There was a time when businesses relied on their physical presence to attract customers and for daily productivity. Now it’s the era of digital advertising, online marketing, selling, and procurement.

Most of the physical activities have stepped into the web. The same is true regarding several businesses in Pakistan. Customers usually create the first impression of businesses by visiting the web portal associated with that business. It is therefore, very important to have a proper online presence and preferably, a system to deal with the customer online, which is referred to as e-commerce.

The idea of e-commerce isn’t new. However, keeping our country’s current position in mind, it is a developing concept. We are still accustomed to the same old way of buying things - going to the market, visiting shops, bargaining to get a good deal, and coming home with the product. This trend is rapidly changing; customers and businesses are switching to e-commerce, because it provides a brand new experience of buying and selling.3

Online transactions have made serious head way in the past few years, convincing more consumers to digitize their shopping experience.

We still aren’t at that point where people order the smallest of things online, like grocery and food items, but we have seen people buy things from online retailers mostly due to the convenience, but also because in some way it is trusted more than a physical distributor (that might not always be the case).

Consider this example: I recently purchased a phone from homeshopping.pk, because they were offering it for a reasonable price and with a warranty. They even offered to have the phone delivered to my doorstep.

Long story short, I got the phone without the hassle of going to the market, going from one shop to another, asking about the price and other details. That’s the benefit of e-commerce, you waste less time and you can carry out transactions from the comfort of your home.