E-Commerce Over Traditional Retail: 5 Advantages

Going back a decade, no one would have thought that e-Commerce would become such a huge thing in the coming years but as time passed by, e-Commerce became a popular term and online shopping became convenient. Today, e-Commerce is dominating the traditional retail business and the general market is equally influenced as well, where consumer behavior is no longer the same as it was a while back.

E-Commerce, the internet of things (IoT), cashless transaction, and artificial intelligence, among many other tech developments, are no longer out of reach from the end consumers. Now that everyone can have access, it has given birth to a digitally literate society on a global scale. The rise of mobile phone usage, for instance, shows how consumers are increasingly becoming digital in their day-to-day tasks.

Here are five Advantages of e-Commerce over Traditional Retail

  1. Lower Costs

One of the foremost tangible positives of e-commerce is that the lowered cost. A part of those lowered costs might be passed on to customers within the sort of discounted prices. Here are some of the ways that costs can be reduced with e-commerce:

  • Personnel: The automation of checkout, billing, payments, inventory management, and other operational processes lowers the number of employees required to run an e-commerce setup.
  • 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.
  • Real Estate: This one is a no-brainer. An e-commerce merchant doesn’t need a prominent physical location.
  1. Ability to Collect Customer Data for Insightful Analytics

Businesses are increasingly in need of gathering and utilizing data to make informed business decisions. E-commerce allows retailers to collect a wide array of customer data that provides a good overview of business performance. Data on the most purchased product, most viewed product, customer reviews, etc. can give insightful information on areas of strengths and weaknesses of the business and how it can be future-proofed. Further, the ability to collect a comprehensive compendium of data means businesses can adopt data-driven disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

  1. Customer Retention

While retaining customers in e-Commerce is not a cupcake due to the availability of too many businesses focusing on the same niche and your competitors trying to snatch your customers every time, it is still not difficult when compared to traditional retail business. When a customer shops offline, you never know when he would return or whether he would even return or not. There is no way you can reach out to your customers and encourage them to shop again. But when you have an e-Commerce website, you can run many deals, offers, and promotions and reach out in many ways like through email marketing or your social media channels. This helps you entice customers and ensures repeat purchases.

  1. No Geographical Limitation

When it comes to traditional commerce, retailers can only do business where they have set up their physical stores. This is not the case with E-commerce websites. For them, the whole world is their playground if planned strategically. People from one corner of the world can easily order a specific product from another corner of the world with a few clicks.

  1. Provide Comparison Shopping

E-commerce facilitates and encourages comparison shopping. Many available online services allow consumers to browse several e-commerce merchants to locate the best products at the best prices

In conclusion, this write-up on e-Commerce vs traditional commerce gave you as a retailer more than enough reasons to consider taking your retail business online. It is not that traditional retail business has lost its charm, but having an e-commerce website is like a cherry on the cake. As a retailer, you can expand your business and reach new heights. Most of the traditional retail businesses, be it on a small scale or large, are trying to set up their online presence and it is high time retailers have their e-Commerce websites too.

By Carolyne Rabut
Content Marketing – CompuLynx


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