How Amazon Changed The Way We Live Using E-Commerce

Commerce was the lifeblood of developing societies in ancient times. Economies, nations, and empires were established through trade and commerce which helped shape the foundation of what we call commerce today. Markets were not only a place where one bought and sold goods, but it was also considered to be a social gathering. Merchants gathering and interacting with other merchants brought about new ideas and innovation.

E-commerce has changed the way we view buying and selling. It is now as easy as clicking a button on your mouse or smartphone. The new reality is that E-commerce has a direct effect on our society, allowing for the consumer to shop without even leaving their homes. The E-commerce giant “Amazon” is now a regular household name, and is one of the driving forces molding our society on a global scale.
E-commerce became popular in the early 2000s, but Amazon had existed way before the popularity or rise of e-commerce. Amazon started as an online bookstore, although they weren’t the first online bookstore, books.com was the first. Amazon started selling books online before delving into other areas of the market, and today you can get millions of different items on the pioneers e-commerce platform.

E-commerce and Amazon Today

Today, e-commerce has totally transformed the retail sector. Brick and mortar shops where most communities revolved around are gradually playing the role of backbenchers in the quest to get more buyers. The internet has become and essential part of our daily lives, with research showing that the average millennial spends over 3 hours on their smartphones on a daily basis. Social events and activities held in parks or parties are now a thing of the past, and the buying and selling of goods can take place rite in your own home. E-commerce in the United States alone, for B2B, is projected to generate over $1.4 trillion and over 6 billion globally in 2021. Online retail shopping is also expected to see a great increase with online retail expected to exceed 4 trillion in the same scope of time.

Amazon has been leading the charge in recent years by creating a more personalized experience on their platform, as well as the quality of their products and the astronomically low prices. Amazon personalized shopping experience is unmatched in comparison to other platforms offering a similar service.

Statistics show nine out of 10 online buyers will check out the price of a product on Amazon even if they found the product on a competitor’s website. This is because of the relatively cheap pricing and great customer service of the platform.

Amazon also leads the search as a pioneer in voice shopping, 2% of Amazon Echo owners have purchased a product via Alexa’s voice purchase feature. With over 50 million echo sold so far that’s over one million voice purchase.
Amazon also has a vast collection of products on offer, with over 12 million different products sold on the platform. In 2017, Amazon shipped over five billion items, and in two years they have been able to exceed their own accomplishments.

Amazon offers a premium version of its platform called Amazon prime. Amazon prime subscribers enjoy faster shipping and other perks not available to regular Amazon users. In the United States alone there are over 95 million Amazon Prime subscribers spending an average of $1,400 yearly buying from Amazon.

How Amazon Impacts our daily lives:

Amazon has undoubtedly changed the way we live with its innovative e-commerce platform. Amazon first started by changing the way we buy books, then it changed the way we do business, now it has finally impacted on our daily and social lives. In this section of the article we will examine the different ways Amazon has changed the way we live.

1.) It changed how we do business: Before Amazon, buying and selling was done in person. To buy a pair of shoes you have to leave your room, take a taxi or walk down to a departmental store. Then you have to talk to the attendants, tell them what you want, test the pair of shoe to see if it fits, before buying. In the process of purchasing a pair of shoes, you might meet a friend or make a friend. That was how buying was done before Amazon revolutionized e-commerce.
Businesses had to send representatives to other businesses they want to buy from or partner with before e-commerce became a thing, but now business to business relationship can be done online with the push of a button. B2B e-commerce has exploded and is expected to surpass B2C e-commerce by 2021.
2.) Reduced travel time to make purchase:Before Amazon, businesses had to travel to make purchases. This had a negative impact on the economy because time, money and energy was expended for these travels. With the advent of efficient e-commerce solutions like Amazon, nobody needed to travel to buy products. With the click of a button, you can make purchases from anywhere in the world and get it delivered to your doorstep.
3.) Changed the way we shop: You are exposed to a large collection of products on Amazon from thousands of retailers all over the world. This means you can easily compare prices of hundreds of retailers to get the best deal possible, this was impossible before the advent of e-commerce and Amazon.
You also have 24 hours access to a global market, it’s just like having a store in your neighborhood that never shuts its doors, even at midnight. You can wake up in the middle of the night and feel like buying an electric toothbrush, Amazon is there for you to make your purchase, 24/7 shopping.

These amazing features makes Amazon the number one ecommerce solution with services that have changed the way the world buys and sells. With further advancement in e-commerce technology, Amazon still has a lot to offer the world.