What is E-Commerce? What are the Applications, Different types of E-Commerce and explain Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Commerce?

E-commerce is the process of buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks.

E-commerce in other words, is a process by which goods and services are advertised, bought and sold electronically over the internet E commerce is thus the paper less exchange using electronic data interchange (EDI). The buyer select items from the outline catalog make the purchase and pays by credit card and other electronic modes of payment.

Types of Ecommerce: -

There are 4 main categories of E-commerce mainly B2B,  B­2C, C2B and C2C.

1. Business to business (B2B):- Here companies sell their products for other business such as distributer and whole sellers.

2. Business to consumer (B2C): - Business selling products or services to consumers are coming under this category.

3. Consumer to business (C2B): - Here the consumer posts his requirement to companies and companies in review the requirement of consumers and bid on the project. The consumer studies the bid and takes a decision.

3. Consumer to consumer (C2C): - In this category the consumer can buy or sell on free classified and auctions. The goods are offered by the consumers and sold by the consumers. The stage is said by big sites like E-bay where people transact the business themselves.

Applications of E-commerce:-

Some usual Applications related to Electronic Commerce are given below:

1. Essential applications: - E-commerce facilities the online purchase of products, auctions etc. The consumers can get finally advice about their health and items essential products come under this category.

Ex: Online shopping options.

2. Financial applications: -These services are fast and accurate for example we can withdraw money from ATM. These ATM’s provide accurate out puts about various transactions. The following services come under this category.

Ex: - Internet Baking, Online (bank) trading financial views.

3. Educational applications: - These applications provide information about different universities available throughout the word and also provide different online study courses. These include the following services.

4. Entertainment applications:- Web is placed for entertainment, we can chat, see movies, play games etc.. All these activities are possible with the help of E-commerce.

Ex: - Chatting, multiuser, games news groups.

Advantages and Limitations of E-commerce:

The advantages of electronic commerce result in many benefits to customer.

1. Word wide 24 hours a day: - Electronic commerce extends to all places in the world at any time. The customer can find the best products or services quickly in the world.

2. Home Shopping: - E-commerce enables the customer to select the products at home quickly and conveniently so that the problem of travelling querying and billing can be available.

3. Availability of latest items: - The internet is our best friend in the world. Rare medicines, latest technology items, specialized products etc.are available at original prices. Some people may enjoy some products which are not available at their own towns.

4. Home delivery: - Goods will be delivered at home to customers at their convenient time.

5. Virtual auctions: - The customer can participate in virtual auctions and get the products or services at a discounted price.

6. Reduced costs: - As there are number of a few intermediaries b/w the trading place, people can get the products directly from manufactures or whole sellers. This results in reduction of cost of goods to the customers.

7. Speedy process: - The movement when you place order it will be immediately processed there is no need to wait weeks together for a catalogue to arrive by post.

Limitations (Or) Disadvantages: -

In spite of many advantages there are some limitations of E-commerce.

1. No chance of inspecting goods: - The goods offered on net cannot actually be seen and touched, i.e., customers cannot physically inspect the good that is why many people are not interested in buying online goods.

2. Privacy and security: - There are concerns about privacy and security of goods traded online. Many people felt that there is no privacy and security to their online payments there are possibilities of credit card number theft.

3. No social interaction: - People generally like to do shopping with their friends or relatives. But this is not possible in online shopping.

4. Lack of trust: - Normally customers do not trust known traders then how can they trust unknown traders on the net so shifting from traditional stores to online stores is difficult to them.

5. Problem of return of goods: - Having to return defective goods take a lot of embarrassment to customers. They may be no responsible online venture for taking the goods returned by the customers.

6. Limited categories of goods: - Only a few types of goods are sold on E-commerce. It is not suitable for all types of business.

7. Legal issues: - Many legal problems are still involved in E-commerce. There is no govt frame work and regulations for many online businesses.

8. Technical problems: - The internet is not accessible to all people. Even it is accessible it is expensive and in convenient to same people.