Impact of Technology on E-Commerce IndustryTechnology is the root and base of E-commerce, right from its origin to each and every development that is happening on daily basis in the industry

ByKarthik Ramaiah

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Shutterstock.com

The last decade has seen the evolution and rise of the e-commerce industry. Not only we witnessed increased consumer interest and participation, but the industry also recorded humongous sales figures and increased demand. It was a time where B2C e-commerce seemed winning the race with B2B e-commerce which is not the case now and in India, this will be witnessed in another couple of years. Either B2B or B2C, the role of technology is the base and the existential factor when it comes to E-commerce industry.

Redefining the Consumer Shopping Experience:

E-commerce industry has fallen short of retail outlets and cash transactions - in the actual shopping experience. But it has brought in a whole lot of new, innovative and useful factors to make the shopping experience easy and hassle-free. Any purchase can be done at the top of a button and gets delivered at the doorstep. What else can a millennial buyer ask for?

Providing Personalized Data in B2B Sector:

With companies switching to B2B e-commerce, more and more real-time procurement data will be captured. This data will help B2B e-commerce players to better understand the behaviour of the business buyer and offer data-driven insights.B2B e-commerce companies will use this data to provide a personalized experience to every buyer/business.

Artificial Intelligence drives the E-commerce Industry:

Moving forward, Artificial Intelligence will find a huge blueprint in B2B e-commerce; unlike B2C e-commerce where there are large numbers of users and use-cases, B2B e-commerce will have fewer numbers of users doing large ticket transactions under limited use cases. This makes application and adoption of AI very easy yet very powerful.AI are set to bring efficiency for businesses in terms of decision making around purchases, automation of several mundane tasks, provide critical insights, free-up several man-hours behind procurement and making business purchases intelligent and low cost.

Decision Making During the Procurement Process:

Usually, the procurement managers or executives who for corporates find difficulty in making decisions during the procurement process as it will be impactful on growth and the business of the company on many levels. Technology will also help the procurement teams of businesses to better understand the needs of the business and give them transparent insights to make more informed complicated decisions.

Similarly, Business to Business E-commerce companies will go on to build customized dashboards for their customers which will provide much-needed data-points and purchase recommendations. Hence a job of a procurement manager will be made simple and thereby adds value for the human resource.

B2B e-commerce companies will take the personalization further by building integration APIs with the buyers existing ERP/CRM platforms to make the purchases more structured and seamless.

B2B e-commerce will also see the application of several deep technologies such as IOT, which will help B2B companies to further strengthen their Omni-channel presence. Many of the experiments which have failed in B2C e-commerce might actually find success in B2B - such as Kiosk Based sales, IOT Stores for large businesses, IOT driven reordering for critical products, etc.

Seamless Payment Process:

如果有另一件事,一直remarkable about E-commerce industry is the mode of payments which is completely digital in most cases. Though individuals are gradually moving to online payments, corporates are already in it. E-wallets and gift cards are in the surge these days. Thanks to the technological developments, this wiped away the fear of non-transparency and the safety of money.

Thus Technology's role in e-commerce is inevitable and seamless. It is the root and base of E-commerce, right from its origin to each and every development that is happening on daily basis in the industry.

Wavy Line
Karthik Ramaiah

Co-Founder, Kobster

Karthik Ramaiah is the Co-founder of Kobster.com, a B2B e-procurement company based out of Chennai. He has around a decade of experience in leadership, Web Development, Customer & Investor relations and Business Management roles.

An alumnus of SRM University, Ramaiah co-founded this company along with two other friends 6 years ago. He has been instrumental in starting new verticals to drive the Company’s revenue growth by imbibing tech tools to make sourcing for corporate supplies an easy and reliable task. He shares the common dream of the company to change the way Indian corporates shop through State of the Art Technology and first of its kind professional service. He envisions building Kobster as India’s finest Business to Business (B2B) procurement company.

Related Topics

News and Trends

AlmaBetter Allocates INR 50 Crore Fund To Launch AlmaBetter Innovarsity

The Innovarsity will equip 5,000 learners with a globally recognized master's degree in computer science, by April 2024, the company said in a press release

领导

From Indore to BSE

EKI's journey began in 2008 as a start-up initiative in Indore and it is now present in 17 countries around the world.

Thought Leaders

I Pitched 300 People a Day For 1 Year — and Learned This Impactful Entrepreneurial Lesson

After working myself to the bone pitching 300 people each day for one year, I came out of that experience as a new man — but surprisingly, an unhappier one. Here's what I learned.

Thought Leaders

So, You've Been Hacked. These are the Best Practices for Business Leaders Post-Hack

The lasting effects of a cyber incident can impact an organization's reputation, customers, workforce, databases and network architecture.