E-commerce has become a very popular mode of trading these days. E-commerce is buying and selling products/items or services through the internet medium. Anyone with an internet connection can start with e-commerce trading. It is not just limited to selling and marketing, it has notable impacts on all the areas of business.
E-commerce has altered the workflow of business. Since its introduction, e-commerce has had an impulsive impact on the society and the business structure on a global level.
The use of the internt has increased in everyone’s life. The Internet has become an undivided part of majority of people’s life because of the deepening effects it has on the lives. People prefer to stay at home and make online transactions instead of going to the bank, or to purchase goods online as they are too busy.
The internet is flourishing. Number of e-commerce sales are increasing every year anticipating the human habits of purchasing and security issues in e-commerce is also not so many.
Impact of E-commerce on Economy
The buying and selling of goods is the most basic economic transaction, any altering in this reflects in the supply chain management. The number of consumers purchasing online has increased gradually with the increased use of the internet. The buyers and sellers are no longer restricted to a retail store. Within a few clicks, a list of hundreds of products can be accessed.
The growth in e-commerce has reduced consumer’s search to different retail stores which has resulted in decrease of small retail stores or businesses which are not involved in e-commerce. The larger businesses such as furniture stores, book outlets, automobile dealers are able to compete in this environment. b2b ecommerce has also emerged in the online market with increase in online users.
The growth in e-commerce sales has provided an exponential growth in the branch of logistics as the ecommerce platform integrates third party logistics vendors such as Fedex, UPS, BlueDart etc.
E-commerce controls demand patterns. E-commerce, technology are influencing the speed of sales transactions. The economy is globally affected through e-commerce. In ancient days, it took a while to affect the economy of the two dependent countries, but due to extreme changes in sales pattern and due to e-commerce this impact is almost immediate.
Impact of E-commerce on Customers
The number of consumers purchasing online has increased gradually with the increased use of the internet. People are too busy nowadays to go to banks or purchase goods by going to the market. So e-commerce has made their life more convenient.
Customers today search on google about the products they wish to purchase. Google being a powerful search engine shows hundreds of products matching the consumer needs.
Customers can checkout the prices of the items they want to purchase, on different websites and make a decision to purchase. It is a lot easier instead of going to 5 different retailers to know the price. It saves a lot of time! Also, the availability of e-store is 24*7.
Due to a wide range of products, users spend more time on the websites. Also, digital payment methods allow the consumers to pay online or pay on delivery.
The functionality of easy returns helps the consumers to return back the goods they have purchased by sitting at home. E-commerce has made the shopping experience very smooth and enriching.
Impact of E-commerce on Traditional Business and Impact of E-commerce on online business
E-commerce is eternal. The threat of e-commerce is to all, from small startups to huge corporations. The ultimatum from e-commerce is extreme for all the traditional old school businesses who are not willing to accept the changing business landscape.
Business organizations must try sticking to their core practices and for other technical functions, outsource the tasks to skilled enterprises.
Elimination of middlemen: Businesses can sell directly to the customers now, without the involvement of any middlemen. E-commerce has eliminated the use of middlemen due to which costs are reduced. So, business owners are able to earn higher profits.
Marketing: As e-commerce has changed the purchasing methods of people, it is expected that the marketing methods must also change. People search on google first, even if they want to make a purchase on physical shops. So, with the rise in e-commerce, digital marketing has replaced traditional marketing methods.
Higher Profits: Due to increase in sales in e-commerce, the traditional commerce sales have been downgraded. 24*7 availability and convenience has resulted in huge profits.
Global marketplace: All the customers from overall the world can access your products by simply sitting at home. It is due to the huge impact of e-commerce. It is very easier to differentiate the prices online.
Positive Impacts of E-commerce to the society
1. Use of the internet
The internet is very popular among youth and students. The increased use of internet users has led to the notable growth in e-commerce, digital advertisements, mobile e-commerce etc.
The Indian education system has implemented various educational models through various computer tools and technical aspects, which are suitable for all levels, from primary to higher secondary level students.
The students from urban and rural areas were provided laptops and tablets at a very low cost with the access to internet, e-books which helps to improve their lifestyle and studies. As the educational standards have been kept on rising, it has increased the use of the internet among the students.
With the high speed internet connectivity, Users can now start an Online business, sell & buy stocks in any trade market and finscreener is considered as good resource to monitor different stocks If you really want to explore more in stock market.
2. Technological Awareness
People today are becoming more tech-savvy. On account of using the latest applications, gadgets, tools, people are more technically aware. E-commerce plays a vital role to create this awareness.
Digital advertisements, latest tools available online, enables users to know about the advancement. High tech smartphones are trending these days, few of which are only available online.
3. Marketing Patterns
Marketing methods have been digitized. It is easier to track the effectiveness of promotions.
Email marketing, on click marketing, etc have changed the way marketing used to be. You can easily drive a lot of traffic on websites using digital marketing.
This huge advancement in marketing methods is an impact of e-commerce.
4. Need of Highly skilled IT executives
E-commerce has deeply impacted the Human Resource branch. In order to run the e-store, highly skilled IT executives are required. Workforce planning to manage the demand. The increased use of automation alters the needs of the workforce.
So, a huge number of job opportunities have been created in the IT sector, and firms are willing to pay huge amounts to the people with advanced skills.
Disadvantages/Negative Impacts of E-commerce to the society
Every coin has two sides. In the similar manner, e-commerce too has few disadvantages which are mentioned below:
- Customers are unable to examine the products.
- Security is the biggest concern. Online payment transactions can result in fraud sometimes.
- Due to some reasons, there might be a delay in the products to reach out to the customer.
- Website maintenance is the biggest concern for business owners. It needs to be taken care 24*7 for technical glitches.
- The updates part in both the hardware and software consistent is a must.
- As middlemen are eliminated, to reduce costs, most of the companies try to eliminate these positions, their jobs are in danger these days.
Conclusion
Security is the biggest concern in e-commerce. However, e-commerce has a huge impact in all the business and other branches. Before making any online payment transactions, do checkout the security certificates issued on the website. However, e-commerce has played a vital role in economical aspects through which India has reached the top level in this sector.
India is becoming the country with the highest number of people using the internet. So India is hugely affected and has a huge impact and adverse effects of e-commerce. E-commerce really has the good effect of clarity. However, mostly e-commerce has positive impacts in all the branches. So, e-commerce has bought a wave of revolution in the economy.
