How Will E Commerce Evolve Information Technology Essay
E-commerce is the division of electronic business and is the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging product, service, and information take place via computer network, including the internet, it much like marketing but it is on the internet.
E-commerce trading not only trade on physical goods but also intangibles things such as information. It involved steps of trade such as on-line marketing, ordering payment and support for shipping or delivery. It also supports on collaboration between companies such as collaborative on-line design and engineering or virtual business consultancy teams. E-commerce also enable for online training and education in school, organization and business.
E-commerce is often confused with e-business, e-commerce refers to the boarder definition of E-business; e-business is the use of internet and other information technologies to support commerce and improve business performance. However, e-business also comprising those activities that do not involved the process of buying and selling but as collaboration and intrabusiness activities. This is the complement of e-commerce.
E-Commerce provides advantages to both the Business provider and patrons. For the business it is provides easier way to market a particular product at lower cost and the product easily reaches to the worldwide market. For the consumers they can buy products from home, so no wearisome work in buying and they can trade any time they want. E-commerce thus is a greater benefit provided it has ultimate security.
How has e-commerce change the business world?
Regardless the sizes of the businesses, the styles of the businesses or even the nature of the businesses, all types of businesses had affected greatly when approaching to the information age. Regardless where you are, as long as you had a computer with you, you might have experience on browsing through the internet, whereas you will be able to see most of the businesses website, promotion of their products by just a click.
As compare to conventional business styles, e-commerce replaces most of its function via online network such as the sales of goods and services through the web. In e-commerce, most conventional business functions had eliminated and turn into online-based functions. Perhaps one days, no more physical store will be build in to display products and no more selling and trading manually. Instead, most of the people can be just stay at home and buy their things via the web. For instance, e-commerce has low processing time on negotiation on every trading of goods and services and cost saving as compare to conventional brick and mortar business.
Furthermore, e-commerce had drawn the consumers’ interest to purchasing goods and services online. In facts, consumers like to browse through the web and addicted to it. For some extant, this is convenient for consumers to look for the products that they want, or consumer will be able to study about the information provided for the goods that they want. For some extant, consumers will be able to make comparison of their online shopping conveniently through a single medium (personal computer) without going out. Yet, the item selection will be not limits by what online store can carry; besides, comparison-shopping can be quick and easy. For instance, customers willing and satisfy to paid for the highest quality merchandise, at the best price, with the cheapest delivery cost, and the fastest delivery time via e-commerce. In addition, recommending products features in e-commerce influence the consumers’ interest on their purchasing too; they will be able to write down their feedback and get to know how others feel when browsing the business web. Other than that, the social network such as Facebook was a good example showing the interest of the consumer on the particular business by just a click “like button” on the Facebook page of their business.
Moreover, the barriers to entry for the e-commerce is low, it give every single business opportunities entered to the global business easily. In e-commerce, the buyers are come from anywhere internationally. For instance, almost every major retailer has a Web site. It might gain their interest on purchasing your goods across the world. Seeing that, most small businesses were getting rich and famous easily. Nevertheless, it causes huge competition among the businesses. Since e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price competition, as it increases consumers' ability to gather information about products and prices. Not only easy for consumers to gather information but also helped the marketer or business to publicity and promote their business and brand through the web globally. As compare to conventional ways of publicity it incur higher marketing cost as compare to do it via e-commerce with the good word of mouth spread through internet.
Besides, the competition affects the business regardless the well-known organization and even a small business. Seeing that, a big online business can be replacing by other business, while a small business can be famous in contrast. Other than that, after the e-commerce come arise, more laws applied to the business world such as rules and regulation on online purchasing, online trading terms and conditions, ecommerce law and ecommerce & FTC.
Due to the better infrastructure and communication tools, many businesses including e-commerce unable to hold the complex information flow. Besides, it seems that, everything is come in a rapid ways and every business unable to avoid with it. Therefore, every business must try to change and adapt or update their business continuously. In other words, online business extension need to be done for the business growth such as searching or attracting potential e-suppliers or e-customers from the global business market or even merging with other business or acquiring other businesses. For this reason, some bigger companies growth even bigger by acquiring other business, such as e-bay acquisition of PayPal Business-[e-commerce payment systems] on July 8, 2002 at $ 1.5 billion, EachNet-[Electronic commerce(China)] on July 11, 2003 at $ 150 millions, Shopping.com-[online shopping] on June 2, 2005 at $ 620 million, etc. In brief, e-commerce able to make the businessperson not only focuses on one business, yet they may handle on many online businesses.
In short, e-commerce change the business world turning from the conventional ways into unconventional ways, build in themselves with the understanding on the consumers preferences and draw their attention toward own business website. Adaptation and continuously learning and improving the business, learn to be the innovators or leading the trend in e-commerce, and must be able to overcome the obstacles and the business challenges; and prevent eliminated in the global business competition.
How will e-commerce evolve in the future to further enhance business operations?
There are varying views and opinions regarding the future of e-commerce. Although the online trading had growth exponentially, some of the analysts are pessimistic on e-commence trend in future and believe it is heading for a fall. This is difficult to interpret by most of the expert and analysts.
In facts, there are many successful of e-commerce around the world, and recently it was a good example for the e-commerce that found in China. Chinese consumers seem to have fully embraced the idea of online shopping, and if not mistaken of a research done by a market analyst firm, that will be possible over 105million of the Chinese making regular purchases over the Internet. This encouraging and attract many e-business to set up and doing business via internet since there is a potential for earning.
Furthermore, most of the countries contributing to the growth of e-commerce nowadays, while this indicating the growth of the e-commerce to be grow. While this leading the changes in advertising industry where more publicity and promotion is need for e-business.
Besides, the tremendous potential of earning may attract many businesses doing online, but it may also attracting potential crime on e-commerce, if without any protection of laws and rights. Some crime issues have encountered in e-commerce such as fraud, cheating and swindles. This is the major problems faces by many e-businesses and they have to solve this but difficult.
In future, e-commerce will be evolve for an extend that updating the most e-commerce features to overcome many potential problems encountered under the e-business operations such as they way they setting up a business website, the fulfillment of their potential customers and logistics for the order and delivery, their website maintenance and also the payment systems. Perhaps, most of the e-business operation may evolving together with the web technology as the platform is evolving to another generation platform maybe evolve to web 3.0 or even web 4.0 which is ubiquitous.
The development of e-commerce will be gone through the evolution of the web. Regardless this, most of the businesses had to prepare for the changes in e-commerce from time to time. Therefore, there are some criteria for businesses to consider when making choices for a sound e-commerce operation. A better system is necessary for any types of business or any ways of doing including e-commerce.
For overcome the changes from the conventional business operations into e-commerce, without a proper system and its management on the business will be mess up everything or call up a failure. At here, the logistic operation will be influence by the physical infrastructure and internet infrastructure, and it depends on the country where you lived, but it going to be better with the latest technology. For instance, the ways of delivery and supply-chain management are getting easier for e-commerce. Likewise, ordering, purchasing, inventory checking, scheduling and be done easily via e-commerce with the latest technology. Other than this, some other e-commerce operation need to be take note, such as the product quality and fraud tracking for the transferred products, e-commerce reengineering and consulting. For instance, better ways of products quality tracking can ensure good conditions of the product to be delivering and to prevent any fraud or crime claim under any circumstances. Moreover, the reengineering and consulting on e-commerce may ensure the system of e-commerce will update accordingly to the latest rules or laws for e-commerce, the latest technology with latest e-commerce platform, or all in one system for e-commerce that able to enhance the business operation, but its depends on the business capacity.
In brief, regardless the opinion from the analysts, the e-commerce can be extend much more further and will be great for a better ways of doing business globally, as the business themselves able to find a better and correct approach on doing it. Thus, e-commerce will get along and improve the business operation in the future.
How did some companies successfully built up/overturn its decline with the use of e-commerce?
Nowadays, improvement or enhance of electronic technologies such as Internet had been influenced consumer shopping behaviour shift toward online media. For example, they will start mostly with researching a specific product or purchasing items, which is not easily available locally such as some foreign brands product. However, currently, they are using internet heavily to search and purchase the products whether that is easily or difficulty available locally such as clothes. Therefore, that is an opportunity let the company that is suffered loss enter the e-market by using e-commerce to overturn its losses. Many businesses have become extremely profitable through online sales. Dell Computers is a prime example.
Firstly, company using E-commerce to operate its business can lower their cost expenses. That is no real physical shop and can be establishes it with zero cost. In another word, create a website or blog for running business at the internet without create a physical shop or store. So that, can be help in save or lower the cost expenses such as shop rental, labour cost , equipment leasing cost, warehouse leasing cost, advertising and others expenses. Thus, online businesses able to overturn it decline, since increase the profit margin and more revenues earned.
Secondly, it can be maximize customer satisfaction. Customer can shop or purchase their favoured product without the barriers of time or distance. Furthermore, E-commerce is running the online business in anywhere and anytime (24 hour per day and 7 days per weeks). Therefore, it helps business effectively and efficiently. For instance, customer can made the order on its website without waiting for business hour, and seller can process its transaction immediately. Moreover, product details will be shown at website and can bring more convenient to the customers, which are looking for details information with self-serving. Thus, satisfying customers helped business to attract more prospect customer through good words of mouth, and this will increase its market share and make the business growth.
Thirdly, it can increase awareness of brands and products. Through stronger brands, positioning, online business would be able to attract prospect customers to browse through its websites. Perhaps, it may reach out to millions or billions of consumers. Let say, if ten percent of the world population browse through the website and ten percent of the ten percent of the population browser purchase your products, its means you will be becoming richer suddenly. Besides, if the domain brand name becomes popular, it will increase the brand value, that would sell for millions to billions. For instance, eBay buy Shopping.com for $620 million - CNET News. Furthermore, by serving the customers 24/7 ( 24 hour per day and 7 days per weeks) which allow customer easily to access, it will also can help to create more word of mouth buzz for online business by helping to promote the brand name and products. Thus, it able to built up the business; its brands name; and its products sales from a wide and vast online business market.
Similarly, it enhances the business growth. As mentioned above, running online business is moving the business solely online are great ways to increase sales and profits. Online businesses do have a greater chance of increasing sales and profits because that is using lower cost to manage, so that it will turn into profit. Moreover, many businesses can expand its business through online, for instance, attract more prospect customers and suppliers would help in improving the business. Nothing to learn and growth will regress the business. Therefore, businesses must adopt continuous learning in its business to make its business to recover from recession, or a trough and prevent it to be collapse.
Companies who failed their e-business and lessons learnt.
There are some e-businesses such as Boo.com and Kozmo.com had close up their business due to some failing reasons. From the case study, both of the Boo.com and Kozmo.com have good idea and motive for conducting the e-business but eventually these great ideas had demised.
Boo.com is a European company founded in 1998 and operating out of a London head office, which is an Online Sports retailer. For the business growing purpose, it had proposition to its investor regarding their business idea is to become the world-leading Internet-based retailer of prestigious brand leisure and sportswear names. Due to this ambitious, boo.com had made some errors in conducting its business.
From the case, essentially Boo.com failed because it tried to do too much. On that time, approximate 20% of UK households can access to the internet but with a slow dial-up connections unlikely today with broadband and free WIFI found everywhere. The biggest mistake it does is they are too ambitious to create the most attractive and savvy website across many countries that beyond the capabilities of most internet user’s computer. The state of the art logistics business that across many countries with an online shop front idea from Boo.com draw up an obstacle that unable to convince its investors for funding up their business.
In details, by setting up such great website, challenges to go global e-business retail have interrupted by its company’s capabilities, systems and management. First issue was multiple currencies. The pricing scheme had to be determine and setting up early when the business needs to deal across multiple countries. Second issue was multiple languages. The diverse linguistic need to be take note and need to check with the locals before making anything available to the general public. For instance, British English and American English are extremely different in terms of their words usage and the words meanings differ between both languages. Third issue was Taxes. For Boo.com, is had been taxed in three ways, as its offices in Paris, servers in London, and its distribution centre in Cologne. From the lesson, accountants and tax attorneys should take part in the development of global e-commerce applications. Besides, being global maybe too costly to be maintained and getting its finance. Fourth issue was its management and system. The system and management indicates the success of a business. Likewise, management makes or breaks a company. Boo.com seems to be fail in it e-business but in actual it had failed as the world business. For instance, a sound management for business operations may assists for its business success.
E-commerce brings many benefits to many businesses including Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). For instance, it able to increase sales, decreasing the costs of operation, products, marketing, and processing/transaction, increase profit, expanding the size of the market from regional to national or even globalize. Therefore, creating a potential to growth bigger and saving a lot of cost on using e-commerce. However, there is necessary for businesses to pay more attention on the implementing cost of an e-commerce even the cost of e-commerce are lower. The cost of to do online business is depends on how much time and effort dedicated by the people in the business or an organization and the collaborated parties including the e-commerce developer.
To able to make the e-business sustain and survive, SME who try to employ e-commerce to their business may refer to some guideline in the cost of implementation.
Hosting costs need to take note, where the amount of server space that requires for the product photos, e-mail accounts for a website database and with the bandwidth requirement. This depends on the size of the e-business. Normally hosting costs are varies among the web hosting provider.
Eg. Hosting cost in godaddy.com
Other than that, online store program and designing the storefront need to consider depend on the capabilities of the business on how they manage the maintenance costs that operate over the long run. Likewise, higher cost incur on graphical design. The higher requirement on the graphical design may cost more where they are many inputs of product category.
Furthermore, the shipping costs are often overlooking in starting up an online business. Commonly charges are higher on the heavy and bigger products and on large volume of shipping. Regardless of this may make the business facing a downturn just like kozmo.com that provide free shipping to its customers for light items, but at the end end-up with insolvency. In addition, unsatisfied delivery or on shipping cost may look minor problems to the business, but in further viewing point, its creating greater cost to the business where it loses its prospect customers.
Lastly, SME may refer these information as a guideline when operate the e-commerce. By knowing the uses of e-commerce and its benefits, cost and limitation, it would helped the business to prevent experiencing bad lessons but make itself growth more better.
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