Online shops Mallorca

Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce or Internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services over the Internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. E-commerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but can also describe any type of commercial transaction facilitated over the Internet.

While e-commerce refers to all aspects of the operation of an online business, e-commerce specifically refers to the transaction of goods and services.

1. Overcoming geographical limitations

If you have a physical store, you are limited by the geographic area you can serve. With an e-commerce website, the whole world is your playground. In addition, the advent of m-commerce, i.e. e-commerce on mobile devices, has dissolved all remaining geographic limitations.

2. Gain new customers with search engine visibility

Physical retailing is brand and relationship driven. In addition to these two drivers, online retailing is also driven by search engine traffic. It is not unusual for customers to follow a link in search engine results and land on an e-commerce website they have never heard of. This additional source of traffic can be the turning point for some e-commerce businesses.

3. Lower costs

One of the most tangible positives of e-commerce is the reduction of costs. Part of these reduced costs could be passed on to customers in the form of discounts. Here are some of the ways in which costs can be reduced with e-commerce

Advertising and marketing: Organic search engine traffic, pay-per-click and social media traffic are some of the advertising channels that can be profitable.
Staffing: Automation of cashiering, billing, payments, inventory management, and other operational processes reduces the number of employees needed to conduct an e-commerce setup.
Real Estate: This is a simple matter. An e-commerce merchant does not need a prominent physical location.

4. Locate the product faster

It’s no longer about pushing a shopping cart down the right aisle or searching for the desired product. On an e-commerce website, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to narrow their product search immediately. Some websites remember customer preferences and shopping lists to make it easier to repeat a purchase.

5. Eliminate the time and cost of travel

It is not unusual for customers to travel long distances to reach their preferred physical store. E-commerce allows them to visit the same store virtually, with just a few mouse clicks.

6. Provides comparison shopping

E-commerce makes shopping easier by comparison. There are several online services that allow customers to browse through multiple e-commerce merchants and find the best prices.

7. Enable offers, bargains, coupons and group purchases

While there are physical equivalents to bargains, coupons and group purchases, online shopping makes it much more convenient. For example, if a customer has a large discount coupon for a turkey at one physical store and toilet paper at another, it may not be feasible for them to take advantage of both discounts. But the customer could do that online with a few mouse clicks.

8. Provide a wealth of information

There are limitations on the amount of information that can be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who require information on all product lines. E-commerce websites can make additional information easily available to customers. Most of this information is provided by vendors and costs nothing to create or maintain.

9. Creating Targeted Communication

By using the information a customer provides on the registration form, and by placing cookies on the customer’s computer, an e-commerce merchant can access a lot of information about their customers. In turn, it can be used to communicate relevant messages. An example: If you are looking for a certain product on Amazon.com, you will automatically be shown listings of other similar products. In addition, Amazon.com can send you an email about related products.

10. Stay open at all times

Store hours are now 24/7/365. E-commerce websites can be run all the time. From the merchant’s point of view, this increases the number of orders he receives. From the customer’s point of view, an «always open» store is more convenient.

11. Creating markets for niche products

Buyers and sellers of specialty products may find it difficult to locate themselves in the physical world. Online, it’s just a matter of the customer searching for the product in a search engine. An example might be the purchase of obsolete parts. Instead of destroying old equipment for lack of spare parts, we can now locate parts online with great ease.