here are some ways that the cost of e-commerce can be reduced:
Advertising and marketing: Organic search engine traffic, pay-per-click and social media traffic are some of the advertising channels that can be cost-effective.
Personnel: Automation of checkout, billing, payment, inventory management and other operational processes reduce the number of employees required to run an e-commerce setup.
Real estate: This one is not a brain. An e-commerce merchant does not need a major physical location.
Locate product
It is not about pushing the shopping cart into the right aisle or scouting for the desired product. On an e-commerce website, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to quickly narrow down their product search. Some websites repeatedly recall customer picks and shopping lists to make shopping easier.
Eliminate travel time and cost
It is not uncommon for customers to travel long distances to reach their favorite physical store. E-commerce allows them to visit only one store, with just a few mouse clicks.
Provide comparison shopping
E-commerce facilitates comparative shopping. There are many online services that allow customers to browse many e-commerce merchants and find the best prices.
Enable Deals, Deals, Coupons and Group Buying
Although there are physical equivalents for buying deals, deals, coupons and groups, online shopping makes it more convenient. For example, if a customer has a physical shop and a deep discount coupon for turkey on toilet paper, he can take advantage of both discounts. But the customer can do this online with a few mouse clicks.
Provide abundant information
There are limitations to the amount of information to be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who require information about product lines. E-commerce websites can easily provide additional information to customers. This information is provided by most vendors and costs nothing to build or maintain.
Create targeted communication
Using the information provided by the customer in the registration form, and placing cookies on the customer's computer, an e-commerce merchant can obtain a lot of information about their customers. This, in turn, can be used to communicate relevant messages. An example: If you are searching for a certain product on Amazon.com, you will automatically be shown a list of other similar products. In addition, Amazon.com can email you about related products.
Be open all the time
Store hours are now 24/7/365. E-commerce websites can run all the time. From the merchant's point of view, this increases the number of orders they receive. From the customer's point of view, the "always open" store is more convenient.
Create a market for niche products
Buyers and sellers of niche products can find it difficult to locate each other in the physical world. Online, it is simply a matter of searching for the product in the search engine for the customer. An example may be the purchase of obsolete parts. Instead of treading old equipment for lack of parts, today we can explore parts online with great ease.
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