e-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 opportu
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. 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). 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... "Rest assured the future of e-commerce is intact and ever changing. Like electricity, antibiotics, or the car, the Internet is a revolutionary technology" (France, 1999). It is obvious that e-commerce is growing extremely quick. As one article stated, "The growth of e-commerce will not diminish, it will become such a pervasive influence on how a company works that all functions within an organization will have a stake in their e-commerce strategy" (Wareham, 2000). With Internet traffic doubling every 100 days, the digital economy is alive and growing. The huge growth of virtual communities is causing shifts in economic power from large corporations to smaller businesses. "Virtual communities erode the marketing and sales advantages of large companies. A small company with a better product and better customer service can use these communities to challenge larger competitors--something it probably could not do in the real world" (CommerceNet, 1999). With many of the technological advances in the banking, on-line trading and retail industries, e-commerce will soon become the foundation of our life just as radio, telephone and television have in the past. Technology has a place in everyone's day-to-day activities and soon e-commerce will be a major factor in our decisions we make. Smaller companies have an equal chance to compete with large ones with a lot more money. On the web, every business is just as big as the other. The only thing separating them is a web address. An example of this would be the launch of Wal-Mart's new web site that is trying to compete with Amazom.com. Amazon.com is a huge on the web compared to Wal-Mart. "Their new business venture allows Wal-Mart to go outside it
Some common words found in the essay are:
Wide Web, IBM E-commerce, Internet SSL, Internet Wareham, Federal Express, Amazomcom Amazoncom, Department Defense, Internet February, Commerce Electronic, Probably Internet, web site, credit card, internet e-commerce, doing business, electronic commerce, doing business internet, buying selling, business internet, credit card information, exchange business, internet changed, wareham 2000, world wide web,
Approximate Word count = 2082
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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