…when it comes to buying online. eCommerce as we know it is about to change. We may have just got started with buying our electronics, books, home appliances and vacations online, but eCommerce is constantly changing and faster than ever. Just this summer, twitter introduced product pages, amazon offers grocery shopping to prime customers and Instagram is turning more and more into a promo machine for brands . One of the most anticipated eCommerce revolutions is Pinterest’s buy button. E-commerce is advancing into new markets and the offering is growing exponentially. Some of the sectors, highly restricted at this point, will change drastically over the next few years. Thinking about online pharmacies, we are in for a revolution, once e-prescription becomes a common standard in many countries. The healthcare sector, already in the spotlight due to the possibilities that arise in the field of big data, etc., will also become a strong force in the e-commerce sector. These may be just assumptions at this point, but the signs are obvious, if we look at the growth rates in eCommerce sales.
We start hearing about “uber for deliveries”, drones and many more services targeted at the boom in eCommerce. Probably, more than any other supporting industry, we will also see the logistics sector literally transforming overnight. While in most cases 24h delivery is not a thing yet, we are already talking about delivery a few hours after an online purchase has been logged. A challenge and a sea of opportunities, especially in markets like Poland with strong eCommerce growth rates, but a rather fragile logistics network that still has some room for improvement, if we compare it to its German neighbor.
A cha
llenging situation also for many shops that are currently still trading exclusively offline, facing a growing online competition, which is able not only to offer better prices, but also faster deliveries. In how many cases do you really need something right now? Might it not be more comfortable to order something in the morning and pick it up on your way home after work? A chance for offline shops to become part of the online landscape, enabled by platforms of various industries that make setting up your e-shop as easy as creating a Gmail address. Increase your reach of customers significantly, just by signing up on a webpage.
Going back to the so called „mail order pharmacy“, issues that we are currently facing are high abandonment rates, specifically in this sector. The reasons for this are various. One of the most apparent reason is that people tend to compare prices in different eCommerce outlets, thus abandoning the basket once they compared different baskets in different e-shops. With a growing number of e-outlets, consumers start to get lost in the eCommerce jungle of hundreds of shops that seem to offer products for the same conditions. While offline stores have the possibility of differentiation through their location, this is not possible for eCommerce businesses. In most cases this leads to hard price competition and smaller businesses are usually the ones left behind in this battle.
Many smaller businesses that would like to advance into eCommerce are going to have to change the way the play the game. eCommerce is a different game, with different rules and a lot of businesses do not seem ready for the challenge yet, which at the end leads to bigger businesses taking home the grand prize. The winner takes it all.
What are the limitations to eCommerce? What would you never buy online?
Many customers purchasing online do so out of convenience and due to competitive pricing. Do you think that in the long run this will be enough? Off course now as it is all new we enjoy the convenience and benefit from it, however going to the mall to shop is often about more than just purchasing the items. People go there to socialise, to destress after a long day of work. Off course our habits will change im sure of that but not necessarily that critically. I believe that still for quite some time online and offline stores will be able to co-exist.