The society has changed a lot due to modifications taking place in the field of technology, especially in transport and communication sectors. According to Reynolds (2004), technological advancements have changed the traditional trading pattern as people find it easy to communicate and travel using modern means of transport and communication. E-commerce is one of such changes that have revolutionized trade in the entire world.
With the development of World Wide Web and the social media, people can now shop at online stores without having to visit the physical stores. Although the brick-and-mortar stores have remained relevant, e-commerce is gaining a lot of popularity among consumers and retailers across the world.
They find it easy to trade in the online market because of the convenience it offers to both the shoppers and the retailers. Started in developed economies, it has gained acceptance among the developing economies as an appropriate way of saving time when shopping for different products. This research will focus on the development of e-commerce and its impact on the modern day trade.
Different scholars have conducted a lot of research about e-commerce since its inception some years back. According to Manzoor (2010), e-commerce started because of the limited time available for people to shop. When the social structure of families started changing in the late eighteen and early nineteenth centuries, women started looking for jobs, just like their male counterparts.
In the current society, most families have both parents working in the corporate world. This means that time available to go shopping in physical stores is becoming limited for such families. However, this does not mean that the need to purchase various products from such stores is minimized. Technology therefore, came in to solve this problem by allowing such individuals to shop while being in their offices or at home.
This scholar notes that when e-market started, it was generally dismissed as a move that was bound to fail, especially given the fact that these products had to be delivered to the buyers at their homes or offices. However, it was soon proven that this strategy was very effective, especially when dealing with customers who did not have enough time to visit the physical stores. Currently, e-commerce is taking a whole new shape.
Many products are now available through online stores. Some products, especially those that require some privacy, are sold better in the e-market than they do in the brick-and-mortar markets. The content of this journal is authentic because of the credibility of the author. The author of this article has over fifteen years of experience in teaching marketing in various universities in the United States.
The journal article by LaPorte and Acosta (2007) focuses on Amazon.com as a success story of e-commerce in the contemporary world. According to this article, Amazon.com is one of the earliest firms to get into this new market when many business units did not believe that it was a realistic move. However, the firm has been able to expand ever since, and it still remains the largest online store in the world. This firm started as an online store where people could order books online and then the firm could deliver them.
It evolved first when it became apparent that people could read these books online instead of having the physical books. It developed Kindle as its online library where people could store books they had purchased or subscribed to within a given period. Such success motivated this firm to start stocking many other products in its online stores.
Currently, Amazon.com stocks many products from software to apparel, food, furniture, toys, books, and jewelry among others. The firm has been able to expand its market beyond the United States. It currently serves the global market. The report from this article is considered authentic because the authors have worked for this firm in the past. They know the details about its development over the years.
Ruppel and Harrington (2013) are rather skeptical of the true value of e-commerce. Although the scholars appreciate that e-commerce has revolutionized trade in the world, they argue that this approach to trade is still affected by many issues that need to be addressed, top of which is the security of the users. In the early 2000, people were very enthusiastic about e-market place as it was considered a convenient way of shopping.
Some business analysts even predicted that major online stores such as Amazon.com would soon eclipse large retail outlets such as Wal-Mart. However, about one and a half decades have passed and Amazon.com is nowhere near Wal-Mart. In fact, the top ten largest retailers in the world still remain to be brick-and-mortar stores. People rarely trust online stores because of the increase in cyber crime. These retailers have failed to address this issue adequately.
Some of the electronic stores are also unscrupulous. They post what they know they do not stock. This leads to dissatisfaction when the product delivered to the customer is different from what has been posted online. The authors of this work are lecturers and publishers of marketing books. The critique done on this book demonstrates that this information is authentic.
Satterlee (2001) focuses on the future of e-commerce. According to this scholar, it is a fact that e-commerce started with major success, but it has since been experiencing challenges, especially on the security of the users and integrity of the players. However, this will not hinder the growth of e-commerce. With evolving technologies, it is becoming easy to make online payments without leaving traces that can be followed by cyber criminals. This has been the major impediment.
When this is addressed, the fear of insecurity must be resolved adequately. The issue of integrity has never been a big matter because individual firms would want to maintain their reputation in the market. This scholar notes that major firms across the world have realized that the wave of e-commerce cannot be ignored given the evolution of technologies.
Major retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Tesco, have embraced e-commerce. They are running electronic stores parallel to their brick-and-mortar stores. This is a clear indication that this approach of trade is becoming more entrenched in the business world.
It is obvious from the analysis of the works of the above scholars that e-commerce as a type of trade has been spearheaded by technological inventions, and it is a complete revolution in this field. Although it has been faced by a number of challenges that have affected its growth, e-commerce is developing very first, and it will soon become the main mode of trade in the world. The fact that major firms are embracing it confirms this argument.
References
LaPorte, R., & Acosta, B. (2007). Looking to the Future: Amazon.com and Four Trends. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 315(7123), p. 1694.
Manzoor, A. (2010). E-commerce: An introduction. Saarbrücken: LAP Lambert Academic Publisher.
Reynolds, J. (2004). The complete e-commerce book: Design, build & maintain a successful web-based business. New York: CMP Media.
Ruppel, C., & Harrington, S. (2003). e-Commerce: The Roles of Trust, Security, and Type of e-Commerce Involvement. e-Service Journal, 2(2), pp. 25-45.
Satterlee, B. C. (2001). E-commerce: A knowledge base. San Jose: Writers Club Press.