Electronic Commerce is using the internet to buy and to sell services, products, and goods. It is also referred to as internet commerce or e-commerce. E-commerce may also include transactions involving the transfer of data, funds, or money. This type of digital marketing is essentially a commercial transaction that occurs within the internet.
There are four types of electronic commerce transactions: Consumer to Business (C2B), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), Business to Consumer (B2C), Business to Business (B2B). Online sites such as OLX, Quikr, eBay, Myntra, Shopify, Flipkart, and Amazon are examples of electronic commerce web sites. It is estimated that by the year 2020, the value of global Electronic Commerce can be as high as twenty-seven trillion dollars.
Types Of E-Commerce Transactions
Business to Business (B2B) Electronic Commerce are transactions that involve two companies directly transacting with each other. The consumers of the end product or service are not included in the transaction. These transactions may require only retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.
Business to Consumer (B2C) Electronic Commerce are transactions that involve a company directly selling their services or goods to the consumer. The customer visits the web site of the company where they can browse the company’s services or products. They can view pictures of the goods and read product reviews. The customer then makes their order. After that, the company has the product or goods delivered to the customer. Jabong, Flipkart, and Amazon are examples of Business to Consumer websites.
Consumer to Consumer (C2C) electronic commerce are transactions that involve two private individuals directly transacting with each other. No business organization is included in the transaction. It assists private individuals to sell another private individual their assets or goods directly. Usually, electronic gadgets, bikes, cars, and clothing are the goods that are sold. Quikr and OLX are examples of Consumer to Consumer web sites.
Consumer to Business (C2B) electronic commerce are transactions that involve a private individual selling their services or goods to a business organization. An example would be a freelance software developer selling his software application to a business organization.
Benefits Of Electronic Commerce
With Electronic Commerce, companies and private individuals can sell their services and products to a worldwide market. Electronic Commerce gets rid of many costs of traditional Commerce, such as maintaining a physical store. With lower costs comes higher profits. Part of the profits can be passed on to the customer in the form of lower prices.
E-Commerce saves both the company and customer effort, energy, and time. The delivery of products and services is quick. And complaints from the customer can be quickly addressed. Electronic Commerce is very convenient. The customer can shop at any time of the day and on any day of the week. The customer and the seller of the product or service can communicate directly with each other.
Liabilities Of Electronic Commerce
Starting a dedicated Electronic Commerce portal can be very expensive. Setting up the software and the hardware, as well as training the staff, can be very costly. The risk of failure is high in electronic Commerce. Very many dot-com companies failed in the 2000s. And the risk of failure is still very high today.
Without actual physical interaction with a live person, electronic Commerce can sometimes seem remote and indifferent. Security can be a problem with electronic Commerce. Hackers often target the servers of electronic commerce web sites to steal credit card and personal information. Mistakes can occur anywhere during the delivery chain. This will naturally lead to the customer becoming unsatisfied and even angry.