eCommerce has contributed a lot to the marketplace and modern business industry that even physical stores and companies have brought their business online. Although eCommerce has helped a lot of companies with their sales, there are digital commerce advantage and disadvantage that has not been discussed yet. There are still pros and cons that has yet to be considered when entering the world of digital commerce compared to traditional brick and mortar businesses.
The digital commerce advantage and disadvantage may not Listed below are the digital commerce advantage and disadvantage. Take a look at what we learned from The Balances MB:
Advantages
- Targets a larger market
An ecommerce allows your business to reach customers all around the world without having to build your store on every country. Since people are purchasing using their mobile devices, your customers can purchase anytime and anywhere. It simply expands customer base.
- Allows to share information and updates
Ecommerce websites allows to share important details about the store like customer feedbacks and review, FAQs, new products and even discounts especially when they’re on sale. Meanwhile, a physical store can only offer limited information.
- Saves a lot of money
No need to pay for rent and other fees that physical stores have to pay for. Your store can operate 24/7 without the need to hire employees to guard your products and you don’t have to worry for other customer related service such as parking spaces and bigger storage.
Disadvantages
- Frauds
Money is a very sensitive topic for both the client and business person. The payment security must be of upmost concern because consumers might run the risk of identity fraud or any problem similar that might occur once they enter their details on the site. If you are not able to convince them that the checkout procedure is secure, they might get scared of purchasing.
- Many consumers would still want personal experience
Majority of shoppers would still want to see the product before buying it. Like when buying clothes; the buyer would want to wear it first to see how it fits and how it will look like when worn.
- Taxation, regulation, and compliance
There are regulations that must be followed if your business sell products on other countries and also taxes that must be paid.
- Shipping
This maybe convenient for buyers but this is a huge burden for the shipper especially if the quantity of the items being shipped is large. Logistics and the management can be pretty hard for the shipper especially for a lost item and the tracking of parcels.
Any digital commerce advantage and disadvantage must be considered. If the business can handle the advantages but not able to find solutions for the disadvantages, then they must reconsider opening or operating the shop at all. Although the cons may be hard to deal with, the sales and profit that the business might acquire and the cons will overlap the disadvantages. There is no business that is easy to run and will forever smoothly operate, there will always be problems that it would encounter.
