Electronic vs Traditional Commerce

Dear Gloria, I have been in the trade industry for more than 20 years and I have been doing both Electronic Commerce and Traditional Commerce. Of course, there are plenty of advantages for choosing Electronic Commerce. Beside the ones mentioned by Mr. Clain I would add: 1.Opportunity to gain new customers with Search Engine VisibilityTraditional retail is determined by branding and relationships. In addition to these two, online retail is also driven by traffic from search engines; 2. Chance to locate the product quicker. On e-commerce websites, customers can easily click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to narrow down their product search immediately. Some websites remember customer preferences and shopping lists to facilitate repeat purchase; 3. Being open all the time. Another major factor why the customer would prefer e-commerce websites to traditional commerce is that they can shop at any time as e-commerce store timings are 24*7*365; 4. Creating markets for niche products. In a traditional commerce environment, buyers and sellers of niche products can find it difficult to locate each other. On the other side, in the online world, all you have to do as a buyer is to type the specific product in a search engine and you will find a list of websites that sell the product.

Advantages of electronic commerce over traditional commerce are as follows: 1. Instant worldwide availability.  2. A streamlined buyer-to-seller relationship. 3. Reduced paperwork. 4. Reduced errors.  5. Time and overhead costs. 6. Reduced time to complete transactions. 7. Easier entry into new markets. 8. New business opportunities.  9. Improved market analysis. 10. Wider access to assistance and advice. 11. Improved product analysis. 12. The ability to streamline and automate purchasing.