The visionary innovation called the internet was created with a vision, howbeit, the creators probably did not envisage the vision being as revolutionary as it has become at the moment. Since the inception of the internet, several technological innovations have been birthed and are contributing immensely to a better life and enhanced productivity for individuals. One of the very useful technological innovation is the creation of e-commerce platforms, it made it very easy for users to purchase items from different parts of the world without necessarily being in that part of the world, it also helped companies take their products to the internet, while creating online publicity and increasing their reach to more potential customers, from all around the world.
Ever since the internet paved the way for the commerce industry to have an internet based sector (e-commerce), the e-commerce industry has continued to experience exponential growth due to the level at which internet users carried out seamless internet-based purchases and transactions, this has continued to stretch its business tentacles to every part of the world where there is the availability of the internet. However, as exponential as the growth is in this 21st century, a much greater proportion of the retail industry is totally dependent on the usual brick-and-mortar business.
The dependence of people on brick-and-mortar invariably means there are indeed offline consumers and merchants, this is logical, because after making purchases online, the products are sent and used offline. Hence, there is the need for a seamless connection between offline consumers and merchants, however, to aid this connection, some problems need to be solved first. Some of the problems plaguing the current offline transactions between consumers and merchants include consumers’ lack of operational control over their own data even though companies and corporations use these data for their businesses, and even monetize the information the data generates. The second problem is about the little or no understanding the merchants have about their customers and their data, and that is due to the fact that the customers’ data is usually in bits and not entirely complete. Another problem has to do with publicity, even though there are many businesses that operate only offline, it has been discovered that some of them prefer to carry out adverts online rather than offline where their businesses are based, and the reasons are based on the facts that offline advertising lacks transparency, is outdated, and not as effective as online advertising.
Solutions from Carry Protocol
Another innovative technology that came as a result of the internet paving the way for development is the creation of the blockchain technology which was originally intended for use with only cryptocurrencies. Over time, with the unending contributions of developers, the blockchain technology has been discovered to have so many use cases that relate to every industry and sector in the world. The blockchain technology is capable of solving incessant problems plaguing centralized systems, and as such, different blockchain-based applications and platforms have been created to deal with these problems. One of such blockchain-based technologies created to tackle the problems facing offline retail and interactions between offline merchants and consumers is “Carry Protocol”.
The Carry Protocol system is made up of different components that are sub-components of two major components:
• Blockchain
➢ Carry Smart Contracts
➢ Carry Transaction Database
• APIs that Bridge the Blockchain Network with 3rd Party Software
➢ Carry Device API
➢ Carry Wallet API
The Carry Platform is one that brings the features of e-commerce to the offline retail sector, like payments using multi-currency, opt-in trading data, token incentives that will be according to the specifics of individual merchants. One of the major aims of the Carry Protocol is to deal with the limit of digitalization happening in the offline retail sector.
Carry will be a very beneficial platform to use, as users who use the system by transacting with other retailers on the network will be able make a choice of receiving rewards in form of tokens with the purchases they make- these tokens can either be business-definite reward tokens, or the native token of the Carry Protocol platform. By engaging in this reward token system, the customer will have the option of deciding to share their data or not and hence receive advertisements based on the product preference of the user. Furthermore, the user gets rewarded for sharing data and receiving advertisements.
The Carry Protocol will function using its main token (CRE), and with it, the consumers within the Carry ecosystem will be able to use the token as payments to merchants, while the merchants will use it for the creation smart contracts or their individual tokens. Every transaction that takes place on the Carry network can be achieved anonymously. Here are some advantages of the token to the merchants, consumers, and advertisers.
• Consumer Advantages
✓ Customers are in complete ownership of their transaction data.
✓ Ability to monetize transactions anonymously.
✓ Consumers can collect loyalty points and digital coupons.
✓ Fiat currencies, credit cards, and cryptocurrencies can be used as payments.
✓ Seamless transactions.
✓ Transactions are secured with high-grade cryptography and other security systems.
• Merchant Advantages
✓ Brick-and-mortar shops are able to accept virtual/digital currency as payments.
✓ Quick process of payments compared to traditional bank processes.
✓ Ability to incentivize loyal customers/consumers with digital coupons.
✓ Create customized branded tokens for incentives to customers.
• Advertiser Advantages
✓ Access to use a combination of payment data offline.
✓ Ability to reach across to their audience in the absence of advertising fees.
A lot of the services on the platform are carried out on the wallet app, and that is where every transaction data gets stored after their creation. Transaction data is in full control of the customer, including the ability to share what data to whom.
Decentralization is the solution to a lot of business problems, and the use of the blockchain is proffering solutions to these problems, just like Carry Protocol is doing to offline retail.
Visit carryprotcol.io
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