Reasonably early when it comes to the public’s understanding, the blockchain technology is guaranteed to change one application quickly; that’s e-commerce.
Today, e-commerce platforms have the ownership of everything that on the product page. These platforms can also use the sales information and user behavior patterns for competing with vendors who sell similar products.
Additionally, traditional e-commerce platforms charge a per-sale fee alongside taking a certain percentage of the total sale revenue from retailers. Another challenge for merchants is the fact that there is no direct contact with their consumers since these centralized platforms cut-off the direct contact between the two parties.
On the consumer side, they are given the illusion of low prices and maximum opportunity for product selection, but the e-commerce world has infinite ways of charging the consumer which are passed on to them by the retailers who are charged hidden fees.
Can blockchain come to rescue?
With emerging decentralized marketplaces through blockchain, a consumer will be charged lower prices and retailers will have better rules, with the lack of a centralized team and fixed costs. A few projects are now emerging, to provide platforms which aim to solve the above issues and several others.
These platforms are expected to offer less cost in selling goods. Also, the retailers shall have total ownership of all digital data, including their reviews and product images or videos. They will also be given the ability to tokenize their stores by launching ICO(Initial Coin Offerings) on such platforms. This is bound to result in facilitating increased brand affinity. New revenue streams will be delivered, with retailers selling their tokens besides their products and increase their profits.
The innovations in blockchain continue to grow with companies like Zapit which enables the ability to generate legitimate product and services reviews.
Companies that fail to add value to their customers feel threatened as blockchain together with e-commerce is bound to unlock numerous doors of opportunities in this search for transparency, trust, and reduced costs. It’s high time a retailer explores the possibilities blockchain and e-commerce can present.
