E-commerce sales in the past few years have accelerated tremendously, with reports that the global B2B e-commerce market was worth $7.7 trillion in 2017. There are around 1.3 million e-commerce companies in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, that figure rises to 2–3 million e-commerce companies, excluding China. Buying.com will provide global businesses with the opportunity and necessary tools to fully move into a new age of offering all products through an online marketplace.

The current e-commerce ecosystem developed in the mid-1990s during the first wave of Internet technologies, with most major brands and retailers maintaining web and mobile e-commerce presences. Several dominant players like Amazon.com, Walmart.com and others have emerged for mass market retailing of a wide variety of products.

If one were to deconstruct the current state of the e-commerce ecosystem, it would involve several operational components, including: storefronts such as Shopify and Amazon, payment processing services like PayPal, shipping and fulfillment services like FedEx and back office processing such as Salesforce. Despite the history and growth of these industries, inefficiencies persist throughout the ecosystem, such as:

• Last Mile Distribution: This is a problem not only for small retailers but also for big retailers, too. Amazon recently purchased Toys ‘R’ Us and Whole Foods to some extent to expand their distribution channels. Even then, last mile peer-to-peer micro distribution is not yet a reality.

• Purchasing Power: While more consumers go online to purchase goods and services, there is no efficient mechanism to consolidate their purchases to derive wholesale pricing.

• Fragmentation: Smaller retailers get restricted to access the vertically integrated service industry in order to note suppose a threat to big retailer brands such as Amazon. This results in them having to use a fragmented set of operational components.

What Is Buying.com?

Buying.com is a company that aims to reshape the e-commerce landscape by providing solutions to the inefficiencies of the ecosystem, thus benefiting both the supply and demand sides of the equation. Distributed ledger technology (blockchain) provides Buying.com with new asymmetric advantages that enable it to apply the proposed solutions which were not available in earlier-generation platforms. The unique value proposition of the platform comprises several innovative solutions:

• Micro distribution: E-commerce becomes fully decentralized by turning every garage into a distribution center. In addition to distribution centers run by Buying.com, now anyone can become a node on the Buying.com network by staking tokens (buy-in) and leveraging existing (yet latent) storage capacity in their garage to become a micro distribution center. This solves the last mile logistics issue that has plagued e-commerce. It is similar to how Airbnb turns every spare room in a home to a hotel room, or how Uber leverages excess driving capacity to turn every automobile into a taxi.

Once scaled to capacity, fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) ordered through the Buying.com app can be delivered to consumers within two hours. This will empower all e-commerce and retail players to not only compete, but, in many cases, outperform established giants in the industry that have distinct advantages at the moment. This will be disruptive and transformative for the e-commerce sector.

• Bulk Pricing: Consumers and businesses would like to enjoy substantial purchase pricing discounts, but that is not always possible because the minimum order quantities (MOQ) needed for bulk pricing are not achievable. The Buying.com protocol leverages the purchasing power of millions of consumers and small businesses to reach MOQ levels. This enables online stores and consumers to negotiate directly with manufacturers’ pricing through bulk order quotes with the best possible offers.

• Real-Time Logistics: This leverages blockchain solutions to deliver real-time logistics data, provide transparent smart contract enforced audit trails and protects users with data encryption.

Manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, online stores and consumers will all have seamless access to real-time shipping data to optimize drop shipping costs provided by a permissionless, public blockchain.

• Buy token: It utilizes its cryptocurrency as a token that is used for transactions on the Buying.com platform.

• Transaction Payments: The Buying.com protocol transactions will escrow payments until the customer receives the ordered goods and is satisfied. Once the delivery is cleared, funds are released. This will significantly reduce chargebacks, a financial issue that costs retailers billions every year.

• Transparent and Auditable: Blockchain technology offers customers a fraud-proof digital ledger of verifiable transactions and hence a clear, immutable audit trail.

Three ways to make a profit with buying.com –

1. The token value will increase through popularity among investors.

2. Due to demand from accepting it as a form of payment by consumers, the token value will also increase.

3. Because it’s a regulated security token, the value will inherently increase from the node staking distribution system, so there are potential for future dividends.

Visit the Buying.com website to learn more about decentralized e-commerce and follow the official Telegram channel for the latest news and updates on the upcoming initial coin offering.