what is the future of ecommerce ?

what is the future of e-commerce?

We all know that Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit.

Retail markets have existed since ancient times. Archaeological evidence for trade, probably involving barter systems, dates back more than 10,000 years. As civilizations grew, barter was replaced with retail trade involving coinage. Selling and buying are thought to have emerged in Asia in around the 7th-millennium BCE.

Retail strategy

In retailing, the strategic plan is designed to set out the vision and provide guidance for retail decision-makers and provide an outline of how the product and service mix will optimize customer satisfaction. As part of the strategic planning process, it is customary for strategic planners to carry out a detailed environmental scan that seeks to identify trends and opportunities in the competitive environment, market environment, economic environment, and statutory-political environment

The strategic retail analysis typically includes the following elements:

Market analysis – Market size, stage of the market, market competitiveness, market attractiveness, market trends

Customer analysis – Market segmentation, demographic, geographic, and psychographic profile, values and attitudes, shopping habits, brand preferences, analysis of needs and wants, media habits

Internal analysis – Other capabilities e.g. human resource capability, technological capability, financial capability, ability to generate scale economies or economies of scope, trade relations, reputation, positioning, past performance

Competition analysis – Availability of substitutes, competitor's strengths and weaknesses, perceptual mapping, competitive trends

Review of product mix –:: Sales per square foot, stock-turnover rates, profitability per product line

Review of distribution channels – Lead-times between placing order and delivery, cost of distribution, cost efficiency of intermediaries

Evaluation of the economics of the strategy – Cost-benefit analysis of planned activities

Challenges

To achieve and maintain a foothold in an existing market, a prospective retail establishment must overcome the following hurdles:

regulatory barriers

unfavorable taxation structures, especially those designed to penalize or keep out "big box" retailers

absence of developed supply-chain

high competitiveness among existing market participants and resulting low-profit margins

lack of a properly-educated and/or -trained workforce, often including management, caused in part by loss in business

what is an eCommerce business?

E-Commerce is a form of online shopping where users can buy goods and services from their electronic devices such as a laptop, mobile, tablet. Traditional-Commerce is a traditional approach to buying goods and services in person which involves face-to-face dealing. This includes Online shopping for retail sales direct to consumers via websites and mobile apps, and conversational commerce via live chat, chatbots, and voice assistants. Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sales.

what is the advantage of eCommerce over traditional commerce?

Traditional commerce required face-to-face dealing with customers in order to sell their goods wherein E-commerce customers can visit your shop virtually to purchase goods from your shop.

Traditional commerce has limitations and boundaries to sell their goods whereas in e-commerce you can sell your product without limitations and boundaries worldwide. So an e-commerce sell has much more customers than a Traditional commerce shop owner.

Ecommerce doesn't require to showcase their product physically they can showcase their product online thus it saves lots of space where Traditional commerce shops have to display their product physically in Infront of their shop

E-Commerce can have one-to-one marketing whereas Traditional Commerce can have only one-way marketing. E-Commerce can have several payment modes such as online transactions or digital wallets or cash on delivery whereas Traditional Commerce can have only cash payment in person. E-Commerce provides good customer services in different forms such as chat options or direct calls with customer care executives whereas Traditional commerce does not provide any such customer support. E-Commerce provides a lot of products in scope and a wide variety of products irrespective of brands and types of products whereas Traditional commerce has a limited number of products with a particular seller as space is limited.

what is the future of eCommerce?

With growing internet penetration and disposable incomes, the people of India are experiencing a massive change in their shopping habits. People from all fronts of life are using their smartphones to buy products and items. With the big three— Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba—entering the E-Commerce sector in India, the market is slowly maturing and expanding its footprint to the most remote locations across the country.

The future of eCommerce in India is enormous, and the ever-increasing penetration of smartphones will only add impetus to the growth. As the e-commerce industry sees increased traction, it is expected to increase to reach a market size of US$ 188 billion by 2025

The race between the biggest eCommerce platforms in India is not just for the biggest bite of the market, but also to become the first past the post for profitability. Evidently, there have been vivid efforts like ‘Digital India’, availability of smartphones at throwaway prices, and affordable data packages, yet vast sections of India’s population have yet to come online. India is developing at a rapid pace and if development is to be estimated, how might we overlook the role of E-commerce in it. The number of new contestants right now raising every day and with the development rate arriving at its pinnacle, it tends to be assumed that in years to come, standard retailers will want to change to online business.