By Supriya Mondal

1. The Rise of the Internet has led to the rise of e-commerce as more and more
people exchange goods and services all over the world via the Internet. So before going in
details let’s start discussing about ‘what is e-commerce?’. E-commerce or electronic commerce
reface to electronic transaction such as buying & selling goods and/or services, information via
electronic channel such as the internet. E-commerce broadly encompass all business activities taking
place over the internet. Its consist of electronic retailing, electronic data interchange and electronic
fund transfer etc. Let’s look behind the few years ago, that time if we want to buy some goods then
we have to physically visit the market or retail shop . But now through the e-commerce we can do
the same thing over the internet without visiting to the market or retail shop physically. Now days
we can select a product, place an order and the product will deliver to your door just in few days, all
at the tap of a finger or touch a button with the help of internet.
The main goals of e-commerce are mention bellow.
❖ Eliminate physical boundary
❖ Reduce cost
❖ Reduce product cycle time
❖ Attract more customer
❖ Faster customer response & service
❖ Improve service quality & much more.
There are many feathers presents in e-commerce.
From those many feathers I am just going to highlight some of important feathers.
❖ Payment:- Enabling credit /debit cards, smart cards, internet banking, e-money
and other payments methods among with electronic fund transfer.
❖ Service ability:- Its automate the conduct of business among enterprises,
customers, suppliers and employees anytime anywhere.
❖ Advertising & marketing:- Publicizing & advertising products & services.
❖ Sales:- Generating orders for the product.
❖ Fulfilment:- Processing the order & delivering the product.
❖ Support:- Providing pre & post assessment to generate more sales.
❖ Inventory Mgt.:- Maintaining & reporting inventory status.
❖ Secure communication:- Fast efficient & reliable communication with customers
& partners.
Main activates of e-commerce are
❖ Buying & selling product/services.
❖ Shipping of product/providing services.
❖ Proceeding final statement.
Some of main e-commerce types are

2. ❖ Business to business(B2B)
❖ Business to consumer(B2C)
❖ Consumer to business(C2B)
❖ Consumer to consumer(C2C)
❖ Business to government(B2G)
❖ Government to business(G2B)
❖ Government to citizen(G2C)
Advantages of e-commerce can be broadly
classified in three major categories. They are,
❖ Benefits of organization: -
➢ 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. Low operational costs and
better quality of services.
➢ E-commerce helps organizations to reduce the cost to create process,
distribute, retrieve and manage the paper based information by
digitizing the information.
➢ E-commerce helps organization to provide better customer services.
➢ E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
➢ E-commerce helps to simplify the business processes and makes them
faster and efficient.
➢ E-commerce reduces the paper work.
➢ E-commerce give a chance for selling 24x7.
➢ More reach to customers, there is no theoretical geographic limitations.
➢ No need of physical company set-ups.
➢ Easy to start and manage a business.
❖ Benefits of customer: -
➢ It provides 24x7 support. Customers can enquire about a product or
service and place orders anytime, anywhere from any location.
➢ Customers can easily select products from different providers without
moving around physically.
➢ E-commerce saves traveling time & cost for customer.
➢ 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.

3. ➢ 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 provides substantial discounts to customers.
❖ Benefits of society: -
➢ Customers need not travel to shop a product, thus less traffic on
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, travel, social services at a reduced cost
and in an improved manner.
The disadvantages of e-commerce can be
broadly classified into two major categories. They are,
❖ Technical disadvantage: -
➢ There can be 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 disadvantage: -
➢ 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 being an
unknown faceless seller. Such mistrust makes it difficult to

4. convince traditional users to switch from physical stores to
online/virtual stores.
➢ Product quality- Sometimes product quality is not good as
they descripted.
➢ Delivery issue- In traditional shop customer have the option
to take purchases immediately but when shopping online
customer must wait until the purchased are delivered.
➢ Hidden cost- Maybe we got the product in chipper price but
sometime there are high shipping charges are applicable for
that product.
➢ Security/ Privacy − It is difficult to ensure the security or
privacy on online transactions.
• Lack of touch or feel of products during online shopping is a
drawback.
• E-commerce does not allow you to experience the product
before purchased.
• E-commerce applications are still evolving and changing
rapidly.
• Internet access is still not cheaper and is inconvenient to use
for many potential customers, for example, those living in
remote villages.
In general, today’s businesses must always strive to create the next best
thing that consumers will want because consumers continue to desire their products, services
etc. to continuously be better, faster, and cheaper. In this world of new technology,
businesses need to accommodate to the new types of consumer needs and trends because it
will prove to be vital to their business’ success and survival. E-commerce is continuously
progressing and is becoming more and more important to businesses as technology continues
to advance and is something that should be taken advantage of and implemented.
From the inception of the Internet and e-commerce, the possibilities have become endless for
both businesses and consumers. Creating more opportunities for profit and advancements for
businesses, while creating more options for consumers. However, just like anything else, e-
commerce has its disadvantages including consumer uncertainties, but nothing that cannot
be resolved or avoided by good decision-making and business practices.
There are several factors and variables that need to be considered and decided upon when
starting an e-commerce business. Some of these include: types of e-commerce, marketing
strategies, and countless more. If the correct methods and practices are followed, a business
will prosper in an e-commerce setting with much success and profitability.