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Topic: E-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores: how to solve the conflict?
In recent years, e-commerce platforms have risen rapidly, bringing new ways of shopping to domestic consumers. With easy access to your smartphone, you can enjoy online shopping and your package will be delivered to your door. In addition, if you are not satisfied with the purchased goods, you can also return them within the specified time without reason, making shopping more convenient. However, with the rise of e-commerce, traditional brick-and-mortar stores are facing increasingly severe challenges, and even many physical stores have closed down, triggering debate about whether e-commerce should be restricted.
At the same time, people can't help but wonder: why can domestic e-commerce rise so rapidly, impacting physical stores, while e-commerce in developed countries may not present the same situation? Amazon, eBay and others have established themselves in developed countries long before the rise of developing countries. What exactly is causing this difference? In our view, there are several key reasons behind this.
First, brick-and-mortar stores play a huge role in solving the employment problem. E-commerce usually requires only a few people, rents a warehouse, or even works from home.
However, physical stores such as large supermarkets and shopping malls provide a large number of employment opportunities, from large supermarkets with 100 people to 6-8 employees in 24-hour convenience stores, all of which play a role in alleviating employment pressure. Governments in developed countries support the development of physical stores precisely to create more jobs. This makes it difficult for e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay to rise rapidly in developed countries.
Secondly, product quality and tax issues have also affected the competitive landscape of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores. In developed countries, both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores must meet high-quality standards, and once the counterfeiting behavior is verified, it will be severely punished.
This allows e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores to compete on a fair starting line. However, the domestic e-commerce market is mixed, with some platforms selling counterfeit and shoddy goods, while brick-and-mortar stores are less likely to have such problems. In addition, some domestic e-commerce companies have tax evasion, reducing operating costs and aggravating the competitive advantage with physical stores. In developed countries, e-commerce pays taxes the same as brick-and-mortar stores, and tax avoidance opportunities are limited. In this context, physical stores can also maintain a certain advantage in the competition.
Third, consumers in developed countries are paying more attention to the shopping experience.
When shopping online, consumers often complain that there is a big difference between the physical object and the picture. Therefore, consumers in developed countries are more willing to go to physical stores to shop, so that they can directly experience the quality of goods. Especially for clothing, shoes and other products, it is necessary to try them on in person and purchase them after they are satisfactory. Clearly, brick-and-mortar stores have a clear advantage in terms of shopping experience.
Finally, offline shopping can promote consumption in many ways. Online shopping is usually targeted, such as buying an electric fan and stopping after the shopping is over. People in developed countries prefer to shop, which in turn leads to multiple consumption links.
The two went to watch a movie, went to a restaurant to eat after the end, and then went shopping, visited a bookstore to buy books, etc., and multiple consumption links complemented each other, stimulating the national desire for consumption.
In short, the competitive landscape of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores involves multiple factors. The advantages of e-commerce in convenience and price are in stark contrast to the advantages of physical stores such as human employment, product quality, shopping experience, and consumption drive. Therefore, for whether to close e-commerce, it is necessary to consider these factors comprehensively and weigh their impact on society, employment and economy.