E-COMMERCE

E-COMMERCE

Meaning

Electronic commerce, which is also commonly known as e-commerce or electronic-commerce, is

essentially the process of buying and selling of services or products over electronic systems like the Internet and various other computers, or any technology networks. The amount of business being done electronically has grown tremendously with the spread of the Internet.

The Internet Tax Freedom Act, 1998, narrowly defines e-commerce as “any transition conducted over the internet or through internet access, comprising the sale, lease, license, offer or delivery of property, goods or services or information whether or not for consideration and includes the

provision for internet access”.

Day-to-day examples of a wide variety of commerce conducted electronically, drawing and spurring on innovations in supply chain management, electronic funds transfer, online transaction processing, Internet marketing, inventory management, Electronic Data Interchange

(EDI) systems, and automated data collection systems.

Concept and Background

E-commerce addresses the needs of traders, organizations, consumers and society. It reduces the

cost of transactions while improving the quality of goods and services and also increasing the speed of service delivery.

Online Transactions: E-commerce revolves around using the internet to facilitate the buying

and the selling process. This includes browsing products, placing orders, making payments, and even receiving customer service – all done electronically.

Wide Range of Products: E-commerce isn’t limited to just physical products. You can purchase

digital items like ebooks and software, or even avail services like online consultations or subscriptions.

Different Business Models: E-commerce encompasses various ways of doing business online.

Here are some common examples:

● Business-to-Consumer (B2C): This is the most familiar type, where businesses sell directly to individual consumers (like Amazon or any online store).

● Business-to-Business (B2B): Businesses sell products or services to other businesses (like a wholesaler selling supplies to restaurants).

● Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): Here, consumers sell directly to other consumers (like on eBay or Etsy)

The use of electronic commerce has drastically changed over the last 30 years. Originally, e-commerce meant the facilitation of the commercial transactions electronically, i.e., use of technology such as Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Both of these were introduced in late 1970s, allowing businesses to transfer commercial documents like invoices and purchase orders. Moreover, the acceptance and growth of automated teller machines (ATM) and credit cards and telephone banking are also forms of electronic commerce. It was from 1990s onwards, electronic commerce started to include Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPS), data mining and data warehousing.

Perhaps started from the Telephone Exchange Office, the earliest example of many-to-many electronic commerce in physical goods was the Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace that used computers launched in 1982. The first online information marketplace, including online consulting, was likely the American Information Exchange, another pre-Internet online system introduced in 1991.