Why Is eCommerce So Popular?

It cannot be denied that the last decade has seen a rapid growth in the acceptance of ecommerce by the general public. Ironically it is possible that this rapid growth may have been spurred on by the collapse of many early ecommerce companies in 2000.

The publicity of the event probably accelerated the awareness of the possibilities of ecommerce solutions. From humble beginnings the market has grown hugely - in 2007 U.S. statistics put ecommerce as accounting for 3.5% of total retail sales.

So, Why Is This Method Of Selling So Popular?

We have already covered the advantages of ecommerce for retailers on the Advansys blog "Why should you choose ecommerce?", but why is it so popular for shoppers?

There are several attractions to buying online as a process for shoppers, most notably is convenience. Business customers can make purchases from their offices, without waiting for a mail-order salesperson or having to head out of the office to a physical store. Private consumers also benefit from convenience, shopping late at night while watching TV or relaxing in their living rooms.

The speed of online purchasing is also part of this convenience, with no need to travel to the store it is possible to make more purchases online in the same time that one would normally be away from home.

A Comprehensive Website And eCommerce Platform

Ecommerce websites also provide all the tools to manage a customers purchasing, allowing orders to be built up, wish lists to be created and published and in some cases orders to be tracked through the build up process, as in custom computer sales or sales of other modular products.

As many studies have shown, the experience of shopping is as much a part of the pleasure people take in shopping as are the resulting purchases and ecommerce is no different. A well designed website is a pleasure to navigate especially when the products themselves are presented in a way that is exciting to the customer.

Visually a website need have no restraint and so it is possible for even a modest enterprise to have a far more striking website than a multinational corporation. Something that is largely impossible on the high street.

The final driving factor to the success of ecommerce is choice. Business suppliers of niche products are few and far between so the web is the perfect place for them to advertise and now sell their products.

It has been noted that private customers to ecommerce websites are often looking for the niche product or the rare item, the kind of product that the mid-sized physical shop could not risk carrying in stock and larger retailers will see as too 'niche' for their demographic. Ecommerce solutions allow eTailers to offer broader ranges of product without worrying about the availability of customers, and that means that customers can always find what they want.