E-commerce is nothing but the act of purchasing or selling goods over the Internet or over various online services such as mobile apps or others. E-commerce has grown from the traditional brick and mortar stores with their stock which comprises products bought in the physical shops from the buyers and marketed through electronic systems such as the World Wide Web. This system has grown significantly since it was first introduced about five decades ago. This system can also be commonly referred to as e-business. The major benefits associated with this system are that it reduces the overall costs of production, increases the business reach, makes the business process flexible and enables a person to run a business from anywhere in the world. Further, it is among the most secure methods of doing business since the risk associated with the merchandise and the delivery of goods can be removed.
The e-commerce system has eliminated many risks that used to exist in conventional sales and retailing, for example, the risk of stolen returns and refunds and the risk of holding merchandise until customers come to pick them up. With e-commerce, the entire production process is automated. Once a purchase is made, the product is shipped directly to the purchaser without the involvement of any middleman. Hence, there is absolutely no wait time for the merchandise to be delivered. This is one of the main reasons why consumers often purchase goods from e-commerce sites rather than from a physical store.
The m-commerce or Mobile Commerce is another sort of e-commerce. This involves the transfer of various kinds of financial transactions, including payments, between parties without the involvement of any financial institution like a bank or a credit card company. There are many advantages associated with this electronic commerce. First, due to the elimination of the requirement for bank transactions, consumers enjoy a faster and easier way of earning purchases.
Because of the lack of newspaper work, the electronic commerce system eliminates the chance of fraudulent activities in terms of credit card purchases and business transactions. In addition, there's also a lower cost involved in executing redoing transactions and in collecting payments. Finally, due to the lack of paper work, consumers enjoy the opportunity of creating electronic payments for their purchases, thereby increasing the profitability of e-commerce.
Electronic commerce has proven beneficial to all e-commerce companies, no matter their industry. It has provided a great opportunity to sellers to conduct B2C business transactions without having to incur any additional costs on their end. These companies, in turn, have enjoyed a reduction in operating costs. Since there are no physical connections needed between sellers and buyers, the overall manufacturing cost associated with such companies is also reduced. Consequently, consumers have benefited from the improvements which were made in e-commerce technology.
This is a substantial contribution to the global effort to expand the market for e-commerce sites. As a result of this, more customers are able to improve their level of purchasing power. In the process of transacting business transactions, consumers have the ability to use the services of online shops and sites, which in turn increases the amount of people who will buy products or services provided by these establishments.