Electronic trade is known as ecommerce where goods or services are purchased and sold over the internet using electronic systems consisting of compute, storage and networks. The World Trade Organization defines e-commerce as,
Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, is defined as the “production, distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods and services by electronic means”. An e‑commerce transaction can be between enterprises, households, individuals, governments and other public or private organizations.
World Trade Organization
Ecommerce Categories
Ecommerce is further divided into following categories all of which represent a different purchasing dynamic.
- Business-to-Business (B2B),
- Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
- Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
- Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
- Business-to-Administration (B2A)
- Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)
Business-to-consumer (B2C) is the most well-known type of ecommerce and is commonly understood as online selling directly to consumers. It took off significantly during 1990 and by the end of 20th century it had already taken a big chunk of consumer retail business from brick and mortar stores.
It is creating further challenges for brick and mortar stores every year as it is taking away more and more business from them with time.
It has lead traditional in-person businesses to embark on a new strategy to create their own online presence. At the moment there are following five types of business models operating within B2C category.
- Direct Sellers
- Online Intermediaries
- Advertising-Based
- Community-Based
- Fee-Based
Benefits of Ecommerce over Traditional in Person Trade
Since its beginning ecommerce has given tough competition to traditional commerce because of its wide reach and relatively lower operational costs. It has lead of the collapse of many store chains around the World for example Target and Sears in Canada. Ajeet Khurana has summed this up in 11 advantages in his blogs as given below.
- Overcome Geographical Limitations
- Gain New Customers with Search Engine Visibility
- Lower Overall Operational Costs
- Quick Product Discovery
- Eliminate Travel Time and Cost
- Provide Comparison Shopping
- Enable Deals, Bargains, Coupons, and Group Buying
- Provide Abundant Information
- Create Targeted Communication
- Remain Open All the Time
- Create Markets for Niche Products
Future is Ecommerce
Beeketing Blog has listed 10 International Growth Trends from 2019 to show us how ecommerce is performing globally.
- Global ecommerce retail sales to hit $4.9 trillion by 2021
- Omni-channel shopping will become more prevalent
- Social shopping is on the rise
- The center of ecommerce is shifting from the western hemisphere
- Domestic shoppers go cross-border shopping
- B2B ecommerce is a bigger giant
- Ecommerce personalization will be a standard
- Mobile shopping revolution
- Voice commerce is on the horizon
- New payment options will emerge
In this changing landscape of commerce it is clearly obvious that the ecommerce will continue to be a dominant player in the near future.
