What is E-Commerce?

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Let’s go shopping.  Those are my favorite words to hear.  It doesn’t matter if I’m looking for something specific or just browsing the stores with the girls, shopping is my favorite pastime.  But not everyone has these same feelings as I do.  Many times I hear people complaining that the stores are too crowded or they never have what they went there for.  That’s where the importance of e-commerce comes into play.

So you may be asking what e-commerce is.  It’s actually short for electronic commerce.  It is also interchangeable with e-business (Shelly, 2010).  It is a way of doing business electronically over the internet.

E-businesses definitely have its advantages.  When establishing a business, geographic location plays a huge factor in whether a business is going to succeed.  One would normally set up shop close to its targeted customers.  Take that factor out of the mix because with e-business you can reach consumers anywhere around the world.  The next factor in establishing a business is to have convenient hours.  With e-business, consumers can browse, select and purchase items while you are sleeping.  The other key factor is floor space.  When having a local business, one can only display a certain number of products and have limited inventory of these items.  With e-business, this inventory is endless.  It seems like e-business is a win-win situation for both the business and the consumer.  Look how simple a process it is.

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To attract its consumers and keep them coming back, e-businesses are focusing their websites to tailor to the consumers interests.  This is done through personalization and customization (Shelly, 2010).  Personalization is an automated process that the website generates based on your browsing and purchasing history.  I’m sure you have all seen this where once you have viewed something, the website suggests other things you may be interested in.  A lot of this has to do with what other consumers have viewed and purchased together.  Customization is something that the consumer updates based on their personal preferences as to what they would like to see.

Being an avid shopper, I am also a very smart shopper and I love to get deals.  With that being said, lately I find myself browsing more often than purchasing when I am out and then coming back home to see if I can get a better deal online.  Even Black Friday businesses have caught on to the importance of doing business and having deals online.  Are you ready to check it out?

References

Shelly, Napier, Rivers  Discovering the Internet  2010

            Course Technology, Cengage Learning, Boston, Massachusetts