In simple terms, the answer to what is E-commerce is that it is electronic commerce. It is basically referred to businesses that have created an online store to sell products/services to their customers. Ecommerce is essentially a website that sells products online that will be subsequently delivered to you. The main advantage is that the buyer does not need to travel all the way to store or shop to purchase something. The buyer can complete his shopping online from his Personal computer or laptop.
What is Ecommerce?
Any ecommerce website will be consisting of the following:
Shopping Cart
Shopping Cart is the terminology used to refer to the virtual basket where a buyer can add products/goods that he or she liked at the website. It is pretty much like the shopping carts in a super market. All products on an ecommerce site will have an “add to cart” option – which is essentially you adding a product that you want to buy to the shopping cart. After that, you can either immediately checkout or you can add a few more items to the shopping cart and then proceed to the billing page of the ecommerce site you shopped at.
Payment Page
Once a buyer has finalized the purchase, then he or she is directed to the payments page. Since this is an online shopping site, there is not the conventional checkout counter. However, the site will take you to a payment page where you will be asked to choose how you intend to make the payments. Most ecommerce site offer many options such as:
- Credit Cards
- Debit Card
- Net bank tranfer (EFT)
- Cash Cards
- Cash On Delivery
The buyer can choose any of the above payment options that he/she finds most suitable and pay for the products purchased via the ecommerce site.
Logistics (Shipping)
After you complete the payment, you would also be asked to enter the address where you would like the products you brought online to be delivered. Logisitics (or Shipping) is the responsibility of the seller. However, a buyer should enter the correct address so that the seller can execute his supply chain for delivering the products you purchased online right to your doorstep.
Why people are preferring ecommerce sites for shopping?
Online shopping has taken off in a big way in the recent times. Ecommerce sites have started offering excellent deals for their buyers. But there are many reasons why buyers are now preferring to shop online instead of the traditional brick and mortar stores. The main reason is the shrinking time availability – more and more people are busy in their professional lives and ecommerce offers an easy alternative to shop from anywhere – even from work, if you have an internet connection.
Also, ecommerce sites have started offering better deals for the same products that are available outside.
In the near future the boundaries between “conventional” and “electronic” commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet. We can already see that most tickets for flights, trains or even movies are being booked online. This shows the huge potential and the wide acceptance that ecommerce businesses are gaining.