How Blockchain Technology Fuel the Ecommerce Industry

Ever since the evolution of digital transformation, the tables of e-commerce applications and wordpress website development have undergone a huge transitional change. The likes of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality and data analytics have been a major boost for the e-commerce industry.

According to the report, e-commerce sales have already exceeded $2.34 trillion, escalating to new heights.

Payment gateways have added a new chapter in e-commerce with the emergence of PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe. In addition, users can also make payments using their credit or debit cards. However, it has always posed security threats as we have heard several instances of wrong transactions and card details getting hacked.

But digital transformation has brought an effective solution to this problem with the introduction of blockchain technology.

A Gartner report suggests that the blockchain market will grow up to $176 billion by 2025. Furthermore, a Statista report says that blockchain revenue will upsurge by 400% in the next two years.

We are aware that blockchain technology has introduced the concept of cryptocurrency. Some top-notch companies cryptocurrency are Wikipedia, Microsoft, KFC, Expedia, and so on.

Role of Blockchain the E-Commerce

With the expansion of the e-commerce market, the online stores have to cater to large volumes of data related to customers, transactions, and inventory. This humongous data needs to be accurately stored and managed to gain optimum results.

Enter blockchain technology to address the issue. The decentralized and distributed ledger system is part of a growing list of records known as the blocks. It helps to record transactions between two parties in a verified manner.

Since each of the blocks is saved on a separate computer system, blockchain offers more reliability and scalability. In addition, if you run your own ecommerce store on a Magento 2 platform, the blockchain technology will provide effective results.

Payment Methods to Become More Innovative

We had discussed earlier that the biggest innovation of blockchain technology is the evolution of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. Today cryptocurrencies are used in almost every important sector such as banking, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and e-commerce.

One of the reasons why cryptocurrencies have gained more impetus is because of their decentralized nature. In fact, they offer far more advantages as compared to traditional currencies, which benefits both customers and merchants.

The fact that blockchain technology is decentralized means that there is no central authority to regulate or control it. Both the buyer and seller have control over the blockchain. The currencies cannot be inflated or deflated by any government or financial institution.

Another benefit that blockchain offers to e-commerce owners is that it does not disclose the identities of the two parties involved in the transaction.

Both merchants and customers receive the freedom of transactions while using cryptocurrencies. There is no limitation on the amount transferred from one account to another. And the fact that blockchain is easy to use certainly adds icing to the cake. It provides faster transactions and reduces fraudulent cases.

Enhancement of the Supply Chain Market

Of late, the supply chain market has posed various challenges to the e-commerce business. However, the implementation of blockchain technology has proved more than handy resolving various issues such as keeping records, tracking the products, and an alternative to a centralized database.

• The blockchain technology helps to simplify record-keeping and provenance tracking. This means that you can view the product information through RFID tags and embedded sensors.
• The blockchain streamlines the administration of the supply chain. It automatically reduces the additional cost without compromising on transaction security.
• Since blockchain eliminates any entry of any intermediary, the risks of fraud and product duplicity get reduced saving both money and time.
• You can even utilize blockchain technology in the e-commerce backend. It becomes useful to manage and streamline inventory. You don’t have to incur any extra expenses such as the hiring of new staff members.

Providing a More Transparent Marketplace

Many customers and even retailers have faced issues related to transparency. This has turned out to be a serious issue for the e-commerce industry. For example, there have been a few instances where an e-commerce platform removed or disabled a merchant account without any proper explanation.

But thanks to blockchain technology, it can efficiently monitor any such unlawful activity on the part of the merchant due to a decentralized environment.

Offering Robust Security

A significant reason why more e-commerce platforms are getting attracted to blockchain technology is because of robust security.

The blockchain provides Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that bolsters the security for online database platforms. The fact that security breaches in blockchain-based networks have also become almost null proves an ideal choice for e-commerce stores.

The customers or the merchants don’t need to reveal their sensitive information while conducting transactions. The customer can authorize a payment from his wallet on his own. It also negates all possible risks related to cyber threats.

Swamping Genuine Reviews and Personal Offers

Reviews whether good or bad play an important role in determining the traffic to the e-commerce store. However, many e-commerce websites and apps have to face the issue of fake reviews that can deflate the reputation of the store.

Now comes blockchain technology for rescue. It helps to verify all the reviews and eliminate the false reviews as it stores the data in blocks.

Implementing blockchain can also prove advantageous from a marketing perspective as well. It helps e-commerce stores to redeem reward points to customers if they exceed a specified bar of spending. It helps them to take benefit of the discount offers.

Wrapping it up

The e-commerce industry has already transcended into a digital model and blockchain technology is further revolutionizing it to a greater scale. But the implementation of this technology is still in its nascent stage and it will take time to groove further.

Author Bio

Bharat Patel, who heads the digital marketing team at Brainvire Infotech, is armed with over 12 years of experience in the fields of online marketing and project management. He is extremely proactive in implementing the latest technological innovations in his projects. Bharat’s core expertise lies in search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and conversion rate optimization, among other things. His immense flare of writing encourages him to consistently pen down words revolving around current trends and innovations that relate to his fields of interest.