What is e-commerce?
In its simplest definition, e-commerce is buying and selling products and services on-line.
Facts: £46.6bn was spent online during 2007. In 2008 research showed that 21.3m people now shop online in the UK, spending an average of £661 each in the last six months. By 2011 32m UK consumers will be shopping online. The value of goods they buy online in 2011 will add up to almost £52bn. And lastly 70% of business in the UK have a website.
e-commerce is becoming an increasingly important practice for business to be involved in and many businesses will have taken the opportunity of setting up a Website as a means of establishing a presence - or as a method of purchasing online. Whatever form it takes, an online presence and the opportunity to do business using technology is increasingly important.There are a number of advantages in employing e-commerce processes in your business, these include.
- e-commerce systems can operate all day every day, meaning that you are able to do business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Your shop or office does not need to be open in order for customers and suppliers to be doing business with you electronically.
- The Internet spans the world, and it is possible to do business with any business or person who is connected to the Internet. Simple local businesses such as specialist record shops are able to market and sell their goods internationally using e-commerce. This global opportunity is assisted by the fact that, unlike traditional communications methods, users are not charged according to the distance over which they are communicating.
- Electronic communications allow messages to travel the world almost instantaneously. There is no need to wait weeks for a catalogue to arrive by post, your goods and services can be viewed instantaneously on-line.
- There is an opportunity to reduce costs. Building and updating a website is much less expensive than producing and posting product catalogues.