What are the advantages and disadvantages of eCommerce?

What is eCommerce ?

Businesses and individuals who buy and resell goods and services online are referred to as engaging in “ecommerce.” E-commerce is a form of online shopping that may be done on computers, tablets, smartphones, and other smart devices. Nearly every product or service imaginable is now available through e-commerce transactions, including financial services like stock trading and online banking as well as books, music, and airline tickets. Because of this, it is considered a very disruptive technology.

  • Availability. E-commerce sites are accessible 24/7, allowing users to explore and shop at any time, with the exception of outages and scheduled maintenance. Brick-and-mortar stores frequently have set hours of operation and occasionally close completely.
  • Speed of access. While crowds can slow down customers in a physical store, e-commerce sites run rapidly due to considerations regarding computing and bandwidth on both the consumer device and the e-commerce site. The loading time of the product and shopping cart pages is under a second. An online purchase can be made in a few clicks and within five minutes.
  • Wide availability. “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore” was Amazon’s original tagline. It was able to make this assertion because it was an online store rather than a brick and mortar establishment that needed to stock every book on its shelves. With the use of e-commerce, businesses may provide a wide range of goods, which are subsequently sent from one or more warehouses when a customer makes a purchase. Customers will probably find what they’re looking for more easily.
  • Easy accessibility. Customers shopping a physical store may have difficulty locating a particular product. Website visitors can browse product category pages in real time and use the site’s search feature to find the product immediately.
  • International reach. Brick-and-mortar businesses sell to customers who physically visit their stores. With e-commerce, businesses can sell to anyone who can access the web. E-commerce has the potential to extend a business’s customer base.
  • Lower cost. Pure play e-commerce businesses avoid the costs of running physical stores, such as rent, inventory and cashiers. They may incur shipping and warehouse costs, however.
  • Personalization and product recommendations. E-commerce websites are able to monitor a visitor’s past browsing, search, and purchase activity. They can gather information about target markets and give customised product recommendations using this data. Examples are the “Frequently bought together” and “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” sections on Amazon product pages.
  • Limited customer service. If customers have a question or issue in a physical store, they can see a clerk, cashier or store manager for help. In an e-commerce store, customer service can be limited: The site may only provide support during certain hours, and its online service options may be difficult to navigate or not answer a specific question.
  • Limited product experience. Viewing images on a webpage can provide a good sense about a product, but it’s different from experiencing the product directly, such as playing a guitar, assessing the picture quality of a television or trying on a shirt or dress. E-commerce consumers can end up buying products that differ from their expectations and have to be returned. In some cases, the customer must pay to ship a returned item back to the retailer. Augmented reality technology is expected to improve customers’ ability to examine and test e-commerce products.
  • Wait time. In a store, customers pay for a product and go home with it. With e-commerce, customers must wait for the product to be shipped to them. Although shipping windows are decreasing as next-day and even same-day delivery becomes common, it’s not instantaneous.
  • Security. Hackers with the right skills may make websites that look real and sell well-known products. Instead, the website either takes credit card information from customers or sends them bogus or copycat versions of such things. Even legitimate e-commerce websites have risks, particularly when customers save their credit card details with the merchant to facilitate future purchases. Threat actors might steal that credit card information if the retailer’s website is breached. A retailer’s reputation may be harmed as a result of a data breach.

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