As blockchain technology is becoming a major driving force in the global economy, it is slowly affecting every single industry, including the e-commerce industry.
The benefits of blockchain technology implementation could be instrumental in solving the challenges that the e-commerce industry currently faces.
Blockchain in E-commerce
Blockchain will mainly improve the e-commerce industry in the transaction sector, making them both safer and faster. The most exciting thing about blockchain technology in this industry is that it is beneficial to both retailers and buyers. It offers many improvements, namely:
Cost Reduction
by using blockchain technology, e-commerce businesses can combine inventory management, payment processing, product descriptions, as well as images with other business activities. They then get to spend less on maintaining systems that facilitate the aforementioned activities. Companies also save up on hiring IT support staff to maintain their systems. Cryptocurrencies that offer fast and cheap transactions cut down the fees that banks charge on facilitating transactions.
Facing Cyber Threats
Most online retailers experience various rates of difficulty when trying to keep up with their competition as well as the rising customer expectations. However, they are also at risk of losing customers' data due to cyber-attacks that could cost them millions. Blockchain technology is the perfect fit for solving these challenges, as it offers the highest level of security in the form of distributed ledgers.
Boosting Trade in Third-world Countries:
Blockchain technology is, through cryptocurrencies, created to help the underbanked and unbanked individuals, mainly in the third-world countries. By using various forms of cryptocurrencies, these people now have a chance to trade online as they don't need a middleman to process their payment requests anymore.
Blockchain use case in e-commerce
It is redundant to name all the e-commerce businesses that use blockchain technology in various ways, as there are so many. As online retailers are rapidly adopting the technology, they constantly invent new ways of serving their customers. Blockchain offers them an effective way of improving their customer experience, as well as expanding the market size.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts can automate e-commerce-related processes, as well as grow the enterprise by cutting down on costs needed to hire staff that would otherwise be needed to carry out tasks that computer programs can automate. They can also facilitate inventory management.
Receipts and warranties
Blockchain technology provides retailers and their customers with a convenient and secure way of storing receipts and warranties of products. One of the challenges of the process of making a purchase that buyers face is losing paper receipts and warranties. Thanks to blockchain, buyers and retailers will be able to access these receipts and warranties and easily validate the proof of ownership.
Loyalty Programs
It's a matter of time when blockchain will be considered the industry standard. When that happens, online retailers could easily issue redeemable reward points to their clients as an incentive for spending at their shop. Online retailers could, provided they have a good platform to do so, also make these reward points redeemable across different companies.
Supply Chain Monitoring
An online store can achieve their desired business goals only if they have a reliable supply chain. Supply chains help store operators verify the type of products that vendors are supplying to them, as well as enable them to know what they have in stock or delivery process. When these operators use blockchain technology to monitor their supply chain, they can prevent vendors from intentionally or accidentally substituting certain products, as well as foster transparency throughout the process.
Generating Genuine Reviews
Online stores live and die based on their reviews. Store operators could rely on blockchain technology to verify incoming reviews on their products or services. Customers also benefit from this feature, as they can now trust the reviews posted.
Final word
Companies are slowly but surely turning away from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce business models. Blockchain technology is acting as the backbone of online sales and payments.
Besides being flat out faster and cheaper, the utilization of blockchain facilitates all activities that current commerce systems allow.
