The Pros and Cons of E-commerce Today

THE PROS AND CONS OF E-COMMERCE TODAY

Introduction
Electronic Commerce or e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business activities for products and services(Rosen, 2000). E-commerce (or electronic commerce) is defined as the buying and selling of goods and services conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems and automated data collection systems. (Anon, n.d.). It also refers to any type of business transaction where the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or physical contact. (Anon, n.d.)

Examples of e-commerce systems include Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, Zappos, Business.com, DHgate.com and so on.

Pros of E-Commerce
1. Convenience for the customer:
a. One of the main advantages of e-commerce is the fact that one doesn't have to stand in queues waiting to be served, or be placed on hold for instance in a telephone ordering system. E-commerce leaves it to the buyer as to when and where to purchase what they want. They can do it at the office, in the comfort of their homes, and with the advent of mobile technology, one can shop practically anywhere they are able to connect to their vendor of choice. This gives the customer the feeling of being in control of their time. Thus for customers, this is one of the most popular convenience of e-commerce.
b. Secondly, in relation to the first advantage, stores are open at all times. This adds to the convenience of shopping at any time, and even across borders and time-zones. By removing t...

... middle of paper ...

...lable from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/E-Commerce_and_E-Business/Concepts_and_Definitions (Accessed 5 February 2014i).
Anon (n.d.) ‘Electronic Commerce - Term Paper’, StudyMode, [online] Available from: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Electronic-Commerce-731.html (Accessed 5 February 2014j).
Anon (n.d.) ‘What is e-commerce (electronic commerce or EC)? - Definition from WhatIs.com’, [online] Available from: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/e-commerce (Accessed 5 February 2014k).
Anon (n.d.) ‘What is E-Commerce?’, [online] Available from: http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/EComm01CD/page_01.htm (Accessed 8 February 2014l).
Rosen, A. (2002) The e-commerce question and answer book: a survival guide for business managers, 2nd ed. New York, AMACOM.
Rosen, A. (2000) The E-commerce question and answer book: a survival guide for business managers, New York, AMACOM.