Shopping is one of the most commonly conducted and highly essential everyday tasks. Generally speaking, there are two modes to shop for goods: e-commerce and traditional commerce.
Each of these modes has its own pros and cons. However, in the present time, e-commerce has gained massive popularity not just amongst consumers but also amongst businesses.
As a result, there are more and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to start an e-retail business. However, what exactly is e-commerce? How is it better than traditional commerce? Let’s find the answer to these questions in the upcoming section.
Traditional retail, or in a much broader light, traditional commerce, is the common shopping practice that most of us do on an everyday basis. Here, the shopper has to visit a store to buy the required goods.
This type of shopping is also commonly referred to as in-store shopping and is specifically popular amongst the older generations. However, visiting a physical store to buy something is not always a convenient option, limiting the scope of businesses in the traditional commerce sector.
E-retail is the modern and more advanced form of shopping and is based on technology. In e-commerce, the buyers can shop for goods using the internet from anywhere and get them delivered to their desired location. This form of e-commerce is widely preferred by the younger generation and is highly reliable and efficient.
Nowadays, e-commerce is taking over traditional commerce and is becoming the primary medium of shopping for goods amongst consumers. As a result, more and more businesses are going digital and are adapting to e-commerce. This concept is known as ‘digital shift’ and is prominent amongst businesses currently.
Digital shift refers to the increasing adaption of technology and tech-based innovation in any part of a process. In the context of commerce, digital shift is one of the most prominent and evidently present concepts. This is evident by the increasing e-retail sales around the globe. This wide adoption of e-commerce is one of the primary reasons for businesses to go digital.
You must be wondering, what is the reason for this wide adoption of e-commerce? Well, e-commerce outshines traditional commerce in various aspects. It is known to be beneficial for not just businesses but also for customers.
Let’s find out the top reasons for businesses to invest in e-commerce and how they can benefit from it.
Moreover, various cost-intensive aspects of traditional commerce are absent in e-commerce, such as inventory tracking. This further adds to the cost-saving factor of e-retail.
As a result, businesses that invest in developing an online shopping platform end up saving money on operational costs and generate higher returns in comparatively less investment.
It is commonly known that businesses spend a lot of time in manually conducting business processes on an everyday basis. Naturally, this results in compromised business efficiency.
However, in the case of e-commerce platforms, it is easier to achieve this efficiency by automating business processes. You must know that the latest technology enables the automation of numerous business processes and has the ability to increase operational efficiency. Moreover, one can also integrate other technologies like finance management software and CMS software to further add to their e-retail business’s efficiency.
This aspect of e-commerce is widely recognized and is one of the prime reasons for businesses to invest in starting an e-commerce business.
Generally speaking, the cost of starting an e-commerce business is significantly less than that of starting a traditional store.
Moreover, e-commerce businesses can be operated with various models, some of which do not even require having an inventory (marketplace model). In these types of e-commerce businesses, all you have to do is pay for the platform development and maintenance. To add to that, e-commerce is being widely adopted by consumers.
As a consequence, investing in starting an e-commerce business will surely generate higher returns in less time as compared to traditional businesses.
E-commerce platforms are available 24/7 for customers to visit and shop from. This aspect is often missing in traditional commerce, where businesses operate within set business hours.
Consequently, businesses operating in the e-commerce sector can maximize their revenue by being available at all times to the shoppers to buy from.
This feature is also one of the reasons why e-commerce is highly popular amongst consumers. To elaborate, consumers can now shop for goods at any time of the day from any location with this factor. Moreover, e-commerce businesses offering same-day delivery and one-day delivery further add value to this feature.
Getting analytical information is an essential part of operating a business. This information serves as the foundation of various important business decisions and strategies.
However, it is challenging for a traditional business to gain analytical information. On the other hand, generating analytics is highly easy in the case of e-commerce businesses.
One can track the user’s activity, past purchases, payments, buying habits, and a lot more from an e-commerce platform. This ensures detailed and insightful analytics for long-term business growth.
When an entrepreneur plans to start a business, one of the most considerable investments they have to make is in a physical store. However, it is commonly known that the cost of owning, or in some cases, even renting a physical store is not feasible for business owners.
This is where e-commerce comes into the scenario. In e-commerce businesses, the requirement for physical stores is significantly reduced and, in some cases, is even eliminated.
There are various e-commerce businesses that operate without any physical store in the present time. Consequently, having an e-retail business is an excellent way to cut down on the cost of having a physical store.
The latest consumer trend is to go for convenient and high-end services. However, this is a criterion that most of the traditional businesses fail to fulfill.
On the contrary, e-commerce is known for delivering a convenient and hassle-free shopping experience to the buyers. The buyers can shop for required goods at any time of the day from anywhere. Owing to this factor, the e-commerce market is witnessing rapid growth all across the world.
As a result, the future of investing in an e-commerce business is promising and has the potential for immense revenue generation.
Retaining customers is fundamental to generating repeated sales. However, in the present time, businesses in every industry are facing immense competition. As a result, it is becoming challenging to generate customer loyalty and retain old customers.
However, it is commonly known that generating customer loyalty and retaining old customers is easy in the e-commerce sector. E-commerce businesses generate analytical customer data and use it to deliver a high-end shopping experience.
This personalized shopping experience is a USP of e-commerce and is an excellent medium of customer retention, customer loyalty, and, therefore, repeated revenue.
In order to grow your business, you need to undertake efficient promotion and marketing strategies.
Factually speaking, it is easier and more efficient to promote an online business than an offline one. With digital marketing strategies like SEO, SMM, SME, etc., you can seamlessly promote your brand and create a wide digital presence. Moreover, you can efficiently use promotion strategies like emails and vouchers for your business’s marketing.
On the other hand, to market a traditional business, you will have to put in more effort, time, and money. Moreover, the end results might not be up to the mark for the investment. This gives e-commerce businesses an upper hand over traditional businesses in terms of marketing efficiency.
When an entrepreneur starts a business with traditional commerce, their sales are mostly limited to the geographical area they are operating in. However, this is not the case in e-commerce businesses.
One of the major and most well-recognized advantages of starting an e-retail business is accessibility to a broader market.
E-commerce businesses can sell their goods to the markets of their choice without any geographical constraints and earn optimum revenue. This has not only enabled businesses to easily access the international market but has benefitted customers with a wider product range to shop from.
This was it for the reasons why you should start an e-commerce business over a traditional one. Now that you are aware of how your business can benefit from e-commerce, you must be wondering how to start an e-commerce business, right?
The first step is to develop an e-commerce platform for your business. However, there are various platforms to choose from. The type of platform that is ideal for your business will depend upon your individual requirements. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at different types of e-commerce platforms and find out which one can be a better choice.
Developing a website is one of the most commonly chosen approaches among new e-commerce businesses. Websites are highly efficient and reliable e-commerce platforms and are known for their ability to be operated on any device and browser.
In order to build a successful e-commerce website, you must study your competitors and their business strategies. For example, to create a website like Amazon, you must study Amazon’s features and strategies and implement them into your website.
Moreover, you must know that Amazon, which is a well-recognized e-commerce giant, started with a website. Therefore, developing a website for online shopping is a worthy business idea.
Mobile applications are known for their seamless performance and great UI and are one of the most commonly used platforms for businesses to start an e-commerce store.
Mobile e-commerce, which is often known as m-commerce, is gaining immense popularity at the present time. This is due to the rapidly increasing adoption of mobile phones and the increasing use of apps for everyday needs.
When you plan to develop an app for your e-commerce business, you also have to select an OS platform upon which your app will perform. Depending upon the number of OS markets you wish to target, your app will be developed with either the native or the cross-platform approach.
As we discussed earlier, whether to go for a website or mobile app for your business is a choice that will depend upon various factors. The cost of platform development, growth scope, development timeline, etc. will vary. Therefore, to find out which platform is ideal for your business, we recommend connecting with a development agency and getting their input on the matter.
Out of all the factors mentioned above, the development cost is one of the most prominent ones. But there’s nothing to worry about. In the following section, we have provided various ways through which you can reduce the cost of developing an e-retail platform.
These outsourcing agencies are known for their years of expertise in the industry and have a complete team of experienced professionals to work on your project. Therefore, this option is highly recommended if you are looking for a top-quality e-commerce platform for your business.
White label solutions are readymade platform solutions that are available with various development agencies.
All you have to do is send in your requirements for features. Upon understanding your requirements, the development agencies customize the readymade platform to fit your requirements.
However, one must note that these platforms are coded once and are used by various businesses. As a result, there are high chances that the UI design of your platform will be similar to that of your competitor businesses.
Moreover, the scope of customization is limited to a certain extent in white label platforms. As a result, this solution is ideal if you are looking to save cost, while not focusing on the final quality of your platform.
These were two of the most popular and widely known options to reduce the cost of developing an e-commerce platform. Whether you choose to develop a website or a mobile app, you can consider these options and significantly reduce the platform development cost.
This blog has covered everything you need to know about why you should invest in an e-commerce platform. We provided various comparative and informational insights, differentiating between e-commerce and traditional commerce.
You must be clear now about why investing in e-commerce platforms is a great business idea. Developing an e-commerce platform is a highly potent business idea for startups as well as established businesses and has a promising future.
Nevertheless, by choosing the right medium for your e-commerce launch, you can surely get high returns in no time with your online shopping platform.
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