About e-commerce

E-commerce

A term that refers to the growing retail, service and business to business industries on the World Wide Web: Marketing, Strategy, Training, Research, Practice, and Services, among other topics that are related to E-commerce. E-commerce websites facilitate the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. This includes both electronic sale (internet shops) and B2B transactions, i.e. business between two companies.

E-commerce can be conducted using many electronic methods, but it is the advent of the Internet that has fuelled the explosive growth in this form of commerce. E-commerce is generally divided into two segments: business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). The biggest potential market by far for e-commerce is business-to-business. By the year 2005, business-to-business sales will account for over 85% of total purchases on the Web, accordingly the volume of Internet commerce will be much higher.

Advantages of e-commerce         Disadvantages of e-commerce

Replaces paper-based processes         Security risk

Resulting in lower costs         Requires expensive equipments

Greater accuracy         Requires specialized labour.

Higher speed         

Larger scale inter-company collaboration         

The world is ever changing and as it changes, so too does the business environment. Global politics and economics affect the very nature of business. There is rapid growth in international trade and an emerging global economy. This means that there are unprecedented opportunities to tap into new markets, but at the same time the traditional market is changing. There is increased competition from companies that are able to conduct their business across borders. There are no regulations or laws or government bodies that oversees e-commerce and the Internet. Companies are faced with reduced profit margins and higher customer expectations. This leads to a new era of increased, and very different, competition as these changes are coupled with rapid advances in technology. Faster processors and new capabilities are introduced...