1. Wide variety of products:-

In small cities or villages, people have to compromise due to the small shops and a limited variety of products and services available locally. Traditional brick and mortar shops and conventional commerce is not able to satisfy customers in terms of variety. Normally people have to visit 5 to 6 shoe stores in 1 market to buy 1 pair of shoes due to size, color, price or design problem, etc. And it’s tough for retailers to provide all the variations. That’s why eCommerce is important. It brings in more variety by expanding the boundaries of traditional commerce.

People can visit more than 5 websites to buy shoes in a few minutes, which is far more convenient than visiting 5 different shops. They can check colors, offers, sizes, models and various details related to shoes. And it takes 20 to 30 minutes to decide. With the traditional retail method, you need to spend the whole day if you decide to shop for shoes or anything else at the Mall. That’s why I believe that eCommerce is important to provide a variety of products with speed and that too at home.

2. Lower Cost than traditional shopping and selling:-

Selling products and services online is less costly than traditional methods. There are various high overhead costs that are included in offline commerce. Recurring expenses such as store management cost, counter cost, inventory cost, security cost, transportation cost, Shop rent, and salary, etc. So the retailers cannot afford to sell the products at a low cost.

That’s why eCommerce is important because it reduces the fixed cost and variable cost and people get the products and services at low cost.

3. Less time consuming and faster consumer consumption:-

If we talk about educational eCommerce then it’s really changed the way people consume the products and services. For example, traditionally it takes minimum 6 months course offline to learn graphics designing. And people have to visit the study center each day for 2-3 hours for a 6 month period. It’s not providing flexibility, freedom for the learners to choose their own hours, mood and best focused time of the day. Nor are the teachers available all the time in the offline classroom. As a result, it takes lots of time to build and improve the skills for faster employment.

That’s why online courses, online degree programs are so popular around the world. With eCommerce, students can pay the course fees online, select any course, complete the course at their own speed and time. It’s providing flexibility and freedom for learners. That’s why online courses or educational eCommerce is important in today’s time.

4. Exciting offers and shopping deals notifications:-

Traditionally people don’t know what’s new (shoes, clothes, cosmetics, electronics) in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, village shops, local market or even shopping malls until they don’t visit. Even local retailers don’t know what’s hot in the international market.

That’s why in the past you found that there was a difference in the thinking, personality, appearance, and habits of people from metros and those from villages, etc. But owing to the unprecedented development in eCommerce and communication technology, now people from even the most far-flung areas such as Leh and Ladakh get notifications and messages from sellers about existing Diwali and Navratras discount offers.

Today customers can find the best shopping deals within a second by visiting a link on their mobile. Now the same branded jeans are worn by trendy people in Mumbai and also worn by a fashionable Darlaghat village person. Similarly, students from Shimla can join the same career courses as students from California are studying. It means eCommerce has connected people, eCommerce has equalized the appearances, eCommerce removed the gap between metro student or village student.

Ecommerce has leveled the playing field, shrinking physical boundaries in the world. That’s why I think eCommerce was a great internet development. And it keeps going.

5. Transparent business system:-

Developing countries are trying to increase transparency in the commercial activities to remove the corruption at ground zero, where trillions of rupees are transacted between buyers and sellers for goods and services. POS (Point of Sale) machines, digital transactions, UID integration with Bank accounts, etc. are few steps taken to increase the transparency.

And in commercial transparency eCommerce is playing a responsible role in explaining buyer’s and seller’s debit, credit and bank account details. It enables banks/government to check where they spend, wherefrom they earn and how they earn and transfer, everything is accounted for.

Most of the eCommerce transactions are digital such as by using credit, debit card, and net banking. Sellers or online retailers receive payments through payment gateway (mostly connected to a current account). Because of this method buyers and sellers are always under Government scrutiny.

And the government can trace any account for doubtful activities at any time, they can also match or compare the expenditure with earned income in bank statement versus income/expenses details from ITR, GST. That’s why eCommerce is important to build and enhance transparent business or commercial activities system.

6. Faster business expansion

Gone are the days when it was tough for local retailers to sell or expand their business, products, and services all over India or the world. It was tough due to the market conditions, local competition, low advertising reach, higher expansion cost, small brand equity, consumer interests, and various other factors.

But eCommerce is a boon for such visionaries who strive for business expansion. One eCommerce website or online store is doing the job for small scale business, companies, and retailers with 30 to 50000 monthly operational cost. Not only are they able to expand rapidly, but they are also making a higher profit with lesser hassles.

This is happening because of several reasons. If we see the stats according to Internetlivestats.com, 3901908900 people are using the internet around the world on phones, computers, and tablets each day. 2351502 phones are sold today. 409376 laptops sold today etc.

It means the world is running, walking, socializing, eating, buying, selling, sleeping, educating, learning and enjoying due to the internet. And eCommerce is the power supply to all these activities on the internet.

That’s why eCommerce is the faster method to expand and grow the business worldwide.

7. More employment opportunities:-

Traditional commerce was known as a job provider for people living in the metros and bigger cities. 30 years ago metros, cities were the biggest source for work and money for people. Villages were known for poverty, less skilled workforce, and poor living standards when compared to the metros based on economics.

But today, whole economics has changed due to the development of eCommerce. Today, people living in the metros are more stretched for money, more worried, more populated and morbid with various things than a village or small city people.

This is because today, a mid-level graphic designer can earn 70000 to 100000 monthly from home by using freelancing platform, providing services online and by selling creative products, from any village in India with internet connectivity.

Today’s skilled village people will very soon be tomorrow’s experts. Metros are becoming destructive for humans in many ways. Internet and eCommerce have provided great platforms for local retailers to sell online, market online, educate online and stand or compete with the people living in the metros.

That’s why I think eCommerce is really the best thing that has ever happened for villagers, farmers. And I truly hope they will get the benefits of this development.

8. Enhancement in digital products and services production:-

eCommerce enhanced the creativity of people to create new and innovative products and services. Online courses, on-demand expert services, books, gifts, and various other e solutions are increasing the speed of development. Today any expert can write an ebook and is able to sell online. Any teacher can create tutorials and educate people online by launching online courses. Most of the things are possible by the use of the internet.

That’s why small scale business owners, small city students, and villagers need e-education so that they too can innovate and reduce poverty and improve the living standard of people.

9. Low maintenance cost:-

Ecommerce is an important profit driver for business. Most of the things in the online store are automatic. Costs incurred in everything from inventory, customer details, payment details to product selection and management of customers interests are lower than traditional commerce expenses.

There are various online store builders, platforms, who update automatically. Websites get automatic updates. Most of the times, the investment in an online store is a one time task. And the operational cost and maintenance cost is also minimum.

The use of Artificial intelligence, cloud computing and machine learning in eCommerce has further minimized the running and operational cost of business. As a result, owners can get maximum profits in low-level input costs. One can operate the whole eCommerce business from a single room with the help of 2-3 people.

There are various couriers, delivery services, payments gateway, inventory and online support available for eCommerce website. And using such services do not require an end to end maintenance of online store and websites by the business owner himself.

Ebooks, online courses and digital products sellers, subscription models do not require too much maintenance. And most of the things are automatic and do not require that much labor that is needed in traditional commercial activities.

10. Multiple selling and marketing options:-

Buyers and sellers are free to choose any marketplace for selling and buying their goods and services. There is almost perfect competition in eCommerce. There is always more than 1 company selling something to a person. Market rules and opportunities are equal for everyone. Small Business owners can market their products and services on social media, search engines for free. In fact, even the consumers buy services and goods after seeing the posts on social media. Ecommerce platforms provided the way for business owners to maximize their business reach.

This was not the case in traditional selling methods. That’s why eCommerce has been adopted by many businesses due to its extraordinary benefits. So it’s clearly evident, how important it is to use eCommerce platforms for buying and selling to break the monopoly of a few capitalist organizations.

Original articles: http://www.klientsolutech.com/importance-of-ecommerce-in-our-daily-life/