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The Pros and Cons of E-commerce Today

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THE PROS AND CONS OF E-COMMERCE TODAY

Introduction
Electronic Commerce or e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business activities for products and services(Rosen, 2000). E-commerce (or electronic commerce) is defined as the buying and selling of goods and services conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems and automated data collection systems. (Anon, n.d.). It also refers to any type of business transaction where the parties interact electronically rather than …show more content…

This is considered virtual because one doesn't have to physically stock the products in a show room where the customer comes to view them. All the business needs to do is have adequate pictures of the product along with a description on their electronic store for their customers to view. This allows the business to stock a wide range of products, and in some cases, they don’t have to physically stock the products. As e-commerce has evolved, businesses are now able to connect their back-end systems to the order processing systems of their suppliers. As a result, they no longer need to maintain large amounts of inventory to fulfill their customers’ needs. This interfacing between the e-commerce business and its suppliers means they never need to face an out-of-stock situation for normal demand. (It is however possible if an exceptionally high demand arises). Because of this interlinking, procurement can become faster, transparent and eventually cheaper.
b. Additionally, since the business doesn't have to have a physical store, it can cut down on overheads and thereby reduce on costs since they do not need to employ customer facing staff to assist the customers in a store because functions such as checkout, billing, payments and inventory management are automated.
c. Advertising and marketing costs can be reduced by using search engines, social media and pay-per-click (such as with Google) to driver consumer

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