February 20th, 2020 | Updated on June 17th, 2020
For the past decade and a half, technology has been disrupting businesses and bringing about a change in the way they conduct themselves, and in customer perception.
When web technology came into existence, people started moving towards web-based shopping, use of services and even communication, which helped them achieve more in less time.
with time, the businesses learned about the new needs and kept digging deeper into the world of technology to identify new ways to make life better and secure for the users.
2020 will see yet another technology, which has been slowly making its way into the business segment, disrupt the eCommerce segment majorly.
You will notice that eCommerce which is known to offer maximum convenience, will become highly secure and accessible with Blockchain.
The worldwide spend on Blockchain is expected to grow from $1.5Bn in 2018 to $11.7Bn by 2022. The retail sector is likely to incorporate Blockchain to increase its reliability to the online customer.
It is said that by 2040, 95% of the purchases will take place using the eCommerce channel, and it is impertinent to make it reasonably secure and ensure you get all the major alerts.
Here, we will take you through all the different ways in which Blockchain seems to be redefining the eCommerce industry.
1. Fraud Detection
In 2018 alone, a total of 1.4M credit card frauds were reported. As a result, banks lost close to $1.48Bn globally.
This was a huge sum, and it did not stop there. Most often, payment gateways on the eCommerce sites are responsible for these frauds, as it allows the cards to be used, and there is no sure way to know if the gateway is secure or not.
Identifying the fraudster becomes difficult, and it is a huge price that the banks and eCommerce sites have to pay. The most known method to make money online through fraudulent means is a chargeback.
The customer can request a chargeback from the bank after getting the product.
The consumers can also get the chargeback without fraudulent intention, and it is almost equivalent to getting a complete refund from the bank, and the merchant is completely unaware of the same.
This is almost responsible for 80% of the fraud occurring online.
In case you opt for the Blockchain dominated payment gateways combined with smart contracts, you won’t lose the money in such fraud.
The banks will release the refund only when certain conditions are met. In case the transaction is completed on the website, the users will not be given a chance to reverse it immediately.
2. Efficient Inventory Management
The second area where most eCommerce businesses fail is inventory management. Let’s explain it with a scenario.
There is a product on the website, which the user is interested in. As soon as they add the product to the cart, and click on pay, the website declares that the product is unavailable.
In such a scenario, the customer can change loyalties, and you might lose out on a valuable conversion.
Why does this happen? You are not aware of the inventory that is available with you, and you are unable to manage all the products on your site.
As a result, you face issues like the product that is available on your site is no longer trending or, you have major stock out issues.
Blockchain can help you deal with inventory management in an efficient manner. It will manage all the records for the particular product listed, which means it will keep a check on whether the item is trending and still available or not.
Blockchain-based inventory database will allow you to keep a track of all items, and make sure you have complete visibility into the distribution channel, from the distributors to the retailers.
This way, you will know if the product is stocked out or not, and whether you should be re-stock it immediately or you can let it go. You can even track the shipments that are being sent to you from the distributor.
3. Secure Database
There is a lot of data involved in an eCommerce business. you are not simply adding the customer’s detail and their payment methods. You are also adding the supplier’s details, the banking details, the logistics detail, etc. to your service.
The database, as a result, becomes huge and contains massive amounts of data ranging from the business-related data to the customer-related data.
Managing this data i.e. handling the storage, retrieving it in real-time, making sense of the data, and ensuring that the data processing happens in milliseconds is just not possible with the regular technology. In fact, it takes a toll on eCommerce businesses.
That’s why you need to invest in Blockchain technology. Not only does it make the database handling efficient, but it also manages it in a cost-efficient manner.
You will be able to mark all the important data through a private network, making it easy to access and secure.
Increased levels of transparency keep the data secure and ensure an easy transition. You can even scale with ease using the Blockchain-enabled database.
4. More Genuine Reviews
It is seen that the reviews on the website are not always genuine. A lot of eCommerce businesses indulge in paid reviews, where they ask the people to review their products for a certain price.
This leads to a lot of issues when the product is bought by the users. They don’t find the product as portrayed by the reviews.
To make sure that this does not happen, Blockchain-enabled eCommerce businesses will ensure that fake reviews are not posted, and will show only the genuine reviews.
They will verify the user and validate the review shared before posting it to the site. only those who have used the product and have a few words to share about the product will be allowed to post the review.
In case the customers have bought the product, but have not shared their experience, the eCommerce site owners can offer incentives that can make them share their reviews.
These incentives would be sent to their wallets or something similar.
5. Improve Delivery And Logistics
Most eCommerce businesses strive hard to make their delivery and logistics seamless and increase its efficiency.
However, they always tend to face issues trying to track their shipment and keep track of the goods that have been sent from the distributor.
These delays can eventually cause delays in the retail segment, which causes dissatisfaction and ruins the experience.
Blockchain can make delivery and logistics smarter and efficient. With the decentralized technology, all stakeholders in the delivery and logistics can view the information related to the transit of the goods.
Once the shipment has left its deck, the party can update the information along with the numbers and other details. Real-time tracking is enabled, which cannot be manipulated, thus making the system smarter and accessible.
A private network has also been identified to make the whole distribution process traceable and accurate.
6. Streamlined Operations
The daily operations at the eCommerce can cause a lot of delays. There is massive activity happening, which includes adding inventory, selling them, preparing invoices, emailing them, etc.
There is a lot of backend and frontend activity occurring, and millions of transactions happening, especially for the larger businesses.
The different operations at the enterprise level seem to be concluding in milliseconds, which makes it difficult for the human eye to track, and thus leads to a lot of inefficiencies in the business.
Blockchain can help bring in transparency throughout the system and streamline the various operations. Increasing security and reducing the overall costs can make Blockchain-enabled businesses smarter and efficient.
7. Receipts And Warranties
A lot of eCommerce websites tend to send their receipts and warranties as hard copies, along with the product. However, users find it difficult to maintain and manage these warranties. Even eCommerce sites are unable to locate the specific warranty.
With Blockchain technology, you can save these warranties and receipts in secure blocks, thus ensuring the safety of your certificates. You can easily access them. Both the retailer and the customer can access these details, and manipulation in such cases can be avoided.
Summing Up
Blockchain is all set to redefine the eCommerce industry and will help them improve their game plan. It will set the perfect stage for customer-retailer interaction and will help increase transparency in the system.
Combining with other technologies and strategizing well will help you increase your business ROI and improve customer engagement.
Your business will become smart as a result, and you will find it easier and smoother to manage the operations. So, set forth to make your business Blockchain ready.
Author Bio
Pradeep Makhija is a Digital Marketing Executive at Space-O Technologies, a mobile app development company. He likes to share his knowledge and experience with people around by writing articles related to the mobile app and the healthcare industry.
In his spare time, Pradeep likes to explore and read more about the trends and needs of mobile apps in different sectors.
