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HOW DIFFERENT IS E –
COMMERCE?
E – Commerce has been in
existence for a long time now and has
made a significant impact in the area of
global sourcing, import and export and
international trade. Still there are
several people out there who have no
idea what e – commerce is, or what
technology is used to run an e –
commerce web site or business. This
article will explain all such concepts
and people can get rid of their
ignorance for ever.
About 10 years ago, it
was stated that e – commerce’s primary
concept was not about bolting it with
business, but utilizing the e – commerce
technologies to carry on the business
processes related to global sourcing,
import and export and international
trade in a more user friendly and
convenient manner than the traditional
methods.
E – Commerce covers
business activities such as global
sourcing, import and export and
international trade across networks
using information technology. So,
fundamentally, it changes both the
operational and cultural aspects of
carrying on global sourcing, import and
export, international trade and domestic
trade. Though the end result of carrying
on these business activities related to
global sourcing, import and export and
international and domestic trade are all
the same, which is to earn profits, it
is done by making sure that the output
far exceeds the input. Certainly, you
will be tempted to think that it is
impossible for the output to exceed
input, which is true in scientific
terms. But in business, only the
tangible things like raw materials are
considered and intangible things such as
planning, mental work etc are not
counted. Therefore, the physics
equations are not applicable here.
However, let us not
concentrate on the differences between e
– commerce and traditional business
activities including global sourcing,
import and export and international
trade. By taking a simple example, in
the traditional form of businesses,
whether international or domestic,
global sourcing or import and export,
the travel agent post was very
important. However, in the latest forms
of business, the roles and activities
done by travel agent is carried out by
using web sites and other electronic
technologies. If an agent wants to do
some travelling for business purposes of
global sourcing, import and export and
international trade, he can complete
most of the tasks on his own like
booking tickets, booking hotel rooms and
so on by using web sites meant for those
purposes. However, in the traditional
pattern this has to be through a travel
booking agent. The travel agent will
inform some of his agencies in those
cities to make the booking for this
traveller. This involved a lot of labour
and was very time consuming which made
travelling very expensive.
Therefore, it can be
clearly seen that e – commerce and its
technologies have changed the way global
sourcing, import and export and
international trade is carried out. E -
Commerce has made these difficult
activities, much easier to perform and
has given a chance to small and even
start up companies to carry out global
sourcing, import and export and
international trade.
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