Introduction

Whenever someone provides convenience, they usually end up doing well. For example, the online shopping explosion. Let’s take a little history lesson together. It all began when Michael Aldrich ‘invented’ online shopping.  Using videotex, a two way message service, it revolutionised businesses. We now know this as e-commerce. Soon after, the timeline slowly commenced to what is has become now. This was the birth of all online platforms today.

Benefits of having an online platform

It creates convenience! That’s the main selling point when it comes to an online platform. Having the ability to buy whatever you want to at any time of the day and having it delivered to you. I usually do most of my shopping online. Purely based on the fact that I am a lazy person. But also, there are more options out there and the fact that I don’t have to move around is also a plus point. I recently did some shopping online, I bought a couple of phone cases from Shopee and clothes on Asos. One of the problems that I personally face, especially with Asos, it that the products I want runs out of stock quick. If you’re willing to wait for a while then you will be notified when the new stock would come in.

Cheaper

Why did I chose to go through the online shopping route (besides the reason I mentioned above)? Well because they offered products that I wanted but couldn’t find at a physical store. So, I switched to an online shop. Speaking from personal experience, buy phone cases through an online platform is usually much cheaper compared to going to the actual shop. World of Buzz did a video about guessing the prices of foreign products and how much it costs in total plus shipping.

Starting an Online Platform from a business point of view

Creating an online platform to conduct business is the next step. It also comes with a lot of benefits from a business point of view. Firstly, it doesn’t cost much. The only thing you would be spending money on is maintaining the website and the cost of WIFI. You wouldn’t have to pay rent for a building because all you would need is a stable WIFI connection. You also would not have to worry about inventory and storage costs because you would not need storage.

Flexibility in Online Platforms

How does it create flexibility? Well, you can operate anytime you want to. Usually online businesses would operate during the usual office hours (9am- 5pm). This is so that they can attract as many customers as possible. Yes, you would still be able to purchase stuff at 3am (if you’re that type of person). If you are doing this as a side business then you would be able to deal with customers on the side. It may not be as effective as someone that does it full time. But you would still be able to run a proper business regardless of doing something else full time. This is why the online business/ platform is so effective and up and coming.

Customer Service in Online Platforms

Customer service is extremely important because in order to maintain and attract customers, you would have to build a good relationship with them. If the customers has any doubts and questions about the products you offer but you don’t answer them or give them bad answers. Then you would already build a bad relationship with your customers and they would spread the word and tell their friends not to buy from you. This is how you would lose money and build a bad reputation.

If you answer their questions and clarify their doubts then it would lead to a strong relationship. Your customers would feel like they can depend on you and it would feel like you are a reliable source. At the end of the day, your customers

New ideas for Online Platforms

Nowadays, companies are coming up with different ideas. You may be thinking what kind of new ideas are there. Well, now people would be able to rent different products for a fraction of the purchasing price! RentSmart Asia offers that service. You would be able to rent out a RM4,000 camera for RM180.00 per day. Check out RentSmart Asia’s website by clicking here.