|
Electronic commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. 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.
A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.
Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market).
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.
The benefits of electronic-commerce:
- It is convenient, the sites are being operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
- Small intern costs, electronic commerce eliminating interaction between the buyer and the transaction’s intermediaries.
- Small price on transaction’s processing, electronic payment way, being less expensive than the monetary one.
- A substantial growth of the selling process speed, e-commerce intercepts the incomes more quickly than in the traditional system.
- Errors cutback, automatic processing, making less errors then traditional selling process;
- Unlimited space, the e-commerce sites can show an unlimited number of assets and services;
- Increased worldwide presence, the company can be visited (theoretically) by possible clients from all over the world.
- Information accessibility about clients, so, there is the possibility to study the preferences of an individual client, or of a specific group of clients, to model the business by the client’s own wishes or to interchange analytic reports concerning clients - in conclusion, a better interaction with clients.
- Many people confounds the theoretical concept of e-commerce with the e-business one, But in reality the first is just a category of e-business. Electronic commerce was one of the first business types that become available in electronic form, but internet facilitates a lot more than selling and buying of products and services.
E-commerce can be divided into:
- E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall".
- The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts.
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data.
- e-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters).
- Business-to-business buying and selling.
- The security of business transactions.
|