E-Commerce : The new mecca for profits?
Do you remember when was the last time you went to a store to buy an airplane ticket? Can you picture yourself buying a car or a camera without doing research in the internet before? Hard is in it?
E-commerce has revolutionized the way people buy goods and services. Electronic commerce refers to any type of business conducted online. It encompasses different types of business from music and retail sites to exchanges between corporations of goods and services.
E-Commerce has shifted the way individuals buy goods and obtain services. It has eliminated obstacles of time and distance. Over the last six years alone global e-commerce has achieved a growth of 13%. Scholars predict it will continue to grow exponentially and doing so blurring the lines between traditional commerce where individuals go to a physical location to buy things and electronic commerce where all you need is internet and a card to purchase what you want.
The reason behind the astounding growth of e-commerce over the last decade is due to its advantages over having a physical business. Being online provides companies with a very low risk strategy for companies to test new markets. Moreover, it also allows companies to achieve economies of scale over coming geographical limitations. Additionally, a greater traffic of customers can be achieved since in the internet is very usual for you to land on unknown sites by following links in search engines. Customers on e-commerce sites can also look for the product quicker and more efficiently with the search box. Furthermore, some websites remember the preferences of customers and facilities those the next time the customers shops. However, the most obvious and tangible benefit is the lowered cost e-commerce provides companies with. This decrease in costs can be translated to the customers in the forms of discount prices which make their product overall more appealing. A corporation is able to decrease costs in marketing and advertising by using social media channels and pay-per-click (purchasing sponsored links on search engines). It also decreases the number of employees needed to run a physical store and finally real estate costs since you no longer need a physical location to conduct your business.
Nevertheless, though e-commerce has proved to be the Mecca of business, it requires a thorough analysis of countries were you want to implement it. Indicators such as infrastructure and internet penetration in a country have to be taken into account. The 2012 e-commerce index which evaluates the potential of 30 developing markets ranked China, Brazil, Russia and Chile as the most attracting countries for e-commerce.
The great benefits provided by e-commerce are proof to why many start-ups are born in the area of information and communication technologies.