Advantages and Disadvantages of E- Commerce

ADVANTAGE OF E-COMMERCE

Today, e-Commerce has revolutionized the way companies are doing business. Now, consumers can purchase almost anything online 24*7 a day and get an ultimate shopping experience.

(i) Convenience & Easiness

For many people in the world, e-Commerce becomes one of the preferred ways of shopping as they enjoy their online because of its easiness and convenience. They are allowed to buy products or services from their home at any time of day or night.

The best thing about it is buying options that are quick, convenient and user-friendly with the ability to transfer funds online. Because of its convenience, consumers can save their lots of time as well as money by searching their products easily and making purchasing online.

(ii) Offer Product Datasheets

Consumers can also get description and details from an online product catalog. For your customers, it is very much important to get information about the product no matter whether the time of day and day of the week. Through information, your customers and prospects are making decision to purchase your products or not.

(iii) Attract New Customers with Search Engine Visibility

As we all know that physical retail is run by branding and relationships. But, online retail is also driving by traffic that comes from search engines. For customers, it is not very so common to follow a link in the search engine results and land up on an ecommerce website that they never heard of.

(iv) Comprise Warranty Information

No matter whether you are looking to choose including warranty information with product descriptions and datasheets or providing it from within an ecommerce shopping cart, you need to make sure that customers must be aware of important terms and conditions that are associated with their purchase.

(v) Decreasing cost of inventory Management

With e-commerce business, the suppliers can decrease the cost of managing their inventory of goods that they can automate the inventory management using web-based management system. Indirectly, they can save their operational costs.

(vi) Keep Eye on Consumers’ Buying Habit

The best thing is e-commerce retailers can easily keep a constant eye on consumers’ buying habits and interests to tailors their offer suit to consumers’ requirements. By satisfying their needs constantly, you can improve your ongoing relationship with them and build long-lasting relationships.

(vii) Competence

For effective business transactions, e-commerce is an efficient and competence method. Setting-up cost is extremely low as compare to expanding your business with more brick and mortar locations. Very few licenses and permits are required to start-up an online business than physical store. You can save your lots of money by using fewer employees to perform operations like billing customers, managing inventory and more.

(viii) Allow Happy Customers to Sell Your Products

With lots of customers’ reviews and product ratings, you can easily increase your sells as new customers find that your products are good and effective. Make sure that you mention your clients’ testimonials, reviews and product ratings as such things can help your new customers to purchase your products.

(ix) Selling Products across the World

If you are running a physical store, it will be limited by the geographical area that you can service, but with an e-Commerce website, you can sell your products and services across the world. The entire world is your playground, where you can sell your complete range of products without any geographical limits. Moreover, the remaining limitation of geography has dissolved by mcommerce that is also known as mobile commerce.

(x) Stay open 24*7/365

One of the most important benefits that ecommerce merchants can enjoy is store timings are now 24/7/365 as they can run e-commerce websites all the time. By this way, they can increase their sales by boosting their number of orders. However, it is also beneficial for customers as they can purchase products whenever they want no matter whether it is early morning or mid-night.

DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE

Running an E-Commerce business is not all rainbows and unicorns. There are challenges unique to this business model — knowing them will help you navigate the choppy waters and avoid common pitfalls:

(i) Lack of Personal Touch

Some consumers value the personal touch they get from visiting a physical store and interacting with sales associates. Such personal touch is particularly important for businesses selling high-end products as customers not only want to buy the merchandise but also have a great experience during the process.

(ii) Lack of Tactile Experience

No matter how well a video is made, consumers still can’t touch and feel a product. Not to mention, it’s not an easy feat to deliver a brand experience, which could often include the sense of touch, smell, taste, and sound, through the two-dimensionality of a screen.

(iii) Price and Product Comparison

With online shopping, consumers can compare many products and find the lowest price. This forces many merchants to compete on price and reduce their profit margin.

(iv) Need for Internet Access

This is pretty obvious, but don’t forget that your customers do need Internet access before they can purchase from you! Since many eCommerce platforms have features and functionalities that require high-speed Internet access for an optimal customer experience, there’s a chance you’re excluding visitors who have slow connections.

(v) Credit Card Fraud

Credit card fraud is a real and growing problem for online businesses. It can lead to chargebacks that result in the loss of revenue, penalties, and bad reputation.

(vi) IT Security Issues

More and more businesses and organizations have fallen prey to malicious hackers who have stolen customer information from their database. Not only could this have legal and financial implications but also lessen the trust customers have in the company.

(vii) All the Eggs in One Basket

E-Commerce businesses rely heavily (or solely) on their websites. Even just a few minutes of downtime or technology hiccups can cause a substantial loss of revenue and customer dissatisfaction.

(viii) Complexity in Taxation, Regulations, and Compliance

If an online business sells to customers in different territories, they’ll have to adhere to regulations not only in their own states/countries but also in their customers’ place of residence. This could create a lot of complexities in accounting, compliance, and taxation.