Online commerce was introduced to consumers in the mid-1990’s, and in the years since, it has grown exponentially. It started out virtually nonexistent and has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Nearly every retail sector has entered online commerce; clothing, electronics, home, health and grooming items, even food and groceries are starting to gain traction online. Online commerce sites rival traditional brick and mortar stores such as Walmart and Target, as well as other big-box stores. As online retailers such as Amazon continue to expand, many brick and mortar stores have been making their way online, indicative of an increasing movement towards online commerce. With more than 80% of the online population having made an online …show more content…
When online commerce first emerged, many consumers were wary of supplying their credit cards and giving their personal information to online stores. This led to the development of websites such as Paypal, which restricts the access a retailer has to one’s credit card number (Einstein). The threat of fraud has always been a worry for online consumers, but consumers face the same threats when shopping in a brick and mortar store (Chadwick). Even though it might not seem like it, online commerce has multiple environmental benefits. Around 80% of the time, purchasing a product online reduces the amount of energy required to transport the product to the consumer. Online shopping removes the need for the consumer to travel by using postal carriers that optimize routes for fuel efficiency. In other words, much of the time it is more fuel efficient for a product to be shipped directly to a consumer, rather than for the consumer to make a trip to purchase it. When a product is ordered online, it is shipped directly from retailer’s or manufacturer 's warehouse to the consumer’s front door. This removes delivery to the brick and mortar store, and the consumer’s subsequent trip to the store, saving energy. The amount of energy saved by ordering online is typically around 30%, but this percentage
According to MarketLine, the world online retail market expanded by almost 18% in 2010 and is predicted to reach close to $435 billion in sales. The market is expected to reach a 90% growth by 2015 and exceed $827 billion in sales. Listed in an article “Ecommerce Growth Statistics”, the average amount spent by each consumer is expected to rise from $1,207 per year to $1,738 per person by 2016. That is a significant increase. That shows that people prefer to shop online than going to the actual store in today’s society. Shoppers will spend on an average of $327 billion online shopping in 2016, which is about 45% from $226 billion in 2012. It is very evident that consumers will drive ecommerce into the future; especially e-retail. In just a few years, purchases online will be more profitable than ever, with others products and services available to purchase such as mobile and social allowing consumers to shop to their convenience. For retailers and
The development of the Internet and more specifically the business website has seen brand recognition by consumers escalate to never before seen heights. Because of this brand recognition, it has become important for businesses to design their websites to reflect their overall marketing strategies. This is especially important in the retail world. All retail businesses have a similar overall marketing strategy of generating sales and retaining the customer for future sales. Most of the retail giants still greatly rely on the success of their brick and mortar stores to turn a profit. However, internet sales for these brick and mortar stores have increasingly risen over the last few years to compete with the retail stores like Amazon that are strictly internet based businesses. Brick and mortar retail stores, such as Walmart, Target, Kmart, and Nordstrom, have each designed their websites to reflect the overall retail marketing strategy as well as the individual marketing strategies that have made their brick and mortar businesses successful.
Online shopping and in- store shopping are different in various ways. Online shopping has become an increasingly common staple of life in the 21st century. It is popularity can be credited to the fact that convenience highly valued in our world today. Online shopping is most convenient for individuals that don’t have time to go to the store. If you’re busy with an online job or online classes then online shopping can sometimes be more convenient. It’s also convenient since you don’t have to drive, catch the bus, wait in a long line, or deal with not being able to find item. All you have to do is type in the item you are looking for and it’s there. Once you find the item, you can order it anytime because online stores never close.
Over the past decade, Shopping on the internet has skyrocketed with internet sales reaching almost £30 billion in 2012, which accounts to almost 10% of total sales in the UK. This is due to the increased possession of Internet devices such as: smartphones, laptops and computers. It has become much easier and simpler for
Since 2000, there has been a double-digit growth in the e-commerce sector; statistics have shown that more than 80% of regular online shoppers have used Internet to purchase products or services, while 50% of the online population recorded to have shopped online more than once.
A steady increase in the popularity of online sales has caused a major push towards e-commerce in the retail industry.
Retailers have adapted to the online marketplace out of necessity and opportunity. The great recession placed many retail companies in financial hardship and while some failed, others innovated and became some of the largest companies in America such as Amazon. A recent trend is consumers are buying more products online than ever before. As a consumer, I enjoy shopping in the convenience of my home and having the items delivered to my doorstep in 48 hours or less. Global internet access continues to increase, with mobile devices and affordable internet for the home, consumers will continue to shift and buy products online rather than in retail brick and mortar locations. Online sales in the United States have increased over 250% in the last ten years, accomplishing $250.0 billion in 2012 (Tehrani, 2014). Therefore, Amazon is in a solid market position to capitalize on the future trends and booming ecommerce
Many studies have attempted to study the characteristics of online users and shoppers around the globe. As per studies done by Technowledge Asia in 1999 and 2000, cybershoppers in some Asian regions were observed to be primarily males, in the age range of 26 to 35 years and better educated. This is not altogether different from that found by Donthu and Garcia (1999) who concluded that online shoppers in USA were “mainly males with above-average education, income, and occupation”.
Online shopping or online retailing is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. Alternative names are: e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, and virtual store. An online shop evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping center. The process is called business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping. In the case where a business buys from another business, the process is called business-to-business (B2B) online shopping. The largest of these online retailing corporations are eBay and Amazon.com, both based in the United States.
There are many different business trends shaping e-commerce today. For one, ecommerce remains the fastest growing form of commerce when compared to physical retain store, services, and entertainment. Another trend is that the online demographics of shoppers broaden to match those of ordinary shoppers. Also, small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood through the e-commerce marketplace, often riding on the infrastructures created by industry giants and increasingly taking advantage of cloud-based computing resources. Lastly, pure e-commerce business models are refined further to achieve higher levels of profitability,
While the reputation of e-commerce has been increasing through the years, its popularity varies within the different generations. Millennials, in particular, with their willingness to embrace new technology are having a keen impact on e-commerce. Compared to previous generations, Millennials have grown up with technology and tend to use it as their default option. This makes much more susceptible to e-commerce. Millennials, classified as people from ages 18-34, make 54% of online purchases. (United Parcel Service, 2016). As Millennials (and the generation younger than them) become the dominant generation, e-commerce can be expected to grow and may even overtake in-store shopping.
Today, people are engaging in e-commerce more than ever. Traditionally American consumers shopped exclusively in local businesses and specialty mom and pop stores. These stores are essentially smaller, independently owned and operated businesses that have little influence on the market. Small businesses occupy several areas of business including retail, services, wholesaling and manufacturing. The growing acceptance of the Internet and e-commerce in the early 1990’s changed the way people shopped, shifting consumer preference from traditional to online shopping. With the introduction of personal electronic devices and more readily available wireless internet, Amazon’s customer membership continues to grow. As online retailers
E-Commerce has been a popular activity on the Internet, for it facilitates commercial acts between online service providers and individuals. The popularity of E-commerce could be reflected by the turnover of the industry. The turnover of e-commerce in Europe grew by 14.3% to reach 423.8 billion euros (about GBP 360.5 billion) in 2014, and that of the United Kingdom (UK) increased by 14.7% and reached 127.1 billion euros (about GBP 108.1 billion) in the same year (Ham, 2015). Important private information (e.g., bank information, gift card numbers) would be recorded while consumers doing online shopping and doing other E-Commerce activities. This recorded information would be stored on the servers of online dealers or be saved in consumers’
The time of elaborate, multi-story shopping centers is rapidly coming to a close with the rise of Ecommerce. Over the last decade, technology has inspired an online retail boom that has benefitted some retailers, while leaving others helpless. With the younger generations embracing smart phones and tablets, Ecommerce’s role has shifted from an untested frontier to a vital pillar for the retail industry. In fact, total global business to customer (B2C) Ecommerce sales was expected to top $1.5 trillion in 2014, and it is anticipated to grow 88.4% to $2.3 trillion by 2017.
Online buying is the process of selling and buying goods or services by using computer via internet. Since the development of www (World Wide Web), vendors have looked for a way to sell their goods and products to people who like to spend time on the internet. Shoppers can visit web stores from their houses and shop while they are sitting in front of their computer or laptop. Internet and online shopping has the ability to provide a lot of types of businesses with the ability to rise up