The Benefits of an ecommerce store in the Covid Pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago is even more apparent as evidenced by increasing use of credit cards and online transactions. Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is the activity of electronically buying or selling products or services on the internet. It has recently been rated as the best system where business owners can take their products from a traditional brick-and-mortar store to an innovative visual platform.
The popularity of e-commerce is not a new story. Larger companies such as Amazon.com, Walmart, Alibaba, and others have been rapidly expanding in the last few years. The Co-19 situation, however, has accelerated the growth of this convenience movement for businesses of every size. As of April 2020, online revenue growth spiked up 68% and it is still accelerating1.
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Issues Face In Traditional Businesses
Since March 2020, most businesses were temporarily shut down, followed by a reopening and eventually closing down again in 2021. Even businesses that are reopening have restrictions enforcing social distancing, the wearing of masks, and limiting how many customers can enter a space at one time which have affected sales tremendously. Reality shows that traditional shopping has become difficult, or may even be scary, people are starting to increasingly become more inclined to shop online than physical business.
How Can Local Businesses Maximize On E-commerce?
The fact that consumers were already embracing Amazon.com and other online retailers made the transition considerably easy for local businesses. Any scale of business whether small, medium or large can greatly benefit from e-commerce during this pandemic. More customers have started to utilize this market making it the “New Shopping Habits” Due to quarantine, people’s way of buying items has changed. The situation has persisted long enough for these patterns to become ingrained. Certainly, when stores open, customers might venture out more. However, this doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly stop the fairly addictive, and comforting feeling of shopping online.
The Backlash Of Covid-19
The fear of COVID-19 is not going to automatically disappear overnight. Research has shown that Coronaphobia which is a psychosocial disorder is growing by the numbers each Minute. This proves that even when the quarantine ends, people will be cautious and many will still prefer shopping from the safety of their homes.
Technology Makes Commerce Easy
The rapid growth of mobile devices is making it easier than ever to browse and shop online. 80% of shoppers used a mobile phone to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations. An estimated 10 billion mobile-connected devices are currently in use. Customers can place orders one-handed from the device that is likely in their hand or pocket at all times. More and more, customers now appreciate the convenience of online shopping. While the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 might have made online shopping more appealing, this is a long-term trend that’s likely to continue well into the post-pandemic future.