Blockchain technology is revolutionary. With its built in features of being fast, nearly impossible to hack with current technology and an always online nature, it is heralded as the largest piece of technology to reshape the world since the advent of the internet.
The ability reduce expenditures by using fewer resources and being efficient makes Blockchain technology a perfect tool for running any and all kinds of services. The technology is adaptable and flexible to be used in all commercial and private sectors.
What Is Elementh?
(https://elementh.io/)
Elementh is a Blockchain startup that is aimed towards the goods e-commerce sector. Wary of existing e-commerce setups that are plagued by inefficiencies, hidden costs, high fee and loopholes in the system that are frequently exploited, the team behind Elementh looked towards Blockchain as a perfect solution to all of the problems.
Unlike other blockchain ecommerce platforms that focus on connecting business to business or business to consumer markets, Elementh is a total supply chain solution. It connects raw manufacturers and service providers with wholesalers and distributers that are, in turn, connected to retail stores. The stores are then finally connected with consumers.
How Does Blockchain Help In Elementh’s Case?
By allowing sellers and buyers to be on a single platform, Elementh allows users to sellers (whether B2B or B2C) to create a virtual store, listing all of their products and inventory. Each SKU (shop Keeping Unit) is registered with a specific nomenclature and serial number, identifying its properties and other information such as color, weight, size, type etc.
When a buyer looks up the goods from that store (searching by product, store, location and other criteria), he or she can contact the seller and ask about the product and then place an order. Value transaction is done through the platform’s internal token.
When an order is executed, the tokens become locked in a smart contract. The contract has defined clauses of sales, such as quantity of items, price, any shipping charges, time frame of shipping, other specifications related to product (for example what color of shirt).
From the seller side, the registered product is taken from the virtual inventory and locked into the smart contract. The seller’s inventory is auto updated if the remaining products are low in stock, helping him or her maintain a suitable size for future clients.
The seller then dispatches the order to the client. The seller then can concentrate on other sales and both, the seller and the buyer are free.
Once the order is received by the client, he or she can instruct the contract that satisfactory purchase has been made. The contract immediately relinquishes the digital tokens to the seller that are immediately credited.
In case there are satisfactions issues, both parties can resolve with dialogue.
This whole procedure applies to manufacturers, wholesalers, stock keepers, retail shops and consumers.
Another feature of the platform is the authenticity verification. Since the product is locked with a unique code in the Blockchain, buyers can verify the product’s sourcing and be at peace that the products are not counterfeit.
(https://elementh.io/)
Case Study
Let’s take an example of a person A, who decides to open a clothing store on the platform. A would first need to upload information about the entire stock he wishes to sell on the e shop. The total setup can be done in a few minutes.
Person B, searching for a good shirt to wear for office attire, finds A’s shop through the search function in the platform. He browses the e store and finds a white shirt and a pair of brown trousers that suit his needs. He selects one piece of both, places in cart and checks out. The platform informs him of the total price (in its own tokens), including dispatch charges, transaction fee, time line of delivery etc. B places an order then.
A is notified of the order immediately. The smart contract locks one product each, a white shirt and a brown trouser from A’s inventory into the transaction. A then dispatches the product to the customer.
On receiving the package, B inspects the shirt and trouser. When satisfied, B informs the smart contract that goods have been received in good condition. The contract immediately releases payment to A.
In this whole process, neither A nor B had to worry about transacting money. The platform has its own e wallet with the tokens for each user. The contract automatically transferred the amount from B’s wallet into itself (acting as an escrow) and upon completion of trade, released the tokens into A’s wallet.
There is no involvement of a middleman and no commission fee, apart from the transaction charges that are necessary to pay node users to write the information on the Blockchain.
The money is transferred immediately, taking only a few seconds, from any part of the world to another. Unlike traditional banking involving fiat that takes days, sometimes weeks to be moved, this is by far, a very fast and cheaper alternative.
Now let’s extend the case study a bit. A decides to expand his shop and introduce men’s leather purses as well. He searches for B2B suppliers/manufacturers on the Elementh platform and finds what he can sell from supplier X. He uses the same procedure described as above to acquire different kinds of men’s purses.
When he sells the purses to end consumers, the consumer can trace the product’s information on the Blockchain to the manufacturer X, since the product code assigned by the manufacturer will remain unchanged, even if its ownership changes.
This enables greater customer satisfaction that products being bought from A are authentic. In this way, Elementh not only gives customers guarantee that products are genuine, but also eliminates the counterfeit market.
The beauty of the system is that consumers can even resell the product if they no longer require it. The purchase history is in the Blockchain and the authenticity/receipts are stored permanently.
What Benefits Does This Have Over Traditional Ecommerce?
Traditional ecommerce websites are fragmented. They are either B2B or B2P. The websites rely on financial transactions through traditional banking systems, such as Visa, MasterCard, Western Union, Paypal etc. These banking procedures are archaic and have hefty transaction fee. Mostly, end users do not feel this as the fee is nearly always paid by the seller.
The heavy fee, slow monetary transaction from one bank to another, extra long time of the banks are in different jurisdictions such as separate countries, take a heavy toll on profitability of the seller.
The websites that host these online shops are unforgiving and take a commission on every sales. As such, prices of goods go up to compensate by sellers and in the end, it is the consumer that ends up shelling out more cash.
With Blockchain power, Elementh makes it faster, easier, secure and more economical for sellers and buyers to connect.
Elementh Token
Like all platforms, Elementh has its own token that is used as medium of monetary exchange on the platform. The token is Elementh with code EEE. It is an Ethereum based ERC20 compliant. Pre-Sale and Pre ICO are over, but the main ICO is yet to begin on 1st of April, 2018 with 195,000,000 EEE available for early backers.
Conclusion
Elementh is a platform that has a solid plan and is beneficial to all consumers and suppliers. The objectives are realistic and the platform has a potential to grow immensely.
For more information, visit their website: (https://elementh.io)
Website:
(https://elementh.io/)
Whitepaper: (https://github.com/ElementhFoundation/Documentation/blob/master/ElementhWhitepaperEN.md)
Official Telegram
(https://t.me/ElementhBounty)
Official Twitter Channel
(https://twitter.com/Ahooleeman)