E-Commerce
E Commerce is one of the most important facets of the Internet to have emerged in
the recent times. Ecommerce or electronic commerce involves carrying out business
over the Internet with the assistance of computers, which are linked to each other
forming a network. To be specific ecommerce would be buying and selling of goods
and services and transfer of funds through digital communications.
The benefits of Ecommerce:
- Ecommerce allows people to carry out businesses without the barriers of time or
distance. One can log on to the Internet at any point of time, be it day or night
and purchase or sell anything one desires at a single click of the mouse.
- The direct cost-of-sale for an order taken from a web site is lower than through
traditional means (retail, paper based), as there is no human interaction during
the on-line electronic purchase order process. Also, electronic selling virtually
eliminates processing errors, as well as being faster and more convenient for the
visitor.
- Ecommerce is ideal for niche products. Customers for such products are usually few.
But in the vast market place i.e. the Internet, even niche products could generate
viable volumes.
- Another important benefit of Ecommerce is that it is the cheapest means of doing
business.
- The day-to-day pressures of the marketplace have played their part in reducing the
opportunities for companies to invest in improving their competitive position. A
mature market, increased competitions have all reduced the amount of money available
to invest. If the selling price cannot be increased and the manufactured cost cannot
be decreased then the difference can be in the way the business is carried out.
Ecommerce has provided the solution by decimating the costs, which are incurred.
- From the buyer’s perspective also ecommerce offers a lot of tangible advantages.
- Reduction in buyer’s sorting out time.
- Better buyer descisions
- Less time is spent in resolving invoice and order discrepancies.
- Increased opportunities for buying alternative products.
- The strategic benefit of making a business ‘ecommerce enabled’, is that it helps
reduce the delivery time, labour cost and the cost incurred in the following areas:
- Document preparation
- Error detection and correction
- Reconciliation
- Mail preparation
- Telephone calling
- Credit card machines
- Data entry
- Overtime
- Supervision expenses
- Operational benefits of e commerce include reducing both the time and personnel
required to complete business processes, and reducing strain on other resources.
It’s because of all these advantages that one can harness the power of ecommerce
and convert a business to ebusiness by using powerful turnkey ecommerce solutions
made available by ebusiness solution providers.
e commerce education
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