E-commerce

E-commerce can be defined as the use of the Internet and the Web to conduct business transactions. Electronic commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.

Features of e-commerce technology:

• Ubiquity: It is available just about everywhere and at all times.

• Global Reach: the potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population of the world.

• Universal standards: The technical standards of the Internet, and therefore of conducting e-commerce, are shared by all of the nations in the world.

• Richness: Information that is complex and content rich can be delivered without sacrificing reach.

• Interactivity: E-commerce technologies allow two-way communication between the merchant and the consumer.

• Information density: The total amount and quality of information available to all market participants is vastly increased and is cheaper to deliver.

• Personalization/Customization: E-commerce technologies enable merchants to target their marketing messages to a person’s name, interests, and past purchases. They allow a merchant to change the product or service to suit the purchasing behaviour and preferences of a consumer.

• Social technology: User content generation and social networking technologies.

There are primarily five types of e-commerce models:

1.      Business to Consumer (B2C)

B2C stands for Business to Consumer as the name suggests, it is the model taking businesses and consumers interaction. Online business sells to individuals. The basic concept of this model is to sell the product online to the consumers. B2c is the indirect trade between the company and consumers. It provides direct selling through online. For example: if you want to sell goods and services to customer so that anybody can purchase any products directly from supplier’s website.

Directly interact with the customers is the main difference with other business model. AsB2B it manages directly relationship with consumers, B2C supply chains normally deal with business that are related to the customer.

2.    Business to Business (B2B)

B2B stands for Business to Business. It consists of largest form of Ecommerce. This model defines that Buyer and seller are two different entities. It is similar to manufacturer issuing goods to the retailer or wholesaler.  Dell deals computers and other associated accessories online but it is does not make up all those products. So, in govern to deal those products, first step is to purchases them from unlike businesses i.e. the producers of those products.“It is one of the cost effective way to sell out product throughout the world”

Benefits:

• Encourage your businesses online
• Products import and export
• Determine buyers and suppliers
• Position trade guides

3.    Consumer to Consumer (C2C)

C2C stands for Consumer to Consumer. It helps the online dealing of goods or services among people. Though there is no major parties needed but the parties will not fulfill the transactions without the program which is supplied by the online market dealer such as eBay.

4.      Peer to Peer (P2P)

It is a discipline that deal itself which assists people to instantly shares related computer files and computer sources without having to interact with central web server.If you are going to implement this model, both sides demand to install the expected software so that they could able to convey on the mutual platform. This kind of e-commerce has very low revenue propagation as from the starting it has been tended to the release of use due to which it sometimes caught involved in cyber laws.

5.      m-Commerce

It deals with conducting the transactions with the help of mobile. The mobile device consumers can interact with each other and can lead the business. Mobile Commerce involves the change of ownership or rights to utilize goods and related services.

Evolution of e-commerce:

The three stages in the evolution of e-commerce are innovation, consolidation, and reinvention. Innovation took place from 1995–2000 and was characterized by excitement and idealistic visions of markets in which quality information was equally available to both buyers and merchants. However, e-commerce did not fulfil these visions during its early years. After 2000, e-commerce entered its second stage of development: consolidation. In this stage, more traditional firms began to use the Web to enhance their existing businesses. Less emphasis was placed on creating new brands. In 2006, though, e-commerce entered its current stage, reinvention, as social networking and Web 2.0 applications reinvigorated e-commerce and encouraged the development of new business models.

Limitations on the growth of e-commerce:

One major limitation to the growth of e-commerce is the price of personal computers. Another limitation is the need for many people to learn complicated operating systems, at least in comparison to other technologies such as the television or the telephone. People must also learn a set of sophisticated skills to make effective use of the Internet and e-commerce capabilities. Another limitation is the unlikelihood that the digital shopping experience will ever replace the social and cultural experience that many seek from the traditional shopping environment. Finally, persistent global income inequality will exclude most of the world’s population, who do not and probably will not in the foreseeable future, have access to telephones or PCs. Social and cultural limitations are likely to be tougher to overcome than technological limitations.