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Electronic businesses have got the attention of every owner who wants to do something new by selling online. No doubt, online selling has become a common practice that all-sized businesses do these days. There are different approaches to sell online, whereas some go with traditional commerce and some prefer eCommerce services. Traditional commerce and eCommerce are two different approaches to sell goods. What is the difference between traditional commerce and eCommerce?
Traditional Commerce
In traditional commerce, you visit a store to buy products. In this shopping, you interact with sellers face to face and get a chance to touch your goods. Before you make any purchase, you also get an opportunity to feel your products in all five senses. It’s a traditional buying service that everyone in this world has gone through at least once in life. Traditional purchasing has always been working for buyers for a long time. Also, a buyer builds strong and lasting relationships with sellers with this traditional commerce service.
A complete staff has to work together to perform selling services, whereas an accountant, salesman, and cashier play their parts. Stock maintenance is the responsibility of sellers, so they develop a system and works like a chain. These stores work 6 days a week and that is the specialty of traditional commerce services. Customers can choose whatever they need directly from stores.
Online Selling or eCommerce
eCommerce is completely a different setup when compared to traditional commerce. In this selling, you don’t visit stores, but you place orders online to get your shipment delivered in business working days. Today, online selling services have flourished worldwide and people prefer to surf online to find domestic goods. Of course, people have become tech-friendly and prefer to save time by placing online orders to buy products quickly. Life has become fast due to competition and earning challenges, so online shopping gives an opportunity to all busy individuals to plan eCommerce.
Online selling not only gives advantages to customers, but it gives endless benefits to sellers when they boost sales and generate revenue for the company. Thankfully, online selling doesn’t take place during working hours, as customers can place orders 24/7 to get their products. On the other hand, you can’t visit a traditional store once it is closed. It is the major difference between both services.
An Overview of Differences between E-Commerce and Traditional Commerce
Online selling and traditional commerce are entirely two different things. Both serve customers to get their products for different purposes. Here are some key points to explain the differences!
Time-saving
If we compare traditional commerce with eCommerce, we can find time-saving differences. Of course, a buyer can save good time with online selling platforms, but traditional shopping is a time-consuming process. Thankfully, eCommerce saves plenty of time for users and that’s an understood thing. You place an order, complete the transaction, and get your order in few minutes.
Convenience
Convenience is another crucial point that makes eCommerce better than traditional commerce. Online selling not only gives benefits to sellers, but it provides a convenient platform to customers at the same time. They look around a vast variety of products online that are one click away. Therefore, customers enjoy hassle-free shopping and get everything from a mega online store. On the other hand, traditional commerce requires a buyer to visit the store to view goods. However, both users enjoy shopping, but online shopping is far better than traditional ones.
Cost-effective
Every buyer is concerned about cost-effective factors while purchasing goods whether it comes to one who visits the shop or the one who uses the internet to get things. Which shopping mode do you choose for making a purchase? If we talk about the cost-effective factors, both platforms provide support to buyers to a great extent, but electronic selling is a more attractive and favorable point when we talk about cost-effectiveness.
A middleman has to play role in traditional shopping, but online shopping is a direct interaction between you and the seller. No middleman is involved in this process! You only pay the cost to the seller via an online process and everything is transparent. You just need a reliable internet connection to begin e-purchasing from a reputed online store. Hence, internet shopping is cost-effective and there is no doubt.
Access to Newly Launched Products
You can always access newly launched products using both traditional and latest eCommerce platforms. If we compare both, we can find online shopping ideal for accessing newly launched products. You don’t have to visit the store to view recently launched new products. Thankfully, you can take a close look at new products using online shopping facilities. Whenever you log onto an online website, you can read the product descriptions and benefits along with the latest updated images. It is so easy to access newly introduced products online.
Personal Inspection
Many customers want to visit the stores to get their favorite products. They don’t enjoy online shopping modes, as it misses the physical inspection of buyers. Of course, internet shopping doesn’t offer visits to the store. It saves time, but buyers don’t feel satisfaction without touching and holding products in hand. Thankfully, traditional commerce offers this facility of physical inspection to all users.
Product suitability
Product suitability is another key concern that users have to bother before doing any purchase. An E-commerce platform is ideal for items that are not much expensive. People don’t buy jewelry, cars, and heavy machinery. For this, they prefer to visit the store, as you know online stores are not suitable for perishable goods. People visit these stores to buy groceries, books, and routine items. However, product suitability matters a lot and it is different on both platforms. Which one would you like to select?
Store Manager & team
There is always a need for a team to run businesses. If we overview traditional commerce vs. eCommerce, we can find a massive difference between teams. There is always a need for the technical department and team to run online stores, as it is a responsibility to sell and deliver goods to consumers. Without the support of human resources, sales team, and delivery guys, it is not easy to run the store. In traditional commerce, there is a need for a limited team. You just need a store manager, a cashier, and a team that guides people to purchase goods.
Customer interaction
It is an interesting difference that makes a big difference in both shopping modes. If we overview traditional commerce, we can find a face-to-face interaction between buyers and sellers and it’s a must. On the other hand, online shopping doesn’t require any kind of interaction with customers. Sellers don’t see their buyers, as there is a screen-to-screen interaction that works great. Hence, buyers place online orders and don’t see the face of sellers.
Fraud
How does fraud come into place in shopping? It takes place to a great extent when we talk about eCommerce services. Online shopping covers so many fraudulent activities, where many sellers deliver cheap and low-quality products. So, the solution is to choose reputed and high-rated stores for online shopping. On the other hand, traditional commerce is better, as it doesn’t involve fraud because a buyer directly visits the store and touches the product before buying. So, it prevents fraud.
Business Process
If we look at the process of business, there is a massive difference between both. Electronic commerce works through an automated process, where sellers use websites and updated software to manage to sell. It reduces errors and is one of the best ways to promote goods. Further, in traditional commerce, the process is manual. A buyer has to sell products through a manual process and he/she has to keep a record in a journal/ledger.
As per the above differences between traditional and eCommerce services, we come to know about key points between both services. Online shopping has more benefits than traditional shopping, but to some extent, traditional purchasing wins the race to minimize frauds and scams. A buyer can avoid fraud when physically inspecting the goods. But, online shopping is hassle-free, cost-effective, and less time-consuming. These days, eCommerce services have got momentum and one can’t deny it.
