The Electronic Commerce as an Expanding Practice - Research Paper Example

Electronic commerce, e-commerce, has continued to expand and revolutionize the way businesses in the contemporary society are conducting their activities. This has been made possible by technological advancements, which have led to the development of services such as the internet and the World Wide Web among other information systems, which have helped to transform the world into a global village. With these technologies, communication and transactions within different channels of distribution have become more effective as they have eliminated some of the limitations to timely delivery of services, for example the need to travel (Traver 25).

Traditionally, if a person wanted to buy a commodity, then, he had to make travel arrangements due to the fact that he had to visit the business premises in which his desired product was being sold. This was a tedious affair since there were no guarantees that indeed he would find the items he was looking for. The process was made worse by the need to compare prices, which required one to travel from one business premises to another in an effort to find the business that offered the best deals in terms of commodity prices (Traver 32).

However, with e-commerce, most of the businesses have designed their own websites in which information on all products available is posted such that an interested customer is only required to search and log in from a remote computer. Upon logging into the company’s website, the customer can make inquiries on the specific items that he is interested in. It may also be necessary to note that such interactive websites are accessible on demand and therefore, the issue of working hours does not arise unlike in circumstances where the customer has to visit the physical business premises, which are open only at specific times of the day for example from 8.

00 am to 4.00 pm. Businesses have benefited from this in that it has created a new avenue for marketing products, which is cheaper compared to traditional media such as television and magazines, which are noted as having lesser audience than the internet (Miller 41). The affordability of these media to the average working man is low not withstanding the fact that such people have no time to watch or read magazines or newspapers as they are always working in the offices or other informal sectors of the economy.

On the other hand, most of the offices have computers, which are connected to the internet in addition to the fact that most of the world’s population own smart phones, which facilitate internet connectivity. It is for this reason that businesses have continued to utilize the leading search engines such as Google and other sites such as Yahoo to market their products. This is done in a way that when a user visits a web page, pop up menus containing attractive messages and advertisements appear thereby attracting the attention of the user even if he or she has no intention of viewing such information, which is beneficial to the business (Miller 56).

E-commerce has also enhanced the provision of public services such as payment of bills (Traver 78). In such an environment, a customer does not have to waste time queuing in public offices waiting to be served. This is also advantageous as it reduces the need for such offices to be spacious in addition to the fact that it helps to cut down on expenses required for hiring extra staff to serve the numerous customers. With services such as electronic funds transfer, loss of funds in institutions through theft and robbery is minimized as there is no cash on site to steal.

In addition, customers now do not have to carry cash on them whenever they are going out for shopping as they can use their credit cards to buy whatever they want. In this context, mugging on the streets to obtain cash from vulnerable citizens has reduced significantly (Miller 91). However, e-commerce has brought with it numerous disadvantages both to the businesses and the consumers. To begin with, it may be important to mention that e-commerce is the buying and selling of commodities through the internet.

More often than not, inquiries and payment of goods and services is conducted through the same media, facilitated by technologies such as electronic funds transfer and mobile banking. This has opened up new opportunities for fraudsters and hackers, who utilize their technical skills to steal funds from unsuspecting customers and businessmen. In this context, rogue programmers create phishing sites, which they use to collect personal information such as credit card details among other financial information, which may assist them in accessing bank accounts.

Phishing sites are websites, which are a replica of genuine websites, which make it difficult for users to differentiate. Usually, they request users to register by filling in their personal details so that they can be allowed to view the content pages (Elliot 324). A customer’s personal relationship with his suppliers is of paramount importance as it helps to build customer loyalty, which is important for any business. E-commerce facilitates a virtual environment through which transactions are made without direct physical contact.

As such, any business operating under such circumstances can not boast of having loyal customers especially due to the fact that there is no emotional attachment, which is created through personal contact and therefore, a customer has the liberty to make informed choices by browsing and researching on the businesses that offer cheap prices for their products. Similarly, the customer is disadvantaged due to the fact that he is not always in a position to ascertain the quality of the product he is purchasing unlike when he goes to the business premises to make orders, whereby he gets the opportunity to view and ascertain the condition of the goods (Elliot 325).

In addition, the customer is always at a risk of losing his money as he has no other way of contacting the person who is selling to him, which is necessary in case there is a problem requiring the identification of that person. Works Cited Elliot, Steve. "Expectations versus Reality: A Snapshot of Consumer Experiences with Internet Retailing." International Journal of Information Management 20 (2000): 323–336 Miller, Roger. The E-Commerce Environment Today. Thomson Learning, 2004 Traver, Carol.

E-commerce: Business, Technology, Society. Prentice Hall, 2010