For years now e-commerce has been continuously evolving and transforming the shopping experience. It isnt to say that brick and mortar stores are necessarily on the decline, but rather innovative bells and whistles have been added to the industry. If you had mentioned the term e-commerce to anyone a few years ago, the majority would have answered with, “Oh its like Ebay and Amazon” or “Its online shopping.” The fact of the matter is that trying to compare it to anything else is only going to be relevant for that particular time period.
With the release of every new technology, a new way to attract and retain customers is simultaneously born. Try explaining to someone before the introduction of smart phones and tablets, that one day they will be able to buy products not only from the comfort of their own PC at home, but also in public transport, while waiting for an appointment at the doctors office, or even on a treadmill at the gym. And with the recent introduction of wearable technology such as Google Glass among others, the e-commerce experience and shopper behavior is only going to further evolve.
When e-commerce first began to take off, typically the shopper would order a product online and wait four to six weeks for it to arrive. Today that model has been reversed. Individuals preview a number of different products on a number of different devices, reserving or buying online but picking the product up in person. It is killing two birds with one stone so to say. The shopper looks at merchandise when its convenient for them without having to take time out from their schedule to visit a store, not to mention eliminating the shipping and handling process completely.