The Contemporary Workshop - E-Commerce.

We've all seen what level e-commerce has reached nowadays. The rate at which it is growing is just marvellous. Everything that we buy, be it grocery, food, or anything, always makes its way to our homes through e-commerce. (Online buying or selling). The journey of e-commerce started 40 years back which still continues to grow. 

• Where did e-commerce start off? 

Well, e-commerce started off when the Internet facility become available to practically to almost most of the population in the United States. The project of e-commerce was widely thought of, for a long period of time, when finally the very first e-commerce website was launched in 1991, by its founder, Jeff Bezos, which we today know as Amazon.

• Difficulties faced by e-commerce in its foundation years.

E-commerce has not always been the way it is today. The odds faced by e-commerce entrepreneurs were the ones which could have let them into shutting down the concept of e-commerce, once and for all. Below are the major ones:

a) The stocking of the right products in the right place was one of the major challenges that e-commerce business have faced. The godowns for storing the products and their manufacturing had been one of the major issues. There were not very many sellers who could participate in this amateur project. 

b) Even though many people had access to the Internet, they were not aware of e-commerce. The people who bought things from the electronic shops either were not content with the service or did not like the delay caused in delivering the items.c) The products sold were not of very high quality and many of the items were found out to be defective, which caused people to lose faith in the e-commerce service. 

• The Boost in the E-commerce Market.

1. E-commerce got an instant boost when many people started to become cognizant of the comfort of getting the goods delivered at their "doorstep", without them having to toil for getting the commodities which saved a lot of their time. 
2. The second factor which led to e-commerce being successful was the introduction of mobile phones. Mobile phones being handy, led people to order things from wherever they currently might be.  The following data visualises the growth of e-commerce over the years. 

• Types of E-commerce.

i) Business to Business


This is Business to Business transactions. Here the companies are doing business with each other. The final consumer is not involved. So the online transactions only involve the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers etc.

ii) Business to Consumer

Business to Consumer. Here the company will sell their goods and/or services directly to the consumer. The consumer can browse their websites and look at products, pictures, read reviews. Then they place their order and the company ships the goods directly to them. Popular examples are Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong etc.

iii) Consumer to Consumer

Consumer to consumer, where the consumers are in direct contact with each other. No company is involved. It helps people sell their personal goods and assets directly to an interested party. Usually, goods traded are cars, bikes, electronics etc. OLX, Quikr etc follow this model.

iv) Consumer to Business

This is the reverse of B2C, it is a consumer to business. So the consumer provides a good or some service to the company. Say for example an IT freelancer who demos and sells his software to a company. This would be a C2B transaction.

v) Business-to-Administration (B2A)

This part of e-commerce encompasses all transactions conducted online between companies and public administration. This is an area that involves a large amount and a variety of services, particularly in areas such as fiscal, social security, employment, legal documents, and registers, etc. These types of services have increased considerably in recent years with investments made in e-government.



vi) Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)

The Consumer-to-Administration model encompasses all electronic transactions conducted between individuals and public administration.

• Position of E-commerce in Today's World

E-commerce has become one of the most successful and fastest-growing businesses around the world. Many websites and online shopping sites have been opened to facilitate the flow of e-commerce across the globe. The e-commerce revenue amounts up to US$202795 million, which is a profusion! The world without e-commerce is like Adam without Eve. E-commerce has grown in importance as companies have adopted pure-click and brick-and-click channel systems. We can distinguish pure-click and brick-and-click channel system adopted by companies.

Pure-click or pure-play companies are those that have launched a website without any previous existence as a firm. Bricks-and-clicks companies are those existing companies that have added an online site for e-commerce. Click-to-brick online retailers that later open physical locations to supplement their online efforts.