Saturday 24 March 2012

Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Commerce

 Advantages 

- Consumers will be able to look up any company's products from all over the world (businesses can now attract consumers locally and internationally).

Business transactions can run on a 24 hour basis (online businesses have the advantage of consumers buying their products anywhere and any time). As well, consumers can even buy products during the holidays and weekends.

- Consumer can easily compare products and the quality. Easy research access is also available as companies can attach links and extra information to their products.

- Not all stores carry all the items the company sells. However, with e-commerce, anyone can access every single item the company is carrying.

- Reviews from other people are also available online. By searching the item on google, consumers have easy access to the pros and cons of the product.

- For the business, e-commerce diminishes the cost of marketing, inventory management, consumer care. Also, e-commerce allows the company to reduce the amount of money spent on rent, electricity for lights, store set ups etc, which increases the profit.

- With e-commerce, business also have access to their consumer's service collection. They can take this information and analyze their customer's behavior. Because of the analysis, the company can improve and develop an efficient strategy to advertise about their products.


Disadvantages 

- Not everyone in the world has access to internet, and because e-commerce is heavily based on the internet, it has also limited them from some of their possible customers.

- People also have problems trusting the internet with their personal business transactions

- Online business are not suitable for food items such as fruits and vegetables. Consumers would obviously like to see and touch what they are buying before making a decision.

- The delivery time varies as some company do not deliver some items as often as others. Some products may even take up to two months to be delivered. As well, most companies require their customers to pay a delivery fee depending on the quantity and size of their order and where they live.

- When the customer finally receives what they had purchased, he/she might not be happy with the product and end up returning the product and asking for a refund. Returning an item may be extremely frustrating because of the time spent to buy the product and waiting for your product to arrive.

- During busy hours, the system of the business may actually shut down resulting in a decrease of customers.


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