Will E-commerce dominate physical stores?

In Favor :-

• Growth of E-commerce is much faster than growth of sales in physical stores in retail sector.
• Online shopping is very convenient and time saving for consumers, because products will be delivered at our homes.
• E-commerce platforms are bringing more and more features like delivering daily usage items for the month, same day shipping etc.
• At present, 60% of the world’s population is not connected to internet. Once they connect to online, E-commerce’s growth will be more.
• Less capital investment and operation costs make online shopping sites more profitable. Hence they can provide more services to customers.
• Online stores are providing more flexible payment options like wallets, coupons & EMI etc.
• Some physical retail stores are shutting down as they find it difficult to compete with online stores.
• Finding things in online stores is much easier compared to physical shops.
• The need to stand in queue to pay the cash will be eliminated.  This will be an advantage in user experience.
• We can buy any product form any corner of the world through online stores, even if we live in a remote area.

Against :-

• Though the growth of online stores is faster, 90% the sales of retail items is being done by physical stores.
• The biggest advantage of physical stores is the facility to touch and try the products, which is pretty difficult in E-commerce.
• Physical stores enables the owner to have stronger customer relations, when compared to online shopping sites.
• At present, online stores are offering many discount deals to attract customers. Once they stop discounts, people may not choose to buy the same things online.
• Returning and exchanging things in online stores is a difficult process compared to physical shops.
• In online stores, many will just check products and few people buy. So the conversion rates will be low. But in physical stores, conversion rates will be high.
• With the constant innovation in the technology sector, online shopping will become safer than the present.
• E-commerce is very innovative, when compared to physical stores.
• While buying things from online stores, we have to put up with sponsored products ads, popups etc.

Facts :-

• More and more physical stores are integrating with E-commerce sector.
• Physical stores are called as ‘Brick and mortar system’.
• Consumers are preferring online shopping for some goods like furniture & office supplies, and preferring physical stores for some goods like groceries & food items.
• As anyone can sell in online store, Low quality products are also being sold there.
• Photos in online stores can be deceptive.
• As cyber attacks and malware are increasing day by day, people are fearing about the safety of using online shopping.

Room for improvement :-

• E-commerce :- Online stores need to take steps to eliminate substandard products.
• Physical stores :- Brick and mortar stores need to change with the changing societal needs. It should adapt innovative changes.

Conclusion :-

Physical stores will not go away for sure. Instead the present trend indicates that physical stores and E-commerce sector will work together in a win-win situation.

Afterwords :- Do you prefer online shopping over shopping in physical stores? What do you think about the future of e-commerce. Express your thoughts in the comment section below.

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