E-commerce versus traditional commerce

The era of electronic commerce has arrived. Amazon is 20 years old and eBay is following in Amazons footsteps only one year younger. E-commerce is now a more than $ 200 billion industry in the US and is expected to grow as much as 15% a year as shoppers realize they no longer need to go downtown. traditional commercial. In the war between e-commerce and traditional commerce, e-commerce is clearly emerging as the winner. Due to e-commerce, traditional commerce is being taken to the grave.

Well-informed traditional businesses recognize the inevitable rise in online shopping. They are really adjusting to the new and very obvious realities. Megalithic retail chain Macy’s shows facts indicative of this. This 154-year-old retail chain saw online sales rise 40% in 2011, while traditional retail store sales grew just 5.3%. Macy’s is currently renovating nearly 300 of its retail stores into distribution centers to speed up the entire process, from purchase to shipping, for online shoppers. It has gotten to the point where this retail giant is considering the option of in-store online kiosks. Another traditional bigwig trade, Nordstrom, is taking it even more aggressively. With benefits like free shipping and free returns in its online store, Nordstrom’s showed a 35% increase in online sales over the past three quarters. It can also be noted that the company plans to invest $ 1 billion in its online ventures over the next five years. Online trends and the focus of such large and well-established traditional business concerns validate the acceleration of e-commerce growth. Simply put, if they don’t upgrade, they won’t survive.

When buying a product in a traditional way, what the consumer does not know is that the item has been marked at least three times. It has been marked once when it changed hands from factory to brand, again when it went from brand to retailer, and again when it went from retailer to consumer shopping bag. Businesses that are exclusively online essentially cut the last profit margin by selling directly to the consumer. By doing this, they can be much more competitive. They do not have the costs of maintaining large networks of physical retail stores. It is good to note that the staffing requirements of an online site are much lower than those of the outlets.

There are numerous advantages to e-commerce that have bankrupt traditional commerce under their competitive presence.

1. Geographic limitations are not necessarily taken into account. With e-commerce, the world is your oyster.

2. Consumers can be reached using the Internet and search engine visibility.

3. Lower costs

4. Less staff

5. Traditional commerce is based on the physical space of the store that must be rented. With e-commerce there is no cost to real estate.

4. Find the product faster

5. Travel time and cost eradicated

6. Comparison purchases

7. Easy and abundant information

8. Communication is targeted

9. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

10. Create niche markets

E-commerce is not just the future, it is now. The bottom line is that traditional commerce companies will need to take a hard look at how they do business in order to remain relevant and competitive in today’s huge business reality.