Pros and Cons of E-Commerce | Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Commerce

Introduction : What is E-Commerce?

E-commerce means buying and selling products or services electronically via particular platform on the internet. Normally in this E-commerce system buying, selling and shipping are the basic processes. Additionally it related with online payments, online marketing, SEO and other various business concepts. In this E-Commerce process customer can order some product or service without visiting physical store or shop. When consider the E-Commerce technology there are pros and cons for both seller and buyer. 

Pros of E-Commerce

1. Quick purchasing process (E-commerce makes faster purchasing process and speed up the buying process for online customers. Buyer can purchase products or services by sitting at home without visiting physical shop)
2. Reducing cost of operating (E-commerce has eliminated the overall business cost of a company. Normally businesses need a physical shop or store to sell their product and store products. But when using e-commerce, doesn't require a physical shop. Just only need an online platform or else a website. So it reduced the rent, utilities, various bills, and staff salaries. E-commerce saves the operating cost of a business)
3. Customize the buyer' Shopping Experience (E-commerce allows having a personalized shopping experience for customers. Customers can find better products according to their own choice without wasting time and easily, within a large variety of products or services. And also E-commerce enables the categorized products or services according to the buyer's choice and it helps for a better shopping experience)
4. Availability of 27x7 (Normally a physical store or a shop opens only some working hours of the day. And also holidays and weekends are closed days. But in E-commerce online shops are available 24 hours every day. So customers can buy anything at in anytime and sellers can sell anything at any time)
5. No geographical limits (E-commerce provides the facility to purchase an item from any place in the world as well as sell items to any place in the world. For example, USA customers can visit China seller's online store, select item and purchase it. If there is no E-commerce it is very difficult and sometimes it's not possible. The process of E-commerce allows buying and selling without geographical limits)
6. Detailed Products with Easy Comparisons (E-commerce platforms provide the facility to add full details of products and services with photos and videos. It is helpful for buyers to get a better idea about products. Most E-commerce platforms provide the facility to compare two or more products and it is useful for customers to select the right product or service)
7. Retargets the Buyers (When a new buyer purchases something from an e-commerce website normally website saves the basic details of the buyer such as name, address, e-mail, and telephone numbers. Then sellers can conduct promotion programs at any time by targeting customers. The seller can send coupons, promo codes, discount offers from time to time)
8. Useful data for business analysis (In the E-commerce platform, it can easily record all data of visitors and buyers such as search queries, country, age, gender, etc. Those data are very important for business analysis. It helps to predict trending searches, future trends, popular items by age or gender, etc. And also those data are valuable for conducting an advertisement campaign)
9. Helpful for pandemic situation (The E-commerce business process is a better solution during pandemic situations such as covid-19. Then customers don't need to visit a physical store and easy to maintain the isolation process)

Cons of E-Commerce

1. Difficulty in experiencing products (In the process of E-commerce, customers don't go to a physical store and only experience it via a digital screen. Then buyers cannot check the products properly before purchasing)
2. Cannot try before buy (Buyers are not able to try the products or services before purchase. As an example, if a buyer purchases a dress from a physical store he/she can try it before purchase. But in E-commerce no availability to try products before buying. Customers should wait till the item arrived at home)
3. No Guarantee about Quality (There is no 100% guarantee about the quality of products in E-commerce online stores. There can be cheating by shipping false products to customers. In some cases no quality of the real product as mentioned in online descriptions)
4. Security issues of Customers Data (In the E-commerce process, most customers use a credit card to make payments. Some online platforms saved customers' card details for the easiness of future businesses. But hackers can steal stored card details of customers. These kinds of security issues can arise in the E-commerce process. 'Cash on Delivery method is an average solution for that)
5. Customer' privacy Issues (Some e-commerce platforms are taking customer email, and telephone numbers when purchasing a product. After that, they send a lot of promotions, messages, and links without the permission of customers. And also there can be a leak of customers' contact details)
6. Delivery time is too Long (One of the major cons of E-commerce is customers should wait a long time to get their products home. Normally the shipping process takes more time to deliver products to the customer's home)
7. Additional cost for shipping (When purchasing a product from an E-commerce store seller should send an item via post or courier service. For this process, there should spend an additional shipping cost. When considering some single pieces of small items, spending money on shipping is very wasteful)
8. Using for illegal product selling (Some illegal products cannot sell in physical stores because police or responsible authorities can find them and take action easily. But racketeers can use online E-commerce stores using the dark web to business illegal products such as drugs, and weapons. For that, they can be using cryptocurrency as a payment gateway for more security)