ECommerce Essay Research Paper Electronic CommerceElectronic commerce

E-Commerce Essay, Research Paper

Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, has developed rapidly in the last few years. In this paper, I will talk about the advantages along with the disadvantages of e-commerce. E-commerce consists of many things. People today are aware of the common phrase ‘e-commerce’, but there is a lot more to it then they are aware of. “Most people think e-commerce is just about buying and selling things over the Internet” (Wareham, 2000). E-commerce is a broad term describing the electronic exchange of business data between two or more organizations’ computers. E-commerce includes buying and selling any item over the Internet, electronic fund transfer, smart cards, and all other methods of conducting business over digital networks. “The primary technological goal of e-commerce is to integrate businesses, government agencies, and contractors into a single community with the ability to communicate with one another across any computer platform” (Edwards, 1998). Putting companies on the Internet to sell products or to organize any type of business has many advantages and disadvantages.

With the quick growth of the Internet, many companies are finding new and exciting ways to expand their business opportunities. To emphasize the point that the effect of the Internet is so widely spread in today’s business communities, one online article I found stated that more than 100,000 companies have Internet addresses, and 20,000 companies have home pages on the Internet as of February 1999 (DataQuest, 1999). These numbers have tripled since 1995, and this growth shows no signs of slowing down.

To the average web surfer, e-commerce means online shopping. Internet surfers go on the web purchasing anything from books to baseball tickets. E-commerce is the exchange of business information between two or more organizations. An example of this would be buying and selling products or services over the Internet.

The Internet was conceived in 1969 when the Department of Defense began funding the research of computer networking. In the mid 1980’s, the introduction of the ATM card was the newest addition to electronic commerce. The Internet did not really start to become a way of commerce until the 1990’s. Before this time, it was mainly used in the Army. It grew popular when it proved to become a fast and efficient way to make long distance transactions, as well as an effective way to distribute information.

E-commerce will change the face of business forever. Companies that are thousands of miles away can make business transactions in a matter of seconds, and also exchange information. As one online article explained:

Dell Computers sells more than $14 million worth of computer equipment a day from its web site. By taking their customer service department to the web Federal Express began saving $10,000 a day. The Internet provides businesses with the opportunity to sell their products to millions of people, 24 hours a day (Baxton, 1999).

“Without a doubt, the Internet is ushering in an era of sweeping change that will leave no business or industry untouched. In just three years, the Net has gone from a playground for nerds into a vast communications and trading center where some 90 million people swap information or do deals around the world. Imagine: It took radio more than 30 years to reach 60 million people, and television 15 years. Never has a technology caught fire so fast.” (Edwards, 1998)

The number one advantage that e-commerce possesses is speed. The Internet and World Wide Web give businesses a chance to exchange messages or complete transactions almost instantaneously. Even with the slowest connections, doing business electronically is much faster than traditional ways. Increased speeds of communication allow for more efficient delivery times. In addition, you can find practically any product available for sale on the Internet, as one author put it “from books and compact disks (from www.amazon.com) to french bread (available from www.sourdoughbread.com)” (Buskin, 1998). Even more important is the fact that information appearing on the Internet can be changed extremely rapidly. This gives business owners the ability to inform customers of any changes to the service that you are offering.

The second advantage of the electronic commerce is the opportunity it offers to save on costs. By using the Internet, marketing, distribution, personnel, telephone, postage and printing costs, among many others, can be reduced. You can start doing business on the Internet for as little as $100. Most businesses will spend more than this, but compared to the cost of opening a physical store, the savings are tremendous. Think about all the things that are required for a physical store: warehouse space, renting space, money for the appearance for the store, alarm systems, people to work the phones and keep the place clean

Another major advantage of e-commerce is that the Internet has no national boundaries. That means you can do business all over the world as easily as you can in your own neighborhood. Distance becomes meaningless, which makes you able to connect to anyone on the globe and anyone on the globe can connect to you. The ability to provide links on web pages makes doing business on the Internet attractive to customers.

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