E-COMMERCE IN HUMAN LIFE

11 min readMay 22, 2021

History of E-commerce

The primary way in which E-commerce will affect the economy is its impact on productivity and inflation. The continuous expansion of electronic commerce can lead to downward pressure on inflation through increased competition. The role of E-commerce in business is that it helps in the exchange of goods and services through electronic support. Electronic business has grown significantly since the internet haS launched. Today, insignificant facets of our daily lives, the internet has become an essential part of our lives and has a versatile impact on social activities. We cannot go to the bank to withdraw cash or do transactions or go to the market to buy essential commodities and things, due to a shortage of time.

These days, we all have become so busy with our work, and hence, in these circumstances, online purchases are the new norm.

Did you know that E-commerce society did $200 billion in sales in 2010? The internet economy is booming, and E-commerce sales are expanding by leaps and bounds every year by 20% to 25%. The data indicates a change in the spending habits of human clients. It is an indisputable fact that each business is different, and it differs in style, promotion, and volume. In the long run, the net operating cost becomes insignificant compared to the return on investment provided by the advertisement.

OVERVIEW

E-Commerce or Electronics Commerce is a methodology of modern business, which addresses the need of business organizations, vendors and customers to reduce cost and improve the quality of goods and services while increasing the speed of delivery. Ecommerce refers to the paperless exchange of business information using the following ways −

Electronic Data Exchange (EDI)
Electronic Mail (e-mail)
Electronic Bulletin Boards
Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)
Other Network-based technologies

The history of eCommerce begins with the first-ever online sale: on August 11, 1994, a man sold a CD by the band Sting to his friend through his website NetMarket, an American retail platform. This is the first example of a consumer purchasing a product from a business through the World Wide Web — or “e-commerce” as we commonly know it today. Since then, e-commerce has evolved to make products easier to discover and purchase through online retailers and marketplaces. Independent freelancers, small businesses, and large corporations have all benefited from eCommerce, which enables them to sell their goods and services at a scale that was not possible with traditional offline retail. Global retail eCommerce sales are projected to reach $27 trillion by 2020.

Finance Online’s “Data and Share Market Analysis for 2020” shows that e-commerce is not only thriving in the B2C sector, but sales are also scaling in the B2B sector and can even outgrow B2C profits by the end of 2020. Here are a few more intriguing stats from this report :

It is estimated that around 35% of Google product searches are converted into purchases within 5 days.
Around 51% of digital buyers conduct purchases via their smartphones.
Digital buyers are more likely to spend more if they are provided with free shipping.
Around 93% of online shoppers declared that the visual appearance of an online store plays a key factor in their purchasing decisions.
It is estimated that around 80% of online shoppers don’t make purchases from e-commerce sites that have problematic return policies.
It is estimated that 85% of all products purchased via social media platforms come from Facebook.

According to Statista, e-retail sales accounted for 14% of all retail sales around the globe and these figures are expected to keep growing and reach 22% by 2023.

It is expected that mobile e-commerce retail sales will reach $3.5 trillion by 2021.
In 2017, around 42% of online shoppers stated that they prefer to pay with a credit card.
Online stores that have an active presence on social media platforms has 32% more sales.

INTRODUCTION

Ecommerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. Ecommerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet. Ecommerce, or electronic commerce, refers to transactions conducted via the internet. Every time individuals and companies are buying or selling products and services online they’re engaging in commerce. The term eCommerce also encompasses other activities including online auctions, internet banking, payment gateways, and online ticketing.

Now, a little bit of history first

The first e-commerce transaction was made in 1994. A guy named Phil Brandenberger used his Mastercard to buy Sting’s Ten Summoners’ Tales via the internet for $12.48. This particular transaction made history and signaled to the world that the “internet is open” for eCommerce transactions. Why? Because it was the first time that encryption technology was used to enable an internet purchase. Needless to say, e-commerce has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. The rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba in the mid -1990s changed the face of the retail industry. They largely capitalized on the global internet penetration and digitalization of the financial system which contributed to the decline in sales for many brick-and-mortar businesses.

FEATURES

E-Commerce provides the following features –

Non-Cash Payment − E-Commerce enables the use of credit cards, debit cards, smartcards, electronic fund transfers via the bank’s website, and other modes of electronic payment.
24x7 Service availability − E-commerce automates the business of enterprises and the way they provide services to their customers. It is available anytime, anywhere.
Advertising / Marketing − E-commerce increases the reach of advertising of products and services of businesses. It helps in better marketing management of products/services.
Improved Sales − Using e-commerce, orders for the products can be generated anytime, anywhere without any human intervention. It gives a big boost to existing sales volumes.
Support − E-commerce provides various ways to provide pre-sales and post-sales assistance to provide better services to customers.
Inventory Management − E-commerce automates inventory management. Reports get generated instantly when required. Product inventory management becomes very efficient and easy to maintenance
Communication improvement − E-commerce provides ways for faster, efficient, reliable communication with customers and partners.

TYPES OF E-COMMERCE MODELS

There are four main types of e-commerce models that can describe almost every transaction that takes place between consumers and businesses.

1.Business to Consumer (B2C): When a business sells a good or service to an individual consumer (e.g. You buy a pair of shoes from an online retailer).

2. Business to Business (B2B): When a business sells a good or service to another business (e.g. A business sells software-as-a-service for other businesses to use)

3. Consumer to Consumer (C2C):

When a consumer sells a good or service to another consumer (e.g. You sell your old furniture on eBay to another consumer).

4. Consumer to Business (C2B):

When a consumer sells their own products or services to a business or organization (e.g. An influencer offers exposure to their online audience in exchange for a fee, or a photographer licenses their photo for a business to use).

Business — to — Government

B2G model is a variant of B2B model. Such websites are used by governments to trade and exchange information with various business organizations. Such websites are accredited by the government and provide a medium for businesses to submit application forms to the government.

Government — to — Business

Governments use B2G model websites to approach business organizations. Such websites support auctions, tenders, and application submission functionalities.

Government — to — Citizen

Governments use G2C model websites to approach citizens in general. Such websites support auctions of vehicles, machinery, or any other material. Such a website also provides services like registration for birth, marriage, or death certificates. The main objective of G2C websites is to reduce the average time for fulfilling citizen’s requests for various government services.

I hope you understand what is E-commerce... !! Now let us see some Examples to get you more clear.

EXAMPLES OF E-COMMERCE

Ecommerce can take on a variety of forms involving different transactional relationships between businesses and consumers, as well as different objects being exchanged as part of these transactions.

1.Retail: The sale of a product by a business directly to a customer without any intermediary.

2. Wholesale: The sale of products in bulk, often to a retailer that then sells them directly to consumers.

3. Dropshipping: The sale of a product, which is manufactured and shipped to the consumer by a third party.

4. Crowdfunding: The collection of money from consumers in advance of a product being available in order to raise the startup capital necessary to bring it to market.

5. Subscription: The automatic recurring purchase of a product or service on a regular basis until the subscriber chooses to cancel.

6. Physical products: Any tangible good that requires inventory to be replenished and orders to be physically shipped to customers as sales are made.

7. Digital products: Downloadable digital goods, templates, and courses, or media that must be purchased for consumption or licensed for use.

8. Services: A skill or set of skills provided in exchange for compensation. The service provider’s time can be purchased for a fee.

Now here comes the important part the pro’s and con’s of E-commerce For Everything there will be pro’s and con’s

Now first let us look at Pro’s

PROS OF E-COMMERCE

E-Commerce advantages can be broadly classified into three major categories

Advantages to Organizations
Advantages to Consumers
Advantages to Society

ADVANTAGE TO ORGANISATIONS

Using e-commerce, organizations can expand their market to national and international markets with minimum capital investment. An organization can easily locate more customers, best suppliers, and suitable business partners across the globe.

E-commerce helps organizations to reduce the cost to create processes, distribute,
retrieve and manage paper-based information by digitizing the information.
E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
E-commerce helps organizations to provide better customer services.
E-commerce helps to simplify business processes and makes them faster and efficient.
E-commerce reduces the paperwork.
E-commerce increases the productivity of organizations. It supports “pull” type supply management. In “pull” type supply management, a business process starts when a request comes from a customer and it uses a just-in-time manufacturing way.

ADVANATGES TO CUSTOMERS

It provides 24x7 support. Customers can enquire about a product or service and place orders anytime, anywhere from any location.
The E-commerce application provides users with more options and quicker delivery of products.
·E-commerce application provides users with more options to compare and select the cheaper and better options.
A customer can put review comments about a product and can see what others are buying, or see the review comments of other customers before making a final purchase.
E-commerce provides options for virtual auctions.
It provides readily available information. A customer can see the relevant detailed information within seconds, rather than waiting for days or weeks.
E-Commerce increases the competition among organizations and as a result, organizations provide substantial discounts to customers.

ADVANTAGES TO SOCIETY

Customers need not travel to shop for a product, thus less traffic on the road and low air pollution.
E-commerce helps in reducing the cost of products, so less affluent people can also afford the products.
E-commerce has enabled rural areas to access services and products, which are otherwise not available to them.
E-commerce helps the government to deliver public services such as healthcare, education, social services at a reduced cost and in an improved manner.

CONS OF E-COMMERCE

The disadvantages of e-commerce can be broadly classified into two major categories −

Technical disadvantages
Non-Technical disadvantages

Technical Disadvantages

There can be a lack of system security, reliability, or standards owing to poor implementation of e-commerce.

The software development industry is still evolving and keeps changing rapidly.
In many countries, network bandwidth might cause an issue.
Special types of web servers or other software might be required by the vendor, setting the e-commerce environment apart from network servers.
Sometimes, it becomes difficult to integrate an e-commerce software or website with existing applications or databases.
There could be software/hardware compatibility issues, as some e-commerce software may be incompatible with some operating system or any other component

Non-Technical Disadvantages

Initial cost − The cost of creating/building an e-commerce application in-house may be very high. There could be delays in launching an e-Commerce application due to mistakes, and lack of experience.
User resistance − Users may not trust the site to be an unknown faceless seller. Such mistrust makes it difficult to convince traditional users to switch from physical stores to online/virtual stores.
Security/ Privacy − It is difficult to ensure security or privacy on online transactions.

CONCLUSION

After careful observation, it has come to my conclusion that e-commerce has undeniably become an important part of our society. The worldwide web is and will have a large part in our daily lives. It is therefore critical that small businesses have their own to keep in competition with the larger websites. Since web developers have lowered down the prices for their services, it has become more affordable for small businesses to use the world wide web to sell their products. Although there are negative aspects of e-commerce, small businesses have tried to accommodate the needs of the consumers. In the coming years, E-commerce will grow much and it will occupy 60% of countries GDP also by providing employment for Youth it is doing its job in a science way!!!.