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What Is E-Commerc
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Published: February 13, 2007
What is e-commerce? As society steps further and further into the digital age, the questions surrounding e-commerce and the e-commerce solution grow exponentially for companies trying to find their foothold in the modern market. But exactly what is e-commerce, anyway?
The term e-commerce actually dates back to the 1970s, when e-commerce meant just what it said: any commercial transaction that took place electronically.
The more modern application applies specifically to transactions occurring over the Internet. E-commerce is a remarkably fast growing field, and turns over billions of dollars every year. So, what is e-commerce? Electronic transfer of funds for goods or services.
But that's what it was then, what is e-commerce now? When the contemporary brand of e-business started in the 1990s, all but the most forward-thinking companies were on the outside looking in as smaller start-up businesses ate up the massive consumer base that was turning on to the Internet at the time. Now, almost every business, large or small, has an e-commerce solution and the Internet marketplace is impossibly crowded. What is e-commerce now? Electronic transfer of funds for goods or services over the Internet.
An important thing to consider when questioning what is e-commerce is understanding what makes businesses turn to it. E-commerce is attractive for businesses because it allows them to get their product onto a worldwide marketplace without having to deal with putting their merchandise into hundreds of different locations. Sites like Amazon or eBay also provide a place for millions of consumers to congregate and review or suggest products to other consumers.
This is both the advantage and disadvantage of e-commerce. If a company's web design is good and its product is good, the web will give them access to millions of new customers who will, in turn, bring other new customers. Alternately, a bad web design or poor product could drive a company quickly out of business. Many companies learned this unfortunate fact in the dot com bubble burst in the late 90s.
One important thing to remember is that marketing a product to the Internet crowd will create immediate feedback, both positive and negative. The best e-commerce sites are those that are customer oriented. Before the dot com crash, e-commerce was simply about electronic fund transfer for goods and services, but now it is about community building as much as anything else.
While the Internet revolution has created an extraordinarily crowded marketplace, it is certainly possible for a web only start-up to survive with the right e-commerce solution. It is important to keep in mind three basic tenants of e-commerce. First, a business' web design must be easy to navigate and informative. Second, the business must provide an attractive or useful product. Third, and possibly the most overlooked, businesses have to have a reliable line of supply that will be able to meet the demand for their product.
While this might seem like a simple task, it is certainly not. Many large scale businesses spend millions of dollars on web design alone, and still wind up with unattractive or confusing web pages. The best approach for a business' e-commerce solution is to streamline the transaction for the customer. Many consumers order over the Internet to avoid the hassle of brick and mortar shopping, so for smaller businesses, the easier to use the site is, the more attractive the end product is for the shopper.
So what is e-commerce? It is fund transfer, brand and community building, connecting the business with its customer no matter how far away, and making sure that once they've found each other, the transaction is as smooth as possible. But probably, above all else, e-commerce is about business as usual. Same economic principals, different marketplace.
Sources:
E-Commerce. Wikipedia. 7 Feb. 2007. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce>.E-Commerce and the Internet. U.S. Federal Trade Commission. 30 Jan. 2007. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm>.< br />Brain, Marshall. "How E-Commerce Works." How Stuff Works. 1 April 2000. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://www.howstuffworks.com/ecommerce.htm> .
Rappa, Michael. "Business Models on the Web." Digital Enterprise. 27 Jan. 2007. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.htm l>.
The term e-commerce actually dates back to the 1970s, when e-commerce meant just what it said: any commercial transaction that took place electronically.
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But that's what it was then, what is e-commerce now? When the contemporary brand of e-business started in the 1990s, all but the most forward-thinking companies were on the outside looking in as smaller start-up businesses ate up the massive consumer base that was turning on to the Internet at the time. Now, almost every business, large or small, has an e-commerce solution and the Internet marketplace is impossibly crowded. What is e-commerce now? Electronic transfer of funds for goods or services over the Internet.
An important thing to consider when questioning what is e-commerce is understanding what makes businesses turn to it. E-commerce is attractive for businesses because it allows them to get their product onto a worldwide marketplace without having to deal with putting their merchandise into hundreds of different locations. Sites like Amazon or eBay also provide a place for millions of consumers to congregate and review or suggest products to other consumers.
This is both the advantage and disadvantage of e-commerce. If a company's web design is good and its product is good, the web will give them access to millions of new customers who will, in turn, bring other new customers. Alternately, a bad web design or poor product could drive a company quickly out of business. Many companies learned this unfortunate fact in the dot com bubble burst in the late 90s.
One important thing to remember is that marketing a product to the Internet crowd will create immediate feedback, both positive and negative. The best e-commerce sites are those that are customer oriented. Before the dot com crash, e-commerce was simply about electronic fund transfer for goods and services, but now it is about community building as much as anything else.
While the Internet revolution has created an extraordinarily crowded marketplace, it is certainly possible for a web only start-up to survive with the right e-commerce solution. It is important to keep in mind three basic tenants of e-commerce. First, a business' web design must be easy to navigate and informative. Second, the business must provide an attractive or useful product. Third, and possibly the most overlooked, businesses have to have a reliable line of supply that will be able to meet the demand for their product.
While this might seem like a simple task, it is certainly not. Many large scale businesses spend millions of dollars on web design alone, and still wind up with unattractive or confusing web pages. The best approach for a business' e-commerce solution is to streamline the transaction for the customer. Many consumers order over the Internet to avoid the hassle of brick and mortar shopping, so for smaller businesses, the easier to use the site is, the more attractive the end product is for the shopper.
So what is e-commerce? It is fund transfer, brand and community building, connecting the business with its customer no matter how far away, and making sure that once they've found each other, the transaction is as smooth as possible. But probably, above all else, e-commerce is about business as usual. Same economic principals, different marketplace.
Sources:
E-Commerce. Wikipedia. 7 Feb. 2007. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce>.E-Commerce and the Internet. U.S. Federal Trade Commission. 30 Jan. 2007. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm>.< br />Brain, Marshall. "How E-Commerce Works." How Stuff Works. 1 April 2000. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://www.howstuffworks.com/ecommerce.htm> .
Rappa, Michael. "Business Models on the Web." Digital Enterprise. 27 Jan. 2007. 7 Feb. 2007 <http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.htm l>.
