Introduction
As the world becomes a global village, information sharing is efficient and very cost effective. At present, just by a click of a button in search engine, information becomes available. Electronic commerce encompasses simultaneous transfer of relevant information online.
This information exists in the form of business opportunities for auction, retail, wholesale, and corporation trade. At present, seventy percent of medium business across the globe has access to internet. Besides, eighty percent of the American population are computer literate and have access to internet (Malhotra and Agarwal, 337).
Therefore, E-commerce has become a necessity since it permits clients to exchange goods electronically with zero burrier of distance or time. Over the last half of previous decade, E-commerce has experienced rapid expansion and the same is predicted to positively accelerate further in future.
In modern business environment, technology has necessitated the need for optimal performance through reducing overhead costs and maximizing profit in the process (Liebermann & Stashevsky, 294). As a matter of fact, E-commerce is the most cost effective and efficient means of transacting business irrespective of size of company.
Therefore, prospects of E-commerce are promising in all sectors of business environment inspired by the need for efficient transaction at minimal cost in time and resources. Our choice of E-commerce is as a result of the above factors which are positively skewed towards attaining extensive market from a central location: a website.
Besides, information and application of E-commerce is readily available in Amazon where best practices of the same are recorded. Thus, the key conceptual aspect of this analytical treatise is an in-depth reflection on E-commerce especially on its relevance, history, costing, and practice. Besides, the paper analyses best practices of E-commerce in Amazon.
History of E-commerce
Factually, online shopping is currently one of the most popular and efficient way of comparative shopping of series of items in the market. History of E-commerce is not as short as many people perceive it to be. Actually, the underlying technology in E-commerce has survived four decades.
At the beginning of its usage, E-commerce meant transaction electronically by use of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) in the early 70s (Ira, 46). During this period, the process was limited to electronic invoices and purchase orders (Bill, 01).
The first real E-commerce appeared in 1982 in what was called Boston Computer Exchange permitting credit cards proliferation, telephone banking, and ATM machines. In 1992, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was added to the tag and enabled data mining and data warehousing.
Bill (2009) states that:
It wasn’t until 1994 that e-commerce (as we know it today) really began to accelerate with the introduction of security protocols and high speed internet connections such as DSL, allowing for much faster connection speeds and faster online transaction capability (01).
However, full adaptation of E-commerce begun in 2000 in America and Europe by pioneer companies such as Amazon and eBay which became prominent in E-commerce for many brands of products.
Purpose and Security of E-commerce
Before engaging in a business activity, it is vital to access its merits and demerits, risks involved security of the transaction, and regulative organs that directly provide protection from unpredictable and unethical practices by competitors. Therefore, this part reviews the advantages, disadvantages, risks, security, and regulative agency in E-commerce.
Advantages of E-commerce
In E-commerce, by a click on the mouse, a potential customer is in a position to access exact product and make comparison on prices without having to appear physically in shops and stalls. Besides, E-commerce is non discriminative on the size of business since even retail chains are in a position to trade online. Moreover, this model of business operation functions exclusively online.
In addition, web tracking technology permits sites that practicing E-commerce to monitor customer satisfaction and preference. These aspects allow such companies re-model to customize service delivery and maintain quality. At technological advancement improves, E-commerce is likely to widen further. Consequently, it is will be cheaper and easy to operate and open online stores “without a brick –and-mortar presence” (Bill, 01).
In addition, E-commerce offers entrepreneurial opportunities to persons in all business fields. The recorded sales data estimate progress at 4% annual across the globe (Baskerville, 27).
Disadvantages of E-commerce
The main disadvantage of E-commerce is the fears and doubts by potential customers who don’t how it works. In this case, the potential customers are afraid of purchasing products online because of doubt on reliability, practicality, and risks involved especially when delivery is done to a wrong party.
Some of these customers may be curious on appearance and reality and may develop a negative attitude after an assumption of possible fraud (Ira, 24). Besides, online stores do not give an option for wear, touch, trial of the product before purchasing. Therefore, sale of products such as furniture might be challenging.
Moreover, invasion of malwares and malicious codes in online stores might turn simple business transaction into ‘hellgate’ transmitting virus to PC of potential clients (Ira, 29). In addition online trading limits the social aspect of shopping in which parties involve interact physically with one another.
Risk and Security Issues in E-commerce
Due to surge in use of E-commerce, several security reasons have cropped up especially in safety of information exchanged. Occurrence of some security threats has compromised the principles of authentication, privacy, and non-repudiation which are fundamental in protecting security breaches such as Denial of Service (DoS) (Lee & Turban, 78-82).
The most common threats in E-commerce include ICM Flood, Teardrop Attack, Plashing, Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks, and Brute Force Attacks. These practices aim at compromising integrity of E-commerce.
Recent Achievements in E-commerce Industry
The most recent achievements in E-commerce industry include the remodeling of Google which has completely transformed search engines and modification of online stores. Besides, broadband penetration across the globe has succeeded in making available fast internet connection to clients (Maness and Zietlow, 28).
Through this, many businesses have slowly but steadily embraced technology of online business. Through the Wi-Fi, User-generated content, and iTunes online business has grown to intercontinental exchange of products and services in the tourism, manufacturing, and product industries.
New Technology and Application
Introduction of the Wi-Fi, iTunes, Blackberry applications, and Amazon search engines have made online trade simple and reliable. For instance, the Wi-Fi and blackberry application permits potential client and seller to video conference and strike a deal irrespective of distance between these parties.
Besides, potential clients are now in a position to bargain, view, and make modifications to their product before making payment (Maness and Zietlow, 45). In addition, these gadgets are portable and have widened access to products online without necessarily being connected to the traditional wire internet which was slow.
Similar Problems Companies in Online trade have faced
Just like in EBay, Amazon is often faced with security threat by hackers whose main intention is to manipulate the security system for their gain.
Besides, expansion is often met by a mixture of acceptance and rejection since some clients, especially those in third world countries, is of the opinion that their charges are exorbitant and are limited to those in possession of MasterCard (Ira, 58). In addition, human era has led to goods and services delivered to wrong address and tracing the same is expensive and time consuming.
Works Cited
Baskerville, Richard. International e-business marketing. Alabama: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2004. Print.
Bill, Horace. “History of E-commerce.” Your Expert Guide to E-Commerce, Online Retailing & Internet Marketing. Sell It! On the Web., 18 Aug. 2009. Web.16 March 2012.
Ira, Kalb. E-Marketing: What Went Wrong and How to Do It Right. Los Angeles: K&A Press, 2002. Print.
Lee, Kim, & Turban Emile. “A Trust Model for Consumer Internet Shopping” International Journal of Electronic Commerce 6.1 (2001): 75-91. Print.
Liebermann, Young, & Stashevsky Sinl. “Perceived Risks as Barriers to Internet and E- commerce Usage.” Qualitative Market Research 5.4 (2002): 291-300. Print.
Malhotra, Kim, and Agarwal John. “Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC): The Construct, the Scale, and a Causal Model.” Information Systems Research 15.4(2004): 336-355. Print.
Maness, Terry, and Zietlow John. Short-term financial management. 3rd. ed. New York: Thomson Learning, 2005. Print.