Exercise 2: Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce websites.

Advantages and disadvantages of e-

commerce websites

In 2021, retail e-commerce sales amounted to nearly 5 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide. This number is forecast to grow by 50 percent over the next four years, reaching about 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025. (Migration Advisory Committee, 2022)

 

With that massive growth in upcoming years e-commerce has chance to become the main form of purchasing or selling products. With clear advantages with predicted growth ecommerce has many other positive features to it such as low financial cost & 24/7 potential income, international sales, gaining access to customer data easily and many others. However, with growing popularity certain issues start to appear. This post aims to describe the positive and negative side of any e-commerce business. 

 

Ecommerce Advantage no.1: Low financial cost

lower start-up cost, cheaper branding, avoiding office and inventory costs

 

Ecommerce Advantage no.2: 24/7 potential income

Automatised ordering system which do not required on the shift workers; business open 24/7 rather than certain hours

 

Ecommerce Advantage no.3: Sell internationally

This allows you to price and ship your products competitively to a worldwide audience.

 

Ecommerce Advantage no.4: Personalised Online Experience & Easy to show Bestsellers

You can personalise customer experience in many ways such as website personalisation, email marketing campaign etc. You can also include great product photography and product description to sway customer’s choice

 

Ecommerce Advantage no.5: Gain access to customer data easily 

Easy access to data for analysis on your customer 

 

 

Ecommerce Disadvantages no. 1: No one can buy during a site crash

The worst of the ecommerce disadvantages is when no one can buy from your store if your site crashes. That’s why it’s important to ensure your website is hosted on the right platform.

 

Ecommerce Disadvantages no. 2: Can’t try it before buying 

While this is currently a problem for many retailers, this won’t be a long-term problem. Augmented reality is a solution for businesses to create more interactive experience for customers.

 

Ecommerce Disadvantages no. 3: High competition 

Battling for customers is another one of the worst ecommerce disadvantages. 

 

Ecommerce Disadvantages no. 4: Physical retail is still more popular despite decline

In 2020, the retail industry had accumulated $4.184 trillion despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting offline stores hard. Yet, online commerce had only made $709.78 billion worldwide.

 

 

 

The reference list:

Chevalier, S., 2022. Global retail e-commerce market size 2014-2023 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/> [Accessed 10 February 2022].

 

Martins Ferreira, N., 2022. 20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Ecommerce | Oberlo. [online] Oberlo.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.oberlo.co.uk/blog/20-ecommerce-advantages-and-disadvantages> [Accessed 10 February 2022].