Pandemic and the development of E-commerce
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Despite the chaos caused by the Corona pandemic in 2020, it also opened the eyes of many industries to adopt working on a more efficient manner. The world started adopting technology than ever before. While office rooms became virtual office spaces and schools became online educators, retailors used the support of e-commerce to sustain their businesses. E-commerce as known as electronic commerce allows consumers to directly purchase goods and services via internet. To make matters easy the vendors have also produced web browsers or mobile applications for the ease of consumers.
There could be many benefits of online shopping. Weekly grocery shopping or annual Christmas shopping was previously one of the most time-consuming tasks anyone had to endure. Online stores enable consumers to search options where they can quickly browse for the exact design, model, or item they need in a matter of minutes or seconds. Even the most niche markets like pregnancy wear became popular via online shopping. Online stores selling pregnancy clothes Australia has, updated their websites with new designs in maternity wear over the last year and most soon to be moms preferred to purchase their goods online, than risking being exposed to the pandemic while shopping in stores. Most online stores also allow customers to pay online or even pay cash on delivery. There are more secure payment facilities as well to safeguard the users. Online stores are a great way for entrepreneurs to enter the market as the capital cost of having to establish a physical store are limited. Some of the largest and well knows e-commerce sites have paved the way for entrepreneurs and small business owners to sell their products online.
While online shopping could be an easy method of purchasing goods and services, it also can come with a certain degree of risks and dangers. One of the most common and well-known online defaults are spam sites and hackers. Though many financial institutions have taken precautions to safeguard their users, none has fully been able to mitigate the risk of financial frauds. Operating an online store should be delegated to an efficient team who will closely monitor the orders, ensure cash is collected and finally that the exact goods are delivered on a timely manner to the customer. In order to build brand loyalty customer care is quite important when handling an online store.
Even though online stores are becoming quite trendy, there still could be consumers who prefer to continue the more traditional methods of shopping. In order to place an online order, a customer should have basic facilities such as a mobile phone or a desktop and an internet connection and a certain amount of knowledge on how to place an order. However certain parts of the world are lacking such facilities. Another limitation would be that elderly generation may also lack technological knowledge on how to make online purchases. It may take a while for the world to adopt to these changes, but I believe that e-commerce comes in handy with more pros than cons. While these limitations may have a temporary drawback once its overlooked, it could be quite helpful.