Retail and E-Commerce

Today the world lives in a different marketing environment than it did 25 years ago. Before the turn of the century, the dot.com world had not arrived. The internet was just in its infancy in the '80s. The '90s brought a new possibility with the internet being used by governments and universities to communicate with one another, but the commercial world had not yet taken its potential into its financial thinking caps. At the turn of the century, the internet was well underway of becoming a global phenomenon with millions of people and businesses entering daily. Ninety-nine percent of companies had built their websites ten years ago.

E-Commerce Marketing Today

Today billions of dollars are spent on the internet, which is very much the opposite of what it was like when everyone used to flock to the mega malls to do shopping. Sometimes it is necessary to reach out for help to set up an online marketing platform that works for the kinds of customers we are seeking. There are companies like OMG Commerce today that specialize in helping companies perfect their marketing strategies for online marketing. What the future holds for retail marketing is still debatable. CRM platforms like Salesforce are very much proficient for online marketing and surprisingly Salesforce is worth $57 billion. What we can observe today is that there are many reasons for small businesses to take advantage of online marketing. What are the differences between retail and e-commerce? First, retail commerce depends upon location. The more a business can learn how to develop a good and robust e-commerce marketing campaign, the better it will perform in today's e-commerce environment.

One Location With Global Reach

Companies used to spend millions of dollars purchasing prime locations around the world to build their retail businesses. In large cities like London, New York, and Los Angeles, real estate was expensive and large corporations like McDonald's would spend tens of millions to purchase prime locations. They still do today. Some businesses like Target and Walmart began in retail but have divided their businesses. They even serve their walk-in customers but also have e-commerce sites to help online shoppers. Companies like Amazon are mainly online. Online retailers have designed their businesses to take advantage of having one location online. Online e-commerce enterprises have a global reach to serve their customers. New e-commerce businesses have large warehouses but only one physical headquarters. Having only one physical office but being able to reach any customer throughout the world is a huge game-changer.

Advantages of E-Commerce

There are many advantages of e-commerce over traditional retail. E-commerce markets itself to online users and does so through small ads usually distributed through an online marketing tool like Google AdWords. Using an online advertising network, an e-commerce site can reach potential customers anywhere in the world. It can also target specific persons in geographical regions for their products. The advantage of this kind of marketing is taking advantage of marketing one product to many types of users. By tailoring their ads to different kinds of users, e-commerce sites can lower their costs of marketing while potentially raising their profits.

Search Products Effectively

On an e-commerce site, a customer doesn't have to walk throughout the store to locate products but can identify the product immediately through the site's search engine. Once the product is found, they can one-click the order in a few seconds. The customer saves plenty of time in having to wait at the checkout line.

Shipping and Delivery Service

For big-ticket items purchased online, the customer can choose the shipper and have the product delivered to their door within 1-2 days. Today package delivery services have a streamlined delivery service catering to online shoppers.

Shop From Home

Ecommerce has the advantage of allowing the customer to remain home and shop from the comfort of their own home. There is no longer a need to go out grocery shopping or purchasing clothes, shoes, and furniture. All of these items are available as online purchases and are delivered straight to the home. There are e-commerce limitations. Some of the limitations to e-commerce is the kind of customer service offered by walking in a store and are less likely to be found in an online business.

Customer Services of E-Commerce

All communication that is done between an e-commerce site and its customers is done via email. There are e-commerce sites like Amazon that have been able to cater to its customers. Amazon provides excellent customer service. Very few e-commerce sites provide excellent customer service. E-commerce has changed the way business is done today.