E-commerce is no longer special.
Twenty years ago, it was revolutionary. Buying something online felt new, exciting, even futuristic. Now, it’s just another way to shop. Everything—from socks to cars—can be purchased online.
That ubiquity has turned e-commerce into a commodity.
The experience is the same everywhere, across every ‘webshop’.
What’s left to compete on? Price.
Marketplaces like Amazon have mastered this. They offer great prices, fast delivery, and unbeatable convenience. Why, as a consumer, go through the hassle of searching for a shop, entering your info, registering an account, and hoping not to be scammed?
And why, as a retailer, would you bother with the cost and headache of setting up your own webshop? Sure it make sense for boutiques with manageable inventory and tools like Shopify. But for anything bigger, managing a ‘webshop’ as a channel becomes a costly hassle. And the proposition of marketplaces to integrate with their operations directly, much more lucrative.
The ‘webshop’ is becoming a legacy channel.
Take this a little further down the line, and more and more people are skipping websites altogether. They’re buying directly through marketplaces. Or via social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where a single button handles everything. These new channels integrate with retailers in the background. The customer doesn’t even notice.
The traditional webshop, as a concept, has too little to offer. It’s being bypassed.
E-commerce isn’t dying—but it’s changing. The dominance of the webshop is coming to an end.