How E-Commerce is changing Retail for the Better

There is no denying that commerce, on any scale, has been shaken up by the arrival of COVID-19. However, even before the pandemic began to get in the way, we were seeing a gradual increase in E-commerce activity, which has only begun to get more and more notable now that people are staying home and buying online. We all know that E-commerce is the future, but what happens to regular retail once it fully takes root in modern life?

Is Retail Going Away?

It would be wrong to consider online shopping and in-store shopping at two different things that will replace one another, because the truth is that neither is going away. There will always be some industries that rely on retail to survive, and even in areas of Australia where businesses may be fairly spread out, there can be many reasons to visit one in person. That is not even getting into the types of retail that only really work in-person, such as tailored clothing.

Retail isn’t going away, but E-commerce will certainly outpace it even once COVID-19 dies down. In a bid to try and dominate the online markets, thousands of companies have turned towards pooling resources into their online storefronts and offerings: which has the side effect of making them much more enjoyable for consumers. What used to be a painful and slightly awkward process has become slick, clean, and most importantly, very widespread.

Retail isn’t outdated, and E-commerce isn’t the single way forward. There will always be a balance, and there will always be customers with a preference for one or the other, and the nature of shopping means that both are equally important in different ways. However, they are also not exclusive, and many businesses have been able to take advantage of both by using one to cover the weaknesses of the other.

The Spread of Marketing Material

One of the biggest roadblocks to any business that was exclusively online or offline was being heard on the other side of the spectrum. B2B businesses that have websites for wholesale of raw materials would only rarely appear in newspaper advertisements, and up-and-coming web businesses would lie hidden in a pile of other websites with no exposure to people that consumed print media or preferred retail.

An increasingly online world – not to mention a changing generation – has changed this. The last generation was partially brought up by computers and the internet, but the current generation is diving even further into the internet from an early age, and that means that they grow up with a strong knowledge of how it works.

Why does this matter? Well, consider target audiences of many businesses that struggle in the online world: and for the first time in history, we might end up with an elderly generation that is not only intimately familiar with the internet but have a deep understanding of e-commerce. This means that the internet isnot just a tool for advertising to the younger demographics, but could soon become as powerful and varied as television used to be.

Two-Way Commerce

The internet also opens up the option for companies and individuals to become business and customers. Advertising isn’t just to attract people to products but opens them up to services that weren’t possible in retail.

While the idea of a B2B company on the internet was fairly common even a few years ago, we now have a situation where internet companies are stocking other internet company products, and individual consumers are making brands for others to buy. Influencers, the coveted source of advertising that dominates social media, are just one example of a single person becoming a de facto B2B force in the market by offering a service to larger companies.

Allowing a company to interact with both consumers and other businesses so directly, both through online shopping and social media, has made E-commerce something special. Even companies that focus on brands in their local area, like Payday Deals Australia, have essentially been able to exist and thrive purely because of the internet’s immense size and the sheer number of people willing to co-operate in the name of a profit or better arrangement.

Does Quality Change?

In some circles, there is the entirely valid concern that an increasingly online shopping experience comes at the cost of quality. The logic behind it states that, when people are selling all over the world and at such a large scale, there is no room for any love in the products being made. However, with the E-commerce infrastructure that the world has now, we couldnot be further from that idea.

Consumers will always care about the things that they care about: quality, visual appeal, relative value, ethical creation, fashion, relevance, and how the product lives up to their personal standards. The beauty of E-commerce is that it allows needs and gaps in the market to be filled much faster: whether that is a single person setting up their own online shopping page on a digital marketplace or a company introducing a new product, consumers will always be able to find something that fits with that they are looking for.

And yes, there is always a chance that E-commerce could drive the quality of specific items down, but the same could be said of any large-scale changes. What online shopping provides is a way for alternatives to be presented, so that customers who arenot happy with a low-quality good can go elsewhere. If your business makes good products, consumers will find you and make your name known among their social circles, something that can never really be done in retail outside your local area.

There is not a perfect balance of retail and E-commerce, and there is no guarantee that any given business will use it well. However, it is still true that E-commerce has left a mark on retail that won’t fade any time soon, especially with more and more people understanding that online shopping is not only viable and possible – it is also sometimes just the better choice.