Blockchain in e-commerce – How will it impact the future?

 

Blockchain in e-commerce – How will it impact the future?

 

E-commerce has become one of the most lucrative sectors - establishing 21^st-century industry behemoths such as Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.

And there’s no slowing down. E-commerce is expected to gobble close to 25% of global retail sales by 2025.

What makes e-commerce a raging success?

It's the ability to adapt to newer technologies and disrupt the norm.

Speaking of new technologies. These days, there's nothing hotter than blockchain. An explosion of blockchain technology is seeping into every facet of the industry.

And now, its integration with e-commerce is not just about technological transformation, but about being a bona fide monopoly breaker.

Before we begin, let's uncover the buzz surrounding blockchain.

What is blockchain?

For the uninitiated, blockchain technology; as the name suggests, is a series of encrypted blocks in which each block contains bits of information that are intertwined together to form a chain.

For the volatile e-commerce industry, the factors listed below make this collaboration with blockchain a holy union.

1.       Greater Transparency:

With no central authority monitoring transactions, the trust factor is radically heightened. Making it ideal for e-commerce companies to build secure relationships with consumers and vice-versa by ensuring the promise of greater data transactional integrity.

2.       Impenetrable Security:

Borne of the financial sector, blockchain's raging success with cryptocurrencies is primarily due to the impenetrable layer of security that makes it virtually impossible to tamper or edit data stored in these blocks.

Applying the Distributed Ledger Technology can be the sole remedy to eCommerce platforms bereft of increasing cyber-attacks and data theft – especially the risk of losing critical customer data.

3.       Democratize supply chains:

With the leash of centralized control completely stripped off, the supply-chain dynamics are bound to change - big time.

The geographical barriers, the spiraling inflation rates, or currency conversion – all these are de facto in a centralized marketplace. 

As we scratch the surface of what blockchain can do, we discover more use cases. Blockchain can be used to monitor and track transactions. With greater insights into assets and their timelines, a product can be traced rights from its source to its destination – ensuring that no fake products pass off.

 

 Supply Chain Monitoring

A critical engine to the e-commerce machine, supply chain networks are not always visible, available, or trusted.

Implementing blockchain will increase the traceability of products – ensuring new levels of trust and transparency as well as the assurance that products stay true to their claims of sustainability.

Brilliant Earth, a retailer of ethically sourced diamonds and fine jewelry, is tracking the provenance of its diamonds on the Everledger blockchain.

By integrating blockchain technology, customers can independently and securely track the origins of their diamonds from the mine operator through each manufacturing step - providing greater assurance to customers of its responsible practices.

Manufacturing unit Monitoring

Manufacturing units work in many parts, when one fails the entire unit collapses. Blockchain can be the chain that binds and streamline operations with greater visibility and asset traceability with precision monitoring -  revolutionizing the way manufacturers design and inculcate engineering feats to build products at scale whilst reducing environmental impact.

IBM's blockchain initiatives enabled a popular Swedish microbrewer to release Sweden’s first blockchain-traceable beer.

As the beer is made, users record data about the ingredients on an unchangeable digital ledger that’s shared among participants, who can collaborate more effectively, and with end consumers, who are now connected to the entire lifecycle of a beer.

Regulator & Logistics Monitoring

Ensuring quality and sustainability is pivotal in today’s world. By implementing blockchain, we can get insight into a company's sustainability practices.

Naturipe farms uses Blockchain technology to track their blueberry consignment from the point of harvesting to the dinner table.

QR codes are placed on the crate once the berries are freshly picked, this is where the journey to uncovering the entire lifecycle of the berries is visible across the supply chain and users who can scan the QR codes on the packages of blueberries to ascertain where the berries origins and even learn about the sustainability practices of the farm.

Logistics Monitoring

Implementing blockchain, a decentralized system will remove intermediaries in the world of logistics – ensuring that transactions are verified, recorded, and coordinated autonomously without third parties while ensuring automated real-time transport updates.

Taking the lead in blockchain implementation is logistic leader DHL. By implementing traceability, transparency, and full automation of processes – every delivery is updated through each step. DHL is also pondering. using cryptocurrencies as a viable payment method for logistics products and services – ensuring levels of customer data protection and payment safety like we’ve never seen before.

Consumer Monitoring

Too often, customer reviews do not reveal the authenticity of a product or service. Companies blur the lines of trust by forcing employees to post rave reviews – not at their behest. Then, there is the malpractice of negative reviews with the sole purpose of maligning the reputation of a brand.

Why are reviews important, according to PEW research, 82 percent of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes read online customer ratings or reviews before purchasing items for the first time.

Blockchain can break this vicious cycle of distrust, establishing trust with genuine reviews. Its ability to track product quality and match it with a review posted by a reviewer can help reduce bias and allow people to convey their expertise and experiences in ways that are most suitable for them.

Conclusion:

Blockchain is set to become the backbone of the eCommerce marketplace.

This means, that early adopters stand to gain big, while others play catch up in the race to dominate the e-commerce stratosphere.