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Edu4Sure Admin
- December 9, 2018
E-commerce is gaining popularity among customers these days. But what is e-commerce? There was a time when one had to travel miles to buy or sell goods. Trading can be traced back to the very beginning when communication developed among people.
Over time, e-commerce has developed in all aspects. So, starting from the introduction of standardized currencies to the introduction of banking, everything has added to the development of commerce.
Moreover today, transactions are being carried out at lightning-fast speeds. Which was once nothing but fiction. The Internet was not the main interface for commerce till the 1990s.
Also, thanks to the advancement of the internet and ever-growing efficiency, it has become the primary interface for carrying out businesses and transactions thus giving rise to E-commerce.
What Do You Understand By E-Commerce?
E-Commerce is a basic economic activity involving trading or the buying and selling of goods. It is a business model that allows various firms and individuals to carry out transactions using an electronic interface, mainly the Internet.
Most of the population still thinks e-commerce is just buying and selling stuff over the Internet. It’s not. More likely, it is a broad umbrella term used to describe any type of electronic exchange of data. Specifically, the word which we need to emphasize is “Electronic”.
It accommodates the buying and selling of any item over the Internet. For e.g., electronic fund transfers, smart cards and all other methods of doing business over the digital network.
Different Types of E-Commerce
E-Commerce is flourishing nowadays and it operates in all of the major market zones:
1. Business to business (B2B)
It means e-commerce between companies. About 80% of E-commerce is of this type. For e.g., Intel sells microprocessors to Lenovo and PepsiCo sells beverages to Pizza Hut.
2. Business to consumer (B2C)
It is e-commerce between companies and consumers. Here, customers gather information about purchasing or receiving physical goods over an electronic network. For e.g., if Dell sells its computers to you or me, it’s simply B2C.
3. Consumer to consumer (C2C)
Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce or C2C is simply a business between private individuals or consumers. For e.g., many websites like Manish buying Car from Tanmay on eBay or selling the phone on OLX.
4. Business to Government (B2G)
B2G is mainly defined as a business between companies and the public sector. It accredits the applicability of the Internet for public procurement. As well as licensing procedures and other government-related operations. For e.g., businesses pay taxes, file reports or sell goods and services to Government agencies.
5. Government to consumer (G2C)
This is part of the e-Governance. It aims to provide good and effective services to each citizen. The Government tries to offer different facilities to the citizens through different websites.
For e.g., information about government departments and different welfare schemes. Also for various application forms to be used by the citizens, like filling out online application for Passport.
6. Government-to-business (G2B)
It is a business model that refers to the government giving services or information to the business organization. Such websites support auctions, tenders and application submission services for conducting business.
How Does It Work?
Applications that are used to conduct e-commerce:
- Online catalogues and shopping carts
- EDI
- File Transfer Protocol and
- Web services
To start an online business, it is best to find a niche product. A niche product is a product that consumers have difficulty finding in malls or department stores. Shipping is another thing that needs to be considered.
It benefits firms by providing them with a place to establish themselves. Second, to improve their market position irrespective of their size. Third, expand their global profit as well. List your business online and enjoy the benefits of this domain!
More companies are now trying to entice consumers directly online. Specifically by using tools such as digital coupons, social media marketing and targeted advertisements.
E-Commerce is changing the face of business like never before due to the increased adequacy of the internet. Large corporations are using this platform to boost their growth. Also, it is easy to grow your business online using e-commerce as well.
The power of e-commerce in improving trade can be explained by the following online article: “Dell Computers sells more than $14 million worth of computer equipment a day from its website. By taking their customer service department to the web, Federal Express began saving $10,000 a day. The Internet provides businesses with the opportunity to sell their products to millions of people, 24 hours a day”- (Baxton, 1999).
Online Shopping
Online shopping is also known as business to consumer e-commerce (B2C). It is the most illustrious form of e-commerce or electronic commerce. Here, customers can order an array of products that they then receive by courier or postal mail.
We can draw a close analogy between a website that sells certain commodities and a store at the mall that also sells the same, here referred to as an online store.
One of the discrepancies between a retail store and an online store is timing. A retail store has fixed its hours of operation. On the other hand, an online store is twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week business.
Pros
There are some core benefits of e-commerce which include:
- The incredible speed of access
- Miniaturized employment costs
- The wide availability of goods and services for the consumer
- Efficacious for procurement
- Improves the brand image of the company
- Drains paperwork to a great extent
- Upsurges the productivity of the organization
- Provides options to compare and select the best option suitable for the customer
- Increases competition among organizations. Thus, compelling the organization to provide discounts to customers
- Easy accessibility
- Global reach
Cons
Though shopping online provides a level of convenience. It also takes away the hands-on feeling a traditional retailer can provide. Other downsides include sometimes-
- Limited customer service,
- Consumers not being able to see or touch a product before purchase,
- Lack of creating personal relation which consumer experiences with the retail store,
- The compulsion of the internet access device,
- It needs to have reverse logistics in an expanded form,
- Extremely alpine reliance on websites,
- Internet access is still not that cheap and is tiresome to use for many potential customers like one living in remote villages,
- Hidden costs that don’t show up while purchasing the product online,
- Customers may not be able to purchase many of the products online which they can easily avail from retail stores,
- Impossible to run an e-commerce website without a web destination, so it should be good enough,
- The ineptitude in identifying scams, and
- The necessitated wait time for product shipping.
India and e-Commerce
In India, e-commerce is still in its infancy. So, internet penetration in India is still very low compared to other developed countries. Even then, India is fast emerging as the largest country to register domain names in the entire Asia-Pacific region.
According to the latest dotcom index for the year up to February 2000, India occupies 11th place in it after the US. UK, Korea, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, China, Spain, and Italy.
According to recent data, the number of buyers in India is expected to reach 41 million by 2016. Thus, representing 27 per cent of the total number of internet users in the country. In India, 9% of the country’s population has contributed their purchase via mobile phone within the past month, as of the fourth quarter of 2014.
The expansion of e-commerce in India has been uneven. It is concentrated in just a few metropolitan cities, like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi. The common man living in rural areas of the country is unaware of it. This is another hindrance for e-commerce to flourish. But this hindrance is also an opportunity and it is the reason for digital marketing‘s boom in the country.
In a nutshell, there is humongous potential for e-commerce companies, thanks to the growing internet user base and advancements in technology. How a company qualifies itself to meet these ultimatums will decide whether or not it succeeds.
Conclusion
The road to creating a successful online store can be quite bumpy. Researching and understanding the guidelines to properly implement an e-business plan is a compelling part to be successful with online store building.
E-commerce can be a rewarding venture, but one cannot make money overnight. It is important to do a lot of research, ask questions, work hard and make business decisions on facts learned from researching e-commerce.
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