If you have a physical store, you are limited by the geographic area you can serve. With an e-commerce website, the entire world is your playground. Furthermore, the advent of m-commerce, i.e. e-commerce on mobile devices, has dissolved any remaining limitations of geography.
02 Gain new customers with search engine visibility
Physical retail is driven by brands and relationships. In addition to these two drivers, online retail is also driven by search engine traffic. It’s not uncommon for customers to follow a link in search engine results and land on an e-commerce site they’ve never heard of. This additional source of traffic can be the tipping point for some e-commerce businesses.
03 Lower costs
One of the most tangible positive aspects of e-commerce is reduced costs. Some of these reduced costs can be passed on to customers in the form of discounted prices. Here are some of the ways in which costs can be reduced with e-commerce:
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.
Staffing : Automating checkout, billing, payments, inventory management, and other operational processes reduces the number of employees required to run an ecommerce setup.
Real estate : An ecommerce merchant does not need a prominent physical location.
04 Find the Product Faster
It’s no longer a matter of pushing a shopping architects mailing list cart to the right aisle or searching for the product you want. On an e-commerce site, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to narrow down their product search instantly. Some sites remember customer preferences and shopping lists to make repeat purchases easier.
05 Eliminate travel time and cost
It’s not uncommon for customers to travel long distances to reach their favorite physical store. Ecommerce allows them to visit the same store virtually, with just a few mouse clicks.
06 Provide shopping comparison
E-commerce makes comparison shopping easier. There are several online services that allow customers to browse through various e-commerce sites and find the best prices.
07 Enable deals, bargains, coupons and group purchases
While there are physical equivalents to deals, bargains, coupons, and group buying, online shopping makes it much more convenient. For example, if a customer has a coupon for chicken at one store and toilet paper at another, she might not be able to use both discounts. But the customer could do so online with a few clicks of the mouse.
08 Provide abundant information
There are limitations to the amount of information that can be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who demand information on product lines. E-commerce sites can easily make additional information available to customers. Most of this information is provided by suppliers and costs nothing to create or maintain.
09 Create segmented communication
Using the information a customer provides on the registration form and by placing cookies on the customer’s computer, an e-commerce merchant can access a wealth of information about its customers. This, in turn, can be used to communicate relevant messages. For example, if you search for a particular product on Amazon.com, you will automatically see listings of other similar products. Additionally, Amazon.com may send you an email about related products.