Disadvantage of E-commerce

Everything in the world has two narratives one is good and the other is bad. We have discussed the advantages of E-commerce. Now, let’s discuss the disadvantages of E-commerce.

Start-up cost: 

The first one is the start-up cost which is quite high compared to offline business. As you need to set up your business online you need qualified and skilled employee for your business which again cost you.

Competition:

The second disadvantage is competition. Getting online means you are competing in a global market. So there is a risk that you will not earn profit and there are some times when the company get closed as they are not able to generate profits.

Security:

The third disadvantage is Security. As we all know data is going to become currency in the future, and today we are all concerned with data. Getting online just means you are compromising your privacy. Also, we have witnessed many data breaches where the personal data of customers was leaked or stolen.

Lacks the human touch:

The biggest disadvantage of E-commerce is that it lacks the human touch. We human beings are social animals, we love to interact with new people. Also, the human touch creates a relationship of trust between a seller and a customer. For example, jewellery businesses, have to face some barriers to gain the trust of their customers.

Product quality:

There is no guarantee of product quality as the person buying the good depends only on the quality of the images. There are many times the image of the product and the product do not match. For example, you went to an E-commerce site and purchase a blue color dress but after delivery, the color blue looks quite different.

Cultural obstacles:

Since E-commerce targets customers from all over the world. Every country has its own culture and history which affects consumer behaviour. Sometimes there is a language barrier and this creates an obstacle for the seller.

Legal Issues:

We all know law varies from country to country and also many countries are in the stage of developing laws related to e-commerce. So, when some breach has happened it is very hard to deal with that situation as not every person is aware of cyber laws.

COVID-19, the new normal, we all are familiar with what I am talking about. The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed everything, including work from home, online school, online college, and shopping. Well, e-shopping or e-commerce was present in pre-COVID times, but no one recognized the power of e-commerce back then. COVID-19 has given a push to all the digital things which were present right there, but we are not much concerned about it. E-commerce saves a lot of time but not many used it before COVID times, but now everyone relies on the internet for shopping from the convenience of their home. 

Now the question arises: what really E-commerce is? Well, let’s start with the term itself, here E stands for Electronic and commerce, the activity of buying and selling, so if we join both the term together it can be concluded buying or selling through an electronic medium is called E-commerce. Now we need connections between one computer to another, and thus the internet plays a crucial role in E-commerce.

So, anyone who can access the internet can participate in E-commerce activity. E-commerce consists of two types: 

1. Shopping
2. Trading Stocks

We all are aware of e-shopping and most of us must have used it at least once. Amazon, Flipkart, and Tata Cliq are some good examples of e-shopping. There are some sites that provide only a certain type of product like JIO Mart which offers only groceries, whereas Flipkart and Amazon sell everything. On the other hand, if we talk about trading stocks, a few years back it was so difficult for common people to understand it. As they did have not much knowledge. But, now many are actively using stocks and the awareness about that has reached many. This is because of the use of the internet even by the common people.