eCommerce challenges in 2020

Panos Tzitzinos
4 min readMar 20, 2020

Many businesses are turning to the eCommerce style of business.

It advances business and makes all operations effective and makes processes run smoother.

It multiplies your business reach by hundred times.

eCommerce is the crucial reason for globalisation.

Even though eCommerce seems like the most effective way to run any business, there are a few challenges that come with it.

In recent years, the world has changed significantly.

In 2015, the eCommerce industry was only a 340 billion dollar market, but in the year 2020, the industry is worth twice as much.

It is a clear sign that the industry is gaining recognition amongst the masses.

Online retail stores are coming across as the main reason for this substantial growth.

Challenge to Make Proper Data Analysis

Since inter has taken over the world, businesses are seeing a staggering amount of data.

According to research, the amount of data we see now is more significant than ever.

Many businesses say that this enormous amount of data helps them in getting better opportunities and gives them an insight into the latest trends.

The data provides the main idea about current consumer behaviour. However, they can make use of it only with careful analysis of the analytics.

A large number of data gives great insight into consumer behaviour, but the data is so big that it comes with a large number of noisy data, which is of no use.

Currently, most eCommerce businesses are dealing with this issue.

The businesses struggle in extrapolating and finding value from a large number of data.

They fail to make good use out of the data. Most of the company are more concerned about the missed metrics and data opportunities.

A statistic shows that in 2019, 14% of the businesses struggled because of the poor planning of project waste, and the 13% struggled due to poor analysis and execution.

If you are into eCommerce business in 2020, make sure that you do not miss out on the essential metrics.

In essence, many of the companies use automated data analysis tools to solve this issue.

eCommerce heads need to make IT future-proof and make important metrics more visible and compatible with advanced eCommerce technology.

Global Operations — Competing with Big Brands

When a new business enters the market, its toughest competition is the existing brands that have made the right name in the market.

In the current times, big brands like Amazon, eBay, Walmart are some of the biggest competition for new businesses that are getting in the market.

Since these retail giants have made a right image in the market, a newcomer struggles hard to get into the market.

These businesses have finessed their operations so much that merely replicating them is a significant struggle for any newcomer.

The businesses are such big giants that competing directly with them will be very difficult.

So the newcomers need to come up with a new mantra of their own to give indirect competition to these businesses.

As a new business, the biggest challenge that you will have to deal with will be business operations. Moreover, many new companies that are entering the eCommerce market face a significant issue with seamless conduction function.

When you have an eCommerce business, you need to have your order placement, shipping management, delivery, and return policies on point. If your company lacks even one of these operations, you might lose a customer.

When you talk to a shopper, they usually complain about the quality of the product that they get. For this reason, businesses need to keep a close eye on the quality of the product.

There are many techniques to perfect your fulfilment methods. The supply chain experts are still finding a way to finesse the shipping process and still conducting researches to make it better. They are working on inventing ways to modify the procedures and maximising the productivity of the business.

Compliance and Customer Data Keeping

In 2018, a regulatory body came into being whose duty was to keep an eye on the businesses and how they are handling customer data.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the body that looks over the customer data and takes action against the businesses which miss using the data.

For this reason, many businesses fear GDPR because they have the right to uphold a significant amount of penalties and sanctions.

Since the formation of GDPR, many eCommerce business owners are trying to keep up with the GDPR requirements, but many businesses are unable to keep up.

When GDPR came into being, it was getting a significant number of queries and complaints.

Around 145,000 cases have been recorded in the year, and the department recorded around 90,000 data breach notifications. And it was a clear sign that eCommerce business had a long way to go in making an effective business design.

When you are in the eCommerce business, you dealing with a significant amount of data.

When you have this big of a database, you need to take measures to protect it.

However, it is not an easy job. For that reason, many businesses these days are dealing with data privacy issues.

As this is a huge issue these days, businesses are coming up with practical solutions for it. But these privacy issues are slowing down the innovation process and also the market to time software.

However, the eCommerce heads are introducing ways to provide solutions that have high data privacy along with high-level personalisation for online shoppers.

Conclusion

eCommerce is a colossal opportunity for small businesses, but it also comes with several challenges. There are different ways to overcome these fundamental issues.

When you talk about eCommerce, sellers must make sure all the transactions are safe. They also need to remember that all global operations are up to their standards.

A significant example of superior comprehensive services is Nike, Adidas, Amazon, and many more.

For more eCommerce content join the Shopify Q & A discussion group on Facebook: 👉🏻 https://www.facebook.com/groups/484476479072376

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Panos Tzitzinos

Founder at cartlyfts.com eCommerce expert An avid Business, Marketing and Self-Improvement reader.