Advantages and disadvantages of E-commerce websites

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 Everything has its own advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of E-Commerce. 

Advantages; 

• Availability: E-commerce sites are open round-the-clock, allowing users to explore and purchase whenever they want, with the exception of outages and planned maintenance. Brick and mortar establishments often have set hours of operation and occasionally even shut down completely (Lutkevich and Holak, 2022).
• lower price: Pure-play e-commerce companies do not have to pay rent, stock, or payroll costs associated with operating physical storefronts. However, they can be responsible for shipping and storage fees (Lutkevich and Holak, 2022).
• Wide availibility: There is a wide range of products that customers can access because the products do not have to be in a store, instead they are in a ware house and can be shipped instantly after an order. 
• Easy access of products:  Finding a certain product in a physical store could be challenging for customers. Customers may utilise the site's search function to locate products right away while browsing the product category pages live on the website (Lutkevich and Holak, 2022).
• Customization and Product Suggestions: Online stores can keep track of a visitor's browsing, searching, and purchasing patterns. They can gather information about target markets and utilise this data to give customised product suggestions (Lutkevich and Holak, 2022).

Disadvantages; 

• Security: Due to attacks by cybercriminals and hackers, online portals have received a lot of media attention. This is a very significant problem since, as a result of carelessness, the money in your account might be completely removed (Bhasin, 2019).
• No possibilty for a customer to try a product: One of the main drawbacks of e-commerce sites is that customers are unable to test the products out for themselves. This mostly affects the people shoping clothes. Sometimes the quality delivered is not what you expect or the size is not right (Bhasin, 2019). 
• Late delivery: A typical drawback of e-commerce platforms is late delivery. The consumer is guaranteed, while placing an order, that the product will arrive in at most seven days or within a certain time frame. Most of the time, it does not occur, and you are kept waiting (Bhasin, 2019). 

Reference:

Bhasin, H. (2019) 16 disadvantages of e-commerce - problems with e-commerce, Marketing91. Available at: https://www.marketing91.com/disadvantages-of-e-commerce/ (Accessed: January 18, 2023).

Lutkevich, B., Chai, W. and Holak, B. (2022) What is e-commerce? definition and meaning, CIO. TechTarget. Available at: https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/e-commerce#:~:text=E%2Dcommerce%20(electronic%20commerce),or%20consumer%2Dto%2Dbusiness. (Accessed: January 12, 2023).

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