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IS EVERY PRODUCT SUITABLE
FOR ECOMMERCE
E – Commerce or
electronic commerce refers to any
business transaction that is done
through the internet. Transactions may
involve any of the business activities
like buying, selling, marketing and so
on. One of the most popular forms of e –
commerce is making payments for
purchases, electronically. Credit cards
are used by more than 90% of the people
to pay for the stuff that they have
bought, both online and offline. All
credit card transactions come under e –
commerce.
It is a well known fact
that e – commerce is extensively used in
the areas of international trade such as
global sourcing and import and export.
Asian countries like China have
surprised the world and revolutionized
the pace at which economies grow by
opening up new vistas for international
trade and e – commerce. This has added a
lot of fuel to the already ferociously
burning global sourcing and import and
export fire.
Although international
trade and other major and happening
business activities such as global
sourcing and import and export is
already being carried out by using e –
commerce technologies, have you ever
wondered if e – commerce is suitable for
all services and products. The answer is
not very simple and needs a detailed
discussion or explanation as given
below.
For the purpose of e –
commerce and international trade which
involves global sourcing and import and
export of services and goods, the best
suited goods are soft products or
digital products. For example, how much
money and effort will it take to
transmit a code or a music file across
the globe compared to transporting a
vacuum cleaner? Secondly, if there is a
complaint and an exchange is needed, in
case of the vacuum cleaner it is
literally impossible to send it back and
get a new one mailed to you, whereas, if
the file is corrupt you just have to
send a mail to the company and they will
resend it to you as many times as you
want, without spending any money in this
process.
This is the reason why
digital, non tangible products are the
best suitable items for e – commerce in
terms of global sourcing, import and
export and international trade. Another
reason why digital products are more
suitable for e – commerce is:
embarrassment. Any customer would feel
highly embarrassed to enter a retail
store and ask for pornographic content.
However, with e – commerce the customer
does not have to talk to any one but
just click on the video, enter the
credit card details and get the content
on his or her computer within minutes
and without being embarrassed since
anonymity is maintained on the net.
Agreed that this example is an extremely
crude one, but it clearly demonstrates
how effective e – commerce is, in
activities related to global sourcing,
import and export and international
trade.
Thus you can clearly see
that e – commerce is most suitable for
goods which are non tangible and digital
in nature because they can be easily
transmitted to the customer. |
